Hello from Indiana

[ElsaMarie]

Hi, I'm new here, joined today; new to the site but NOT new to fibromyalgia. I was diagnosed around 2003 but I think I had it much longer than that because of symptoms I had for 5-6 years before I was formally diagnosed.

I went into it full blown and had what I consider to be the absolute worst flare in my life immediately following cervical spine surgery. I had ruptured a disc in my neck @ the C5-6 level and it had to be removed, plates & screws put in, and a bone graft over top of that. That flare went on for 3-4 months and I was finally diagnosed some years later by a pain specialist.

And what a PRINCE that first pain doctor was; the neurosurgeon who did my neck surgery referred me to him with a "preliminary diagnosis" of fibro. He checked me over, looked at my X-rays and scans, looked over what pain meds I had been on prior to surgery and after, and then settled back in his chair with a ready answer.

At the time I was 47 years old, over weight ( I'm the first to admit how much I love my Krispy Kreme donuts), I had a set-down job as a medical transcription-editor and a part-time writer but worst of all I was a smoker. This guy basically informs me he recognized drug seeking behavior from the beginning, noticed I was overweight and probably didn't exercise regularly, and Lord love a duck I was a dreaded smoker. He refused any pain medicine, not even a Z-Pak of steroid. I was stunned, I sat there in his office, tears running down my face begging him to give me something to help with the pain. He sat there starring at me and then asked me, do you think if you cry hard enough that I will give in and give you something. He yanked up my chart and said to me on his way out the door, I don't have anything for you and he left of the room. I sat there a few minutes more trying to pull myself together and a nurse came in to get the room ready for the next patient I suppose and there I sat. She came over to me, put her hand lightly on my shoulder, leaned over and whispered in my ear said I am so sorry.

I left his office and went back to my family doctor and asked him to get me another referral which he did. I only stayed with that guy for about 18 months when I switched to another pain specialist and this guy is really good, he has taken good care of me but Dr. R takes care of more than just the fibro, I have a total of 6 ruptured discs in my spine; L4, L5 & S1 and C3, C4, hardware @ C5, and T1 is ruptured.

Now, would you like to hear all about my mental illnesses?? JUST KIDDING!!! :grin::grin::grin:

 

[harpert]

Hi ElsaMarie,
I am from Indiana as well. I live in Columbia City which is just west of Fort Wayne. I have a pain specialist but he only prescribed Gabapentin. He will not prescribe pain meds. He said they do not work, but Tramadol does work (for me anyway) He is THE ONLY pain doc that will take my insurance and he is in Goshen (which is an hour away). I feel your frustration. I have a rheumatologist who asks me every time if I am still only using Gabapentin and Savella and when I tell him yes, he always ask me why. It sucks! I cannot work a full day because of the pain and fatigue. I was just diagnosed with depression and anxiety (gee I can't imagine why). When you feel like your doctor doesn't care it just knocks you down a bit more. I am glad you finally found a doctor that listened and is taking care of you.

 

[ElsaMarie]

Well hey Harpert, it's nice to see another Hoosier on here.

That really sux with your doctor and insurance situation. I consider myself to be so wonderfully blessed with the insurance I have, it is really sad our quality of medical care comes down to what insurance we have.

I had not had what I call a bad flare for quite a while. I hurt all the time from my low back and neck plus arthritis I have but not all the head to toe aches pains as the fibro causes.

Recently I had been doing more in-depth reading about fibro and I noticed they had added some new symptoms to the list. For about 3 - 4 years I have been having a lot of trouble with my stomach; nausea like I have ever know in my entire life, and it will go on for a half hour all the way up 18 hours. My stomach has been scoped twice, biopsies taken of the stomach lining, every kind of X-ray or scan you can think of. Finally my doctor resorted to putting me on a very VERY expensive anti-nausea drug; I checked around on prices and this drug costs $86.00 PER pill. Again thank God for my insurance.

Harpert, you mentioned anxiety; that has been added to the list of symptoms. For about 3 months I have had so much anxiety, constantly feeling as if the sky was going to land on my head. Tingling of the skin; another new one on the list and yup, been having that one too. Another new one, a lot of constipation; I blamed that one on my pain medicine and that could be partly true.

Anywho; I am happy to see more research is going on, more things are being found out but most of all very happy that more and more doctors are stepping up to say yes this is indeed a debilitating disease, it is just as real as other diseases. I was told yes it is real, told no it is not real and everything in between.