Thursday, March 29, 2007

Fibromyalgia

Written by Kodi Wolf at 3:31 PM

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when I was about 10 or 12. Back then, I was told it was a brand new diagnosis. A lot of doctors didn't even think it was real (some still don't). The main thing I remember about being diagnosed back then was that I'd been seeing a ton of different doctors within my mom's HMO and none of them seemed to know what was wrong with me. The last doctor finally handed me a pamphlet and said, "Here, read this and see if this is what you have." I remember thinking, "But aren't you the doctor? Aren't you supposed to diagnose me?" When I went back to my regular doctor, they told me I had arthritis. When I asked, "What kind? Rheumatoid? Juvenile?" They said, "We don't know. You just have arthritis." This was less than helpful, since no one ever told me what I should or shouldn't do about it. I was left with the feeling that everyone thought I was making it up to get attention and so there was nothing anyone could do for me because I was crazy.

However, I still usually put down arthritis and fibromyalgia whenever I have to fill out one of those medical history forms when I see a new doctor, but I've never really had much faith in the diagnosis or even really read up on it. I just knew it was associated with chronic fatigue syndrome and probably involved being tired most of the time.

Well, yesterday, I went to see a physical therapist to help me deal with some intense back pain I've been having. I noticed on the referral sheet that my doctor had put down fibromyalgia as the reason for the referral, but I wasn't sure why, since he hadn't mentioned to me that he thought my pain had something to do with that particular diagnosis. Anyway, the physical therapist sat me down and poked me in different places where I was tender and then told me that I do have fibromyalgia and so I need to take it easy and be gentle with my body. She gave me some stretching techniques and suggested I check out some books from the library on fibromyalgia.

Well, guess what? Some of the main symptoms of fibromyalgia are fatigue, dysfunctional sleep (insomnia), joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression, sensitivity to weather and temperature changes, headaches (tension headaches from tight neck muscles), anxiety, and stiffness. When Corene read the symptoms in one of the books I checked out, she said, "This sounds exactly like you."

So, maybe I'm not crazy after all.