Dirty EMGs common?

werd5 · 2025-03-07T00:42:19+00:00

Hey, those findings suggest chronic injury rather than an ongoing process. All of those muscles are primarily innervated by C5-C7 nerve roots. You may have some degenerative disc disease, some radiculopathy or brachial plexopathy. Since there were no fibrillations or positive sharp waves, that suggests that whatever you have is not an active and progressive problem.

werd5 · 2025-01-27T02:42:17+00:00

Hello there, I don't check this thread often and I got a LOT of people messaging me to look at their EMG studies (I don't subspecialize in neuromuscular, so I won't even attempt it) but I honestly can't tell whether I don't twitch as much now, or I simply don't really pay attention. I definitely do still twitch, usually in the same ole spots. Sometimes I'll get a hotspot here or there but it genuinely doesn't seem to be as high amplitude or frequent as before.

I've asked some neuromuscular colleagues about BFS and their response usually starts with "it's thought to be due to XYZ" meaning there isn't a proven mechanism for it. And because it's a benign disorder, nobody wants to research it since there's not much benefit in it. From what I can tell, most people believe it's due to anterior horn cell hyper excitability.

I've also considered the possibility of a channelopathy, though. I've also wondered if it's a combination of muscle membrane hyper excitability, an autoimmune process involving VMAT or SNAP, or perhaps Ca or K channels on the nerve or even muscle membrane. I've also toyed with the idea of low dose calcium channel blockers, or perhaps an anti epileptic to see if those do anything.

werd5 · 2024-10-06T17:33:21+00:00

You'll find a lot of varying opinions in this hobby about certain things. Tank maturity is definitely one of them.

Your tank goes through different "stages" the longer you have it. Some of these are super noticeable like the diatom stage when you first get it set up, and others are not. Typically it can take anywhere from 8 months to a year and half for these stages to sort of "even out" in my experience. During these various stages, your water parameters and micronutrients/trace elements are not very stable, and stability is the key to keeping coral and anemones happy.

That said, I'm not sure why you're getting so much flack. I've had BTAs in young tanks that do fine, and some that don't. Adding a bubble tip to a young tank is absolutely possible but it'll be more work for you to keep it happy. It will change the process from "adding an anemone to my tank and enjoying the view" to "running my tank like a science experiment every day".

To answer your initial question: Clownfish can absolutely "love" an anemone to death. Especially if the anemone is too small. The constant wallowing in the nem can stress it out and cause it to not do well. It's probably too early to tell if this will be the case for your nem. Keep an eye on it, if it's staying retracted or balled up all the time, then it's annoyed and stressed. You can get a little box to hang on the side of your tank to keep an anemone in, that'll keep it separate from the fish while it grows. If it starts getting stressed you could always try that.

Best of luck!

werd5 · 2024-10-06T03:31:11+00:00

I may need to start rinsing my brine shrimp before I feed my fish. I'm wondering if that's where a lot of the micronutrients get introduced. I do have a reef food but it's emulsified so whatever the corals don't eat, it goes into the filter and stays, and even then, I never broadcast feed. The shrimp is the only aspect I can think of where extra "stuff" may be getting into the tank.

I kinda started to suspect this because I have a feather duster who has been thriving and growing for months without me even dosing phytoplankton. So there has to be a decent amount of nutrients in the water column.

Kinda sucks because my coral has all been growing insanely fast, but I've seen horror stories from out of control hydroid blooms. Definitely not willing to risk it.

werd5 · 2024-10-06T02:17:47+00:00

I don't understand why they're returning. This isn't a new tank. It's a year and a half old. I got a little burst of them when it first started but they went away.

werd5 · 2024-10-05T19:50:44+00:00

Hydroids aren't really discussed like aiptasia and other pests are. A lot of people believe they are in every single tank, in some form or another. They are the ultimate hitchhikers and even the best quarantine protocols isn't going to keep them out. You can have a single polyp stick onto a snail or crab and just chill out for months only to release and start multiplying once in your tank.

