Hello:

About three weeks ago, I started having repeated muscle twitching in my right arm. It took a couple days to go away, but just a day later, I started noticing random muscle twitches throughout my body, but especially in the calves and feet.

A week later, the arm started it's hard twitching again and lasted for another two days. I began losing sleep over this and was concerned, so I went to my PCP. He took blood tests to rule out low magnesium, sodium and potassium. All those were normal. He referred me to a neurologist.

The neurologist performed a physical exam, but everything was normal. He then ordered an EMG on both my left and right side. Despite the muscle twitching, the left side came up normal, but the right side showed what he thought were "higher amplitudes" in a few arm muscles that he suspected were from an old cervical spine injury. He did not find any evidence of lower motor neuron disease.

I'm sort of at a loss for what has caused this sudden onset of muscle twitching when I have no prior history of it. I don't drink a lot of caffeine; and certainly have never had any reactions to it in this manner. I stopped drinking my morning coffee a month ago, but the symptoms remain.

I'm starting to worry that I have some sort of auto-immune disease or have been infected with something. I had accidentally stuck myself with an 18-guage needle I'd just used on my cat for subcutaneous fluids. Beyond that, I have nothing that ties to the timeline.

Any recommendations or thoughts would be appreciated.

Welcome aaront.

Hello aaront,
Welcome to the NeuroTalk Support Groups.

Did you mention the fact you had a needle stick injury to your doctor who did the tests?

I've had a couple of bouts of really bad fasciculations when I was under an enormous amount of stress. Then they went away. I took extra magnesium and did some other things to try to relax more.

I hope yours resolve soon too.

Hi Lara and Kitt:

I told him about the needle stick but both he and my cat's vet didn't think it would be likely to contract something since there are very few things humans can can get from a cat (e.g. taxoplasmosis). My old cat has always been indoors and has had her vaccinations, so that also rules out rabies.

Hopefully the muscle twitching will subside in line with my stress levels, which have admittedly been fairly high of late.

I found my old thread in the Vitamins forum.
Fasciculations and muscle cramps

I sound a little wacky when I re-read my posts, but yes, stress can do it.

If it continues for you though I'd certainly keep trying to find a cause other than stress overload.
If you had contracted Toxoplasmosis, you would have other symptoms as well.

There are some really good old posts in the Vitamins forum
Vitamins, Nutrients, Herbs and Supplements Forum

There are more posts and threads about muscle twitches and fasciculations etc. if you want to check the forum search feature using keywords.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/search.php

Cats can be carriers of bartonellosis:

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites...tch-fever.aspx

in humans:
http://www.cdc.gov/bartonella/symptoms/index.html

Also in regards to twitching. This is often a cardinal symptom of low blood sugar. If you notice they get less when you eat, then that is a clue to get a glucose tolerance test, preferably the long 4hr one which only shows the lows near the end of the 4 hrs.
This diagnosis is missed in 2 hr tests usually.

Cats certainly can.

What I find most disconcerting is that, in certain cases, profuse (widespread) fasciculations (twitching) can be a sign of early-onset ALS.

Examples I found on the internet:

Yes, that is one scenario (worst case I suppose) we often worry about with onset of wide spread fasciculations. There is also Benign Fasciculation Syndrome but there are usually other signs and symptoms and that's why it's called a syndrome. You haven't mentioned any other symptoms though and neuro tests were fine?

Neuro exams were fine, but the did find something abnormal in my right arm in the last EMG. However, they said if it was ALS, there would be something called "fibrillations" and also "positive waves," which my EMG did not have. According to them, it seemed like an old, chronic injury to that arm.

I'm hoping that's all it is, but the twitching persists, and in many more places than just that arm (more so in the feet, calves and most recently the face/neck area).