For Mikey Stone, the first sign was so subtle that it barely seemed worth worrying about.

While working as a server in Colorado, he noticed that his left foot felt different. There was no dramatic collapse or unmistakable medical emergency—just a strange sensation he could not properly explain.

“At first it just felt weird,” Stone recalled in a TikTok video shared with his hundreds of thousands of followers.

But the feeling did not disappear.

It gradually became stiffness. The stiffness moved into his left calf. Then came muscle twitching, weakness and increasing difficulty walking.

After approximately three years of appointments with doctors and specialists, Stone received an answer that transformed his life: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS.

He was only 26.

The Symptoms Slowly Spread

Stone said the changes happened gradually enough that he initially did not think much of them.

The unusual sensation in his foot became stiffness, and the stiffness began traveling up his leg. He then noticed twitching in the affected muscles.

Over time, similar symptoms appeared elsewhere in his body.

Eventually, his legs felt “heavy, weak and really tired.” Stone compared walking to struggling through the shallow end of a swimming pool, where every step requires extra effort against the resistance of the water.

He also began losing normal movement in one foot.

In an interview with People, Stone said his altered gait made him look like “a pirate on a peg leg.” Doctors initially attributed the problem to overwork, according to his account.

At another point, he felt feverish and mentally foggy during a friend’s birthday celebration. A stabbing sensation in his stomach prompted him to seek medical attention, but clinicians initially suspected COVID-19.

Neither those general symptoms nor a strange sensation in one foot is specific to ALS. Many more common and treatable conditions can cause weakness, stiffness, fatigue, twitching or difficulty walking.

What made Stone’s case concerning was the persistence and progression of his movement problems.

The Diagnosis That Changed Everything

ALS is a progressive neurological disease that damages the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.

As the connection between the brain and muscles deteriorates, people may gradually lose the ability to walk, use their hands, speak, swallow and breathe independently.

There is currently no cure, although treatments and supportive care may help manage symptoms, preserve function or slow progression for some patients.

Stone said he saw his life flash before his eyes when doctors finally diagnosed him.

He has also said that testing identified an extremely rare genetic mutation involving the SLC1A2 gene. According to Stone, only about 400 people worldwide have the same mutation.

That figure is his description of his individual diagnosis and should not be interpreted as representing ALS cases generally. Genetics can contribute to the disease, but not everyone with ALS has an identified inherited mutation.

The condition is rare, and researchers still do not completely understand why it develops in many patients.

Early Changes That May Need Evaluation

The ALS Association lists several possible early symptoms, including:

• Repeated tripping or increasing difficulty walking
• Unexplained weakness or fatigue in an arm or leg
• Frequently dropping objects
• Muscle cramps or persistent twitching
• Slurred or slowed speech
• Episodes of uncontrollable laughing or crying

These symptoms are not unique to ALS.

Muscle twitching, for example, can occur with stress, strenuous exercise, lack of sleep, medication effects or other medical conditions. Fatigue and clumsiness are also extremely common and usually have explanations unrelated to motor-neuron disease.

A single isolated symptom therefore cannot diagnose ALS.

Medical evaluation becomes particularly important when weakness is persistent, progressively worsening, concentrated in one area or accompanied by a continuing loss of function.

Diagnosis can take time because doctors must evaluate the pattern of symptoms and exclude other conditions that may look similar.

Stone’s three-year search for answers illustrates how difficult that process can be—especially when the initial change seems too vague to describe.

Facing an Uncertain Future

Now 27, Stone is sharing his experience publicly while trying to preserve his independence.

He hopes to continue walking for as long as possible before potentially needing a wheelchair. His videos offer an unusually personal view of a young person adapting to a progressive illness most people never expect to confront at his age.

His story is frightening, but it should not provoke panic among people who occasionally experience a twitch, tired leg or unusual sensation.

The central lesson is not that every unexplained physical change signals ALS. It is that persistent and worsening weakness deserves professional attention—particularly when it begins interfering with walking, gripping, speaking or other ordinary functions.

For Stone, everything began with a foot that simply felt “weird.”

What followed was a long search for answers, a devastating diagnosis and a new determination to speak openly while he still could.