muscular fasciculations and oculomotor problems?

[baxpaze]

Hi everyone, just wondering if there's anyone out there who's experiencing similar problems. I'm a 23 years old male and my ailment actually began almost 4 yrs ago back when I was still an undergraduate in university. It started out as a marked decline in reading comprehension. I couldn't seem to easily read and understand my textbooks at first, but it grew worse and soon I had similar trouble reading everyday stuff like newspapers or novels. It upset me alot as I'd always been an avid reader. At the same time, I realised I had problems with fine motor skills and manual dexterity. I had trouble performing aspects of laboratory work in school that involved steady hands, such as using the micropipette to load DNA samples into wells for gel electrophoresis. I was simply shaking too much to insert the tip into the well successfully. Consequently, my friends and TA had to help me with that step. I wasn't at all nervous about the process, but somehow when it came to holding something still, it was a monumental task. Helpless and clueless about what had hit me, I consulted numerous psychiatrists and learning specialists who variously and rather ambiguously diagnosed me with OCD and anxiety disorder and Irlen Syndrome etc., none of which turned out to be accurate eventually. I pulled through my 3 yrs of tertiary studies with immense difficulty, and graduated without honours.

I began noticing the fasciculations about 2 yrs ago (estimated). I told the docs that I felt throbbing like 'water flowing through a pipe' quite frequently at places such as the sides of my feet. the psychiatrist paid no attention to it, telling me that I was just being over-concerned and that healthy people experience those too, especially after exercise. I was quite doubtful of his explanation as they happened regardless of exercise, but as my attention was being diverted to my studies, I let it pass. I did wonder for a while then if what I felt was blood coursing through my vessels, but the rhythm and regularity of the throbbing weren't anything like the pulse that I felt on my wrist. I also noticed that the moment I crinkled my nose and held that expression, uncontrollable facial muscle twitches immediately roiled across my face. I never had this problem before as far as I knew, and everyone around me could crinkle their nose without being overcome by facial twitches. I was told it was normal as the facial muscles get fatigued from holding the crinkled position after a while, but in my case, the twitches happened immediately after the crinkling. I didn't even have to hold the expression to cause manifestation of the twitches.

After graduation slightly less than a year back, I thought things might improve for me since I wasn't supposedly under any more academic stress, but my problems with reading comprehension didn't ameliorate. I was having symptoms akin to alexia without agraphia. I could mostly speak and write fine, but found it hard to intuitively understand what people were talking about in long conversations, and reading and understanding was even worse. At the same time, the fascics started worsening. They happened very frequently when I was sedentary like watching TV or trying to read, and happened whether I was seated or lying down. They got bad enough that I could see the undulating motion of my skin at the area of the fascic when it was prolonged enough for me to view them, and when i placed my fingers or palm on the area, I could feel the internal trembling. I was then pretty sure it was the muscles and not some bloodflow anomaly, because no matter and however I tried to flex my muscles, I couldn't reproduce the same effect I saw with the fascic. For example when I flexed my calf muscles, the whole chunk tightens and hardens, and never just a localised section as with the fascics. Also, I couldn't reproduce the vibration frequencies of the fascics voluntarily. I also realised that I seemed to be experiencing sensations similar to those associated with the Restless Legs Syndrome. Together with the irresistible urge to move my legs as I lie in bed at night, the fascics would intensify whenever I had that urge. I hardly drink, but I remembered in December last year when I had quite a bit of alcohol to drink and the urge to kick with my legs was simply overwhelming.

Eventually, after being referred through countless doctors and physicians, I ended up with a neuro-ophthalmologist who better understood my reading problems. They ran some tests and diagnosed convergence insufficiency and eyeball tracking problems as the root cause behind me not being able to read and comprehend print easily. I'm currently seeing an orthoptist who's making me do daily eye focussing exercises that so far have not helped with my reading, and who theorises that my fascics are due to my eyes messing with my brain and constantly plunging me in a state of anxiety, which then brings the fascics on. Naturally I was quite skeptical of his rather flippant explanation as I could see no causal link between the two. I was having fascics talking, sitting, watching TV, eating something, as long as I wasn't moving around too much, they'd come on. They occur more frequently around my feet, calves and thighs, basically the lower half of my body, but also happen along my biceps. around the abdomen and sometimes at the fleshy portion of my palm just below the thumb. Sometimes they come in bouts averaging one fascic every 5 minutes, and other times as seldom as once every hour. One thing for sure though is that I get them on a daily basis.

They also vary in intensity and duration. Mostly they flash by in a second or two, but occasionally, they last about up to 10 seconds. I once recorded a video clip of some strand of muscle fibre at the side of my feet fasciculating wildly for close to a minute, and for the entire minute, I had my camera intentionally trained on it while it just kept throbbing away without a care. I understand that ALS is a major concern amongst sufferers of fascics, but thus far I haven't noticed any muscle weakening, at least not obvious enough to affect my daily activities. I don't gym very hard so I don't know if my weight-lifting ability has been compromised. What I'd most like to ask though, is how all this falls in together. Have there been cases of BFS sufferers experiencing oculomotor problems and difficulty reading, since the movement and focussing of the eye requires very precise optical muscular coordination as well?

Really appreciate if anyone can advise me or share with me any similar experiences. Thanks.