Question: I am concerned i have developed health anxiety over a health scare i had this year. I am second guessing my neurologist and constantly seeking reassurance. My symptoms are real, but Im making them worse by obsessing. Im concerned about being taken seriously given that im overtly anxious. I had body wide twitching and saw a neurologist who did nerve conduction and myelogram tests. She found one low performing nerve and said the rest was ok. She said there was a 90-95% chance not ALS. I left relieved, but got concerned when the i developed tightness and cramping on the right side when walking. To further my anxiety, i have now developed a non stop cramp and weak feeling in my right palm. This has led to my discovering that my dominant hand muscle is smaller which completely set off full body checking. It is obvious that my cramping hand is (now) smaller - i dont think it was. I have now noticed that my dominant side is not as defined and im worried it could be due to atrophy... Especially since thats the cramping weaker side. I feel this is being driven by loads of anxiety at this point as i was literally scared to death. I dont know whether to get a second opinion or take an ativan and stop obsessing! Im so scared about my health. This has just set off a beast of worrying. I know i am hypervigilant at this point, but its hard not to react when i go to grab my computer mouse and my hand cramps. Then i begin comparing my palms and it surely looks atrophied where im having pain. The nerve conduction was done just one month ago - shouldnt it have picked up problems then even though im having some worsening of symptoms now or should another test be done? Also, shouldnt weakness be present where there is already possible atrophy? Im feeling fatigued but would be able to pass strength tests.

The cramping is mild and I'm not sure that it is not psychosomatic as I do not have true weakness. I am able to do everything normally as I have before. I think the "atrophy" may be because I never noticed the differences between my dominant and non- dominant sides. Although it is unusual to have the dominant side have less definition - yet I feel strong enough to do normal things. The reason I am replying is that I don't want to further exacerbate the tremendous fear that has started going through potentially unnecessary testing given that i was given a healthy diagnosis a month ago. Of course, I can be retested, but I wonder if it's truly merited. I am checking myself mentally as I know fear has made me completely overreactional at this point. I will seek out help for the health anxiety, but just want to double check if you truly think I should be retested just because of a hand cramp.




Ps I have not been supplanting through this due to the only abnormality in my blood labs being highly elevated b6 and slightly elevated b12. I found out I need the active natural forms and should begin taking them this week - I wonder what role that could be playing in this as it was the only thing "off" in all of my tests with the exception of low amplification of the peroneal nerve (which she attributed to mild scoliosis? Is this reasonable)?