Fibromyalgia - for those here that have it, how were you diagnosed?

[goddess40]

I haven't had a pain free day in almost 20 years and it's getting worse. My family doc just keeps telling me my back pain is a sprain in my SI joint and keeps prescribing Advil and other stomach killers. It feels like my skin hurts and I'm tired of it.

I'm not asking for a diagnoses or conformation just what type of doctor finally honed in on Fibromyalgia?

[Warpy]

1. Fibro is being discovered to be a neurological disease

but the docs who got stuck with us are the rheumatologists.

Just make sure you get one who's kept up with the literature and who isn't some stubborn old goat who tells you it's all in your head.

Expect a battery of blood tests to rule other things out.

[goddess40]

2. That would make sense since I have weird nerve issues

that even the neurologist can't explain.

[mopinko]

3. what warpy said, although

i was on my third rheumie before i got the dx, and only then because warpy told me what i had, and i asked about it. after years and years of saying that i had this pain, and docs poking and looking and finding nothing, finally, she started poking me the in fibro points, and she nearly had to peel me off the ceiling. hurt so good.
sleep docs sometimes also get into the act on fibro, about some of them are in the "all in your head" school. which, we are discovering is true, but not like they meant it.
good luck. med and understanding have me functioning pretty well.

[Warpy]

4. I didn't tell you what you had

I just told you to suggest a place for them to look.

[mopinko]

5. ok, that is true.

don't want to make it sound like you are practicing medicine without a license.
but i wrote a long post, and you bothered to read it, and you certainly did point me in the right direction. don't mean to babble on about it.

[FredStembottom]

6. Pressure points.

I sent myself to Sister Kenny Rehab Institute and they had me diagnosed within he hour.
Of course, I was already very familiar with my pressure points, as they get so bad I can't lean back in a chair sometimes!

:hi:

[mopinko]

7. i had no idea sister kenny's was still around. i know a couple of people who

are up and walking and functioning, to say nothing of just- alive-after going to sister kenny for polio as kids. (alan alda also went there. i think he was one of ther original cases.)

[FredStembottom]

8. Well, right now i'm confused myself.......

Sister Kenny Inst. homepage is contained within the Allina Healthcare web-site.

:wtf: I thought it was a charitable organization?

Anybody?

[mopinko]

9. pressure points

after so many years of trying to explain these strange pains that weren't joint pains, but were kinda near the joint, and no there is no swelling, and no they aren't red, and not exactly- when the doc finally hit the fibro pressure points, and all but 2 hurt, i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. the ones on my feet/ankles hurt so bad i jumped. i hadn't even realized how much my feet hurt.
it was a real relief.

[DUgosh]

10. SSD sent me to a Osteopath to disprove a different malady

He was a tiny, bent over, old guy whom I immediately did not like. He pressed a point on my shoulder and I screamed, "who are you?? Spock?" I thought he'd put the Vulcan shoulder grasp on me, like Spock used to do in the old Star Trek TV show. I went down that easily. He went on to aggravate every point within his reach. I grabbed his arm and said if he did it again I would deck him. I had never heard of Fibro and had no idea how much worse it could get over the next four years. Now I don't allow any medical professional near my points unless they have an epidural handy. This year however, I have had some minor improvement with a gluten free diet. The OD turned out to be not such a bad guy after all my SSD was approved in record time.

[hyphenate]

11. In my case,

an enlightened Internist.

I was going in with so many aches and pains, and I'd been doing my own research as well. The thought it might be fibro was discussed and accepted. This was 15 years ago, so I've seen every attitude known to mankind on the subject. One of my cardiologists told me he didn't believe in it, so after that appointment, I didn't believe in that cardiologist anymore.

I've seen other doctors now through the years, and it's been confirmed, so it's not like it was a single incident that propelled me to that diagnosis. However, sometimes It's been a little tough because I also have arthritis as well as a host of other things, like diabetes and heart disease. I'm sure at some point in the overall scheme that everything is very much related, but doctors, still close to only early understanding of fibro, sure haven't come up with the answers they need to see the links between so many things.

It will happen, I believe, though I can't say when. We're close to the edge on some things, and it will be interesting to see how long it's going to be before major things happen.

[ThomCat]

12. I was just officially diagnosed today.

My pain management doctor did the pressure point test and I was in agony, jumping off the table. :(