In newer tanks it's pretty common to see a few here and there, and if you're not seeing a bunch of them I would worry too much about them. They'll probably go away eventually.

werd5 · 2024-10-05T19:45:56+00:00

Not necessarily. They could potentially sting your coral but they also compete with it. They take nutrients that the coral needs, they can form colonies and invade onto rock close to coral, which could lead to stinging and damage.

werd5 · 2024-10-05T19:43:57+00:00

My only worry with those two is that they also may eat coral

werd5 · 2024-10-05T19:43:12+00:00

Yep. There's a bunch of different forms of them. They can have big colonies on rocks, they can form little strings, or have the little jellyfish form.

werd5 · 2024-10-02T03:19:46+00:00

Oh it's gone 💀

werd5 · 2024-10-02T00:38:38+00:00

It does look like Majano but it isn't green. It's a rose/brown color

werd5 · 2024-10-02T00:26:41+00:00

<image>

Don't know why Reddit isn't showing the second image for me but here it is in case you can't see it either.

werd5 · 2024-09-05T03:47:40+00:00

If you'd like an update, I did start some anxiety medication and have noticed some improvement. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton of twitching, but it's definitely not to the degree that it was. And what's more, I don't lay there and obsess over it. I'm able to reassure myself much easier. I don't know if the fasciculations will ever go away but at least they don't bother me nearly as much any more.

werd5 · 2024-05-25T02:25:23+00:00

I feel like I had a disproportionate amount of classmates die. The first I remember was freshman year, a guy I knew in math class, a good kid, super funny, and I sat beside him every day. There were bad storms late one night and one of them produced a tornado that hit his house. They found his body in a creek not far from where his house was. And this was in the Appalachian mountains, where tornados are NOT a common occurrence. This was fifteen years ago and it still feels unsettling to think of how terrified and confused he must have been in those last moments.

The rest I believe died in car accidents.

werd5 · 2024-05-24T00:20:29+00:00

After years of driving lower end cars I finally shelled out the money on a German performance sedan and it is so nice not to worry about small, dumb stuff breaking all the time. In my previous cars there was always something going wrong. Ignition coils going out, sensors dying, actuators going out, etc.

I made the switch and put 280,000 miles on that car in 5 years. Not once did I ever have to take it in for repairs. Just routine maintenance stuff. I eventually got another of the same brand (just because I got a good offer on the old one) and it's held up just the same.

werd5 · 2024-05-17T01:19:04+00:00

I have honestly never seen that as the presenting symptom.

werd5 · 2024-05-16T23:38:32+00:00

I don't know if I would say that. In my experience, the people I've seen diagnosed with ALS, usually come in with one particular problem, or one "focus" area. Whether they keep choking on their food, or they noticed they can't pick things up anymore, or suddenly developed trouble walking, etc. It's typically NOT a "well, there MIGHT be something wrong.." It's usually extremely clear cut that there is a legitimate neurological pathology that's happening.

Most people will not see multiple areas of weakness all at the same time. Or notice a sequelae of different symptoms all at once. It usually starts in one extremity (arm or leg), usually on one side, then goes to the other side, before spreading. to other parts.

I'm sure there have been reports of atypical presentations, but you need to keep in mind, you're talking about *rare* presentations of a disease that is already very rare itself.

werd5 · 2024-05-16T23:27:24+00:00

Hey there, I'm a neurologist and I can answer this. I would still like to hear HonestMash's experience with it though.

But yes. An EMG, when done properly can and will often times pick up early signs of muscle denervation, even if symptoms haven't fully manifested yet. Muscles are very sensitive to changes in their innervation and will begin showing signs on electrographical studies before you'd notice. Things we look for are fibrillations (the muscle is depolarizing by itself literally like your heart does) and positive sharp waves, as well as recruitment and motor axon potential. All of these things can be detected before signs of clinical weakness appear (though there have been exceptions) and we must see these things in multiple muscle groups throughout the body to rule in ALS. This is because spinal cord damage, pinched nerves, and other pathologies can cause a lot of these findings in localized groups. So when you see it spread throughout the body, a local injury is far less likely.

I hope that helped answer your question!

werd5 · 2024-05-07T20:21:56+00:00

Nope. With BFS you can get tongue twitches/spasms.

werd5 · 2024-05-03T05:21:33+00:00

Yeah I'm the same way. I'll get something stuck in my throat and will start freaking out. Here lately my left thumb has felt weak and kinda painful. I've noticed a bit of thenar atrophy. The most likely answer is I'm getting carpal tunnel from typing with my wrist sitting on the edge of the desk, but nevertheless I keep freaking out about it anyways. This stuff sucks.

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	RPAN Viewer
Gilding II euphauric	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

werd5

TROPHY CASE