Apr 28 2008
The Official Diagnosis
Rheumatoid Arthritis… Pernicious Anemia… Bone Cancer… Lupus… Lyme disease…
There I sat waiting, waiting, waiting - as thoughts of my possible diagnosis coursed through my brain. Prior to coming into the office I had spent countless hours researching my symptoms online. Finally I decided to see a recommended rheumatologist.
My eyes turn to the magazine shelf seeking some form of entertainment, but I am too tired to even reach out and hold a magazine for a few minutes. I sigh. A nurse calls my name and I daringly hope as I step into the small exam room.
I hold out my wrist and begin to explain my pain when suddenly the doctor starts poking me HARD on my forearm. OUCH! I try to explain that it’s my joints that hurt, not my arms, but my earlier exclamation confirms the doctor’s initial impression. She begins to interview me and continues to poke in 18 different spots. She looks over my blood work and announces, “You have fibromyalgia.”
I stare blankly at her. I’m thinking - you‘ve got to be kidding me? Am I really paying for this??? To my limited knowledge, fibromyalgia is a “fake” disease but my pain is very real. It must be something else, I argue. She informs me that those pokes were partial diagnosis, the rest was confirmed on my bloodwork. If I felt pain with pressure in 11 of the 18 spots, they call it fibromyalgia. I had pain in 14 spots.
What a pain in the spot! How am I going to explain this to my husband and eight (yes, eight) children?!
5 Responses to “The Official Diagnosis”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Not A Member? Register for Free!
If you have any questions about specific items not mentioned in the blog, ask them here.
How long did you have problems before you were diagnosis?
I had experienced similar joint pain thirteen years prior to diagnosis, but my workup for rheumatoid arthritis came back negative at that time. After some time, the pain seemed to resolve itself, only causing me problems once in a while (usually following pregnancy), so I didn’t pursue treatment. After this last pregnancy, one year+, the pain is still present.
My name is Alexandra Snyder; I am the Content Editor at HealthCare.com. I’ve been reading your blog, happyfibrofamily, and was really impressed by the content. I would like to invite you to feed your blog to our blog community.
We have a growing community of bloggers, health care seekers and care providers, and are one of the top online health destinations in the U.S. We currently receive millions of visitors each month! By feeding your blog to our site you will expose your posts and work to the millions of users in our network since each post is featured on our homepage. This is a great way to increase traffic for your existing blog or website and gain notoriety.
Best of all, it’s simple, no need to write a separate blog or leave your current blog site. You would simply create an account at http://blogs.healthcare.com and feed your content. Please feel free to contact me if you need help setting up your blog feed, I will be glad to help you.
Have a great day!
Thanks for the blog- I was diagnosed with Fibro four years ago, and recently found out that I have Cardiomyopathy, which is a form of heart failure. I can’t imagine raising eight children while having an illness. Thank you for inspiring not only myself, but I am sure you have touched many others.