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Mowmow

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Hello, I am new here and have a few questions. I have suspected for a while that fibromyalgia might be my problem. I always had a pain problem, since I was a little girl. All the doctors my mother brought me to see says it was due to my weight. I was a heavy child, tipping the scale at 280lbs by 12 years old. Since then, I lost considerable amount of weight. I am also tall, 6 feet to be exact. I was not always heavy, the problems started when I was thin. I would have wandering pain. It was excruciating. If someone poked me, the pain would feel like a hot iron and would last for days. One doctor said I had juvenile arthritis, another said it was growing pains. The pain became less frequent as a teenager, I would still get it randomly for no reason, like a part of my body was being torn off.

Now as an adult, 25 with three boys. The pain has come back with vegence. I find myself in pain for no reason, I can't sleep, tossing and turning. Its in my back, my shoulder, my hip and something is definitely wrong with my feet. All the doctors I go to, want to test me for everything else. They don't find the fact that I had juvenile arthritis a factor. They don't want to send me to any specialist. I'm in a rut and not sure what to do. They keep bring up the fact that I had gestational diabetes, but my glucose levels were never elevated enough to be medicated. They are more concerned about my weight. I had 3 boys back to back. My oldest is turning 4 and my youngest just turned 1. I gained some weight while pregnant, 50 lbs total for all 3 pregnancies. I been working on losing it, its a slow matter, but I'm not giving up. I been eating healthier and cut out all the junk from my life.

I don't know where the pain is coming from. Its completely random and lasts for a day or two. Its extreme pain. It feels like it travels. Anyone that touches me may trigger it. I feel like I may be losing my mind because no doctor believes my pain is real. I suspect it could be fibromyalgia, but how do I get the doctors to test me? I feel like the doctors here in Brooklyn, NY all feel that fibromyalgia is not a legit illness and keep trying to say it is my weight. Someone please help me, I'm not sure if I should keep pursuing this matter, but I don't want to be in pain anymore. I want to have enough energy to play with my kids.
 
Diagnosing fibro isn't easy, and it's more of a matter of ruling a lot of other things out (a lot of blood work and MRIs, etc.), and also probing the tender points. Also, some people, like myself, have other medical issues in addition to the fibro. Try a rheumotologist. I have found they are more expert in going through the testing, are more familiar with it, and are more likely to determine whether or not you have it. You have my sympathy, as living with chronic pain is exhausting. Having someone push aside your concerns is frustrating on top of that.
 
Thank you Madeline! Its nice to know someone has listened to my woes. It's so hard finding a good doctor here, no one wants to listen. I am definitely looking for a rhumetologist, but under my health insurance I need a referral to see one. The doctors I have visited all do not want to give me a referral. Is there anyway I can go around that? I have pleaded with them, but they don't believe that there is anything wrong with me. They think I'm just lazy. I hate visiting the doctors here, they make you feel even more insignificant when you leave their office then when you arrive. Some doctors have just given me prescriptions for vicodin or oxycodin and told me to be on my way and come back in a few weeks. They don't understand that I don't want prescriptions for pain killers, I want to find out what's wrong with me and what can I do to fix it. Its driving me insane. I will definitely try again. Thank you for your support.
 
Don't give up on getting a referral to see a rheumatologist! When I was getting flu like symptoms all the time my family doctor kept telling me that it was a virus. Than I had pain. It was a virus. So my psychiatrist finally said to me "I think you may have fibromyalgia. So I asked my family doctor for a referral to see a rheumatologist. I had no idea what he was going to do or how he would test me. He started poking me in different places. And I would go OUCH, OUCH. Other places it would say, no, it does not hurt there. I had 13 out of so many tender points. Anyway, he said I most likely had fibromyalgia. Since 2004, it had progressively gotten worse. See a rheumatologist. Be persistent! I don't understand how they can be giving you narcotics just like that. I can't even get pain pills and I have fibro! And I've been diagnosed. Strange world. Doctors are strange. Good luck. You need to be diagnosed with it or without it!
 
Mowmow, try calling your insurance company and let them know you have been in chronic pain for months, have persistently requested your PCP for a referral, and that the PCP refuses to provide one, and ask what your options are. Be persistent, and ensure you keep reiterating that you have been in chronic pain for months, that you want to explore your option because you'd like to look at other treatment options. Sometimes the "P" word is the magic word, and letting them know you don't want to rely primarily on narcotics may help. My wishes for success go with you.

suzie, when you described the doctor touching your tender points, I had to laugh, because that was exactly my reaction! I didn't even know how sore and tender I was until my rheumo doc started touching them! And it HURT!
 
I actually went to the doctor last week when the pain was happening. He was the one that told me that I was diagnosed, I started to cry and broke down right there. I was so sad, my friend has had it for 3 years and I know how much it hurts him. I just really hope God can help me through this.
 
"How do I properly get tested/diagnosed with fibromyalgia?"

I'd think this about this for a while. Do you really want a diagnosis of FM following you around for the rest of your life? I have never found it was beneficial to have a FM diagnosis. I do know it has prevented me from getting certain kinds of insurance and raised the rates on other kinds. If anything, I've found having a FM diagnosis gives too many doctors an easy way out of treating you. "That symptom is just your FM" I've been told when it turned out to be advanced heart failure, a punctured left lung, and achalasia (that required surgery). If some doctors don't have a diagnosis ready to fall back on, they have to work to find the cause of the symptom or find a treatment that relieves it.

What you want is treatment for your symptoms, not a label to slap on them. Not having a diagnosis of FM is not going to prevent treatment. The only way (IMHO) to treat FM is to go at it one symptom at a time.
 
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