Fibromyalgia Support Group

Hello all! My name is Kimberly. Im 30yrs old and I live in Seattle, WA. I have 2 children, 11yr old boy and 4yr old girl. I am a photographer. When I am not in pain or feel like i have a lead body suit on, I like to work-out and go on small easy hikes. I have recently started a new hobby called geocaching.

For the past 3 years I have been having FMS type symtoms. In the last 4 months the symptoms have gotton 100 times worse. Its at the point where i can no longer ignore it. Its starting to interfer with my job, home live and daily activities. My symtoms include, extreme fatigue, insomnia, moderate to severe joint, hip, neck and back pain, depression, anxiety, memory problems, migraines, stiffness in the morning. All over pain like i have been beaten with a bag of nickles all night, weight gain, muscle twitches (even during sleep), IBS, extreme sensitivity to cold weather and more recently vision problems that dont seem to be corrected with glasses. My official diagnosis is hypothyroidism, chronic depression, anxiety, ADD and insomnia. I just recently moved to Seattle from Indiana. I have been to several doctors about my symptoms. A more recent trip was a couple of weeks ago. Needed a new doctor to manage my script refills and because of severe hip pain(diagnosed as bursitis). This Doc didnt even ask me what my pain was like and didnt even do a physical exam, just prescribed voltaren (sp?) for the inflamation. Found out later that it interacted with my current meds. I talked to her about my symptoms and asked FMS. She said it is very hard to diagnose and she would only considered if all other medications and treatment have been used. Medications and treatments for what? treatment for all my symptoms that just so happen to fall under FMS? The treatments and meds that dont work and havent worked. She even had my records that show i have been dealing with this for a while. She never asked me about my symptoms, my pain, or even why I was thinking FMS. I tried to tell her about everything, but she cut me off and left the room in a hurry. She refered me to a psyc, prescribed voltaren and refilled my other scripts.

I have read that its hard to diagnosed and many doctors still dont think it exsist. My doctors must think I am making all of this up and im just crazy. There has to be a reason I feel this way. I am still to young to feel like i am 80. I want to be taken seriously. I just want to live a "normal" life.

How can I find a good doctor? How can I make it clear about severity of the pain and the symptoms?

If Anyone has any good ideas or resources, please feel free to point me in that dirrection!

Hello Taylorlucy ~~~

Welcome to our group ~~~

I am so sorry to hear that you, too, suffer from the dreaded FMS but you have come to the right place for caring support and new friendships of those going thru exactly the same things that you are/have.

I, too, am Hypothyroid and battling to get the meds right to help the severe fatigue suffered there. Add to this the pain of Fibro, and we are a mess, right ?

I can truly relate to your horrible hip pain due to Bursitis. I spent much of last summer treating a knee for Bursitis and it was pretty miserable to go thru. You are the first person that I have heard your dr. prescribed Voltaren for . It is like a miracle for my knee as well as my shoulders/neck area when the pain is unbearable.

Could your dr. refer you to a Rhuemy or a Neuro since it seems she doesn t ""believe"" in Fibro ? My PCP immediately referred me to a Rhuemy and he is the best thing for my Fibro symptoms .

May I ask what meds this dr. prescribed for your Fibro ? At the present time, I am taking only Lyrica .

It s is early this morning but there will be many others here throughout the day to give you advice and ideas that you are seeking. In the meantime, type whatever you are looking for in the search box and you will come up with a multitude of resources.

Again, welcome ~~~ I look forward to getting to know you better.

Marilyn

Welcome to the group!

Marilyn hit the nail on the head I think. It was not until a Rheumatologist and a neurologist that I was able to get a diagnosis. Before that, I had everything under the sun according to my doctor.....I shudder to think how many unnecessary meds I took. Also, I know it's hard but be prepared it can can take a lot of time to get a diagnosis. I was persistent, and toward the end down right demanding.."I can't live like this, your going to have to figure this out!"

You are your best advocate so put your best boxing gloves on and know your worth it!!

Aww TaylorLucy,

Its a rough go sometimes. Try to get to a Rheumatologist if you can.... The doctor you just saw sounds gun shy about the diagnosis. And you just became another victim.

But don't hide your head in the sand just yet, cuz you have a very powerful tool at hand US!!!!!

There is a wealth of knowledge and experience here. If Clarita doesn't have an answer, Rayn, might, if not Rayn then MissStacey and if not.............There are so many of us here, and so many ideas for trying to fix our situations.

No one in their right mind wants to hurt all the time. That's just silly, and if I had a dollar for every time I heard that over the last ten years I could take a vacation.

The worst was my favorite doctor was off and I had to see her husband, and he said he "didn't have time for crying pain patients."

So we know what you are going through and what it feels like.

Congrats on finding us....you are not alone.....together we are working to find answers, scour the websites, even the medical ones, to pool our information, LEARN LEARN LEARN.......

Because Dear Heart, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER and we will end this ineptitude that's is hurting so very many people, like you, like me, like so many of us.

Get your reading glasses or make the screen print larger, honey, because you gota lota reading to do!

We are so very glad to have you with us.

Rules? Welll, yes, have fun, share what you feel comfortable sharing, come to rant, come to cry, let us know how you are and share you victories and triumphs....we are here for you!

love Natalia

Post edited by: Natalia5150, at: 04/18/2010 03:20 PM

Welcome to the family! I am sorry for what you are going through with your dr it is sadly more common than you think. People battle this daily. You must be your own advocate when you know there is something wrong and they are doing nothing or not the right thing about it. You should seek another opinion for one prefererably by a Rheumy that specializes, treats and most of all believes in Fibro. Thyroid symptoms are very similiar however you can have both. Many of us do, many of us have many multiple health conditions where the symptoms are very similiar. First the dr should do blood work to rule out Lupus, RA and Lyme the more serious diseases they would consider to mimic Fibro symptoms. They should do the 18 pt tender test and just ask questions. There is no inflammation/swelling with Fibro, it does not effect the joints it may hurt the surrounding muscles so badly that it feels like it's the joints but it's not. Different diseases/disorders are responsible for joint swelling and pain.

I hope you are able to get better answers very soon and proper treatment with some relief. It is super supportive here so hang in there and keep posting. You are not alone, we will be here every step of the way!

Hugs, Stacey

I would tell your Dr. that you would like to be referred to a Rheumatologist regarding the Fibro. Voltaren is an old antiinflammatory. It did nothing for me. It is hard to find Dr.'s who will treat you. I think regular Dr.'s are intimidated by the challenge of working with our Bipolar meds. The rheumy I seen sent me straight to a pain specialist and he told me he couldn't help me, when I was unable to take Lyrica or Cymbalta. (I had bad reactions to both) Pdoc took me off of both and sent me to an Arthritis Specialist who ordered an MRI and found a compressed nerve in my low back due to a bulging disc. He ordered Soma, which is a start and I go back on 4-30 to discuss treatment options which include epidural injections.