For a long while now, I have been having trouble with balance, difficulty swallowing, I lose track of conversations and can't remember what I started talking about in the first place. My leg muscles twitch but not every day.

I have bipolar disorder with a history of self-harm. I won't go into anymore of this topic, as I fear this could trigger someone on this board with similar problems.

I see an out-patient nurse who urged me to get tests done asap. I'm not sure what the urgency was and made light of it. I saw a specialist who gave a seres of tests. I did well on one, but not the balance, difficulty swallowing. I was sent down to the lab to get blood taken and happened to see that the doctor had written "Huntington's". I reacted by nervous laughter and said to my nurse, "There's no history of Huntington's in our family, that I know of anyway. I know family members, for one reason or another, who got put away from the rest of society, but I'd always figured they were mentally ill and, even now, nobody wants to talk about it. Denial is a huge factor in my family.

I went online to get information about Huntington's and was very upset to read that 10% of sufferers haven't got the gene, but that it, like ALS, seems to just come out of nowhere.

I still have to wait 6 more weeks for the blood tests to be done and I've started freaking. I was told that I could have a lot of support in the out patient department.

This is really too long and I apologize. I'm hoping someone here can tell me that my symptoms could be something else all together.

Thanks for reading this.