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remnant

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Fibromyalgia is one of the most misdiagnosed diseases due to symptom overlap. For instance, widespread pain can be caused by sleep apnea, malignancy, hypothyroidism or lupus which cause fatigue. Doctors need to rule out the symptoms of other diseases as they look for an explanation. A patient could also have other conditions alongside fibromyalgia like Lyme disease or arthritis which can mimic fibro or with fibromyalgia as a secondary condition.
 
One problem is, if you have a rheumatologist that diagnoses you with fibromyalgia, your GP will just assume all your ailments will be related to that, and cease testing for other disorders and will just want to start you on antidepressants/pain relief. That is what happened with me and my doctor. The last visit I was like "listen, these are all the abdominal problems I am having" and I brought along my daily log of food/events/supplements (very important to keep one of these). He sent me in for a cat scan and they found an umbillical hernia along with artherosclerosis. Had I not pressed, all my abdominal issues would have been dismissed.
 
Well for me, if my dr says oh that Fibro doing this or that,and I don't agree I tell him so.I will ask to be seen by someone at the hospital.
Sadly mostly he is right.but if all your blood tests come back normals u can be sure it's Fibro.
 
Malignancy? That word covers such a wide spectrum. But yeah Fibro and diseases like Lyme (among many others) are often misdiagnosed, its scary, but true. Sadly most doctors nowadays only seem to care only bout making money and not about doing their job right... Look at me, I have yet to find a decent neurologist who can tell me with all security what the hell is in my brain!
 
I actually had a friend who was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease when she actually had fibromyalgia. It is easy to misdiagnose and doctors are only human too.
 
Yeah, that is why asking for a second opinion is so important, in the case the first doctor makes a mistake.
 
I'm going to throw in my two cents, I was tested over and over and over for everything for 18 years. I've had surgery on my foot because a podiatrist insisted it was planters faciates, the surgery was a fail and I not only cancelled surgery on my other foot but stopped the cortisone shots that I kept saying I didn't think was working. My gut told me he was wrong, but I caved and he got to perform surgery and Bill odd led of $$$ in I spent two months on crutches no better and a lot broker. It was vice versa for a 21 day stay in the hospital, doctors kept insisting it was in my head, hah, the Chaplin was sent to my hospital room twice. Last year 7 trips to the ER due to a rare heart attack followed by a year of severe pain on the left shoulder, arm and chest. Apparently that's where the fibro was manifesting.

Like sureimsore and forgetmenot said sometimes it is the fibro but sometimes it's not. Don't take chances, until your sure it's the fibro causing your problem follow your gut.
 
My very first symptom was pain in my feet 10 years ago this summer...I was told it was plantar faciites too! My GP told me to roll my feet on a empty cola bottle filled with iced water.

I remember going on holiday and my feet hurt so much i tried to sit on a 4 inch window ledge at the airport while standing in the queue waiting to board.

I didn't seek other treatments and after few weeks it went away. A year later the same kind of pain started to spread through out my body.

Like you Eyesup it wasn't plantar faciitis at all but at the start doctors go with what they know.

As the pain spread I was told I had a frozen shoulder and offered steroid injections and chondromalacia patella in my knee....none of which was true despite scans and xrays.

Like you say it's all very hit and miss about what is fibro and what could be something else.... i don't think the doctors know until you get so many different pains and symptoms and no regular treatments have any impact.
 
I agree, there's such an overlap of symptoms and co-occurring conditions that it's often difficult to receive a definitive diagnosis. And, once you have that diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, many doctors and nurses will ignore everything else said, and chalk every other symptom up to Fibromyalgia. That's what happened last week when I was in the ER. I told them what was wrong, yet they totally ignored me, despite me repeating it about 4 more times. When the bill comes in, I'm going to call and dispute it, because I didn't get the treatment I needed.
 
Having fibromyalgia is like living in a building where the fire alarms are always going off. It makes it really difficult to know when there actually is a fire.
 
Great metaphor DK.
 
Yes, I agree, that's a very good metaphor @DK_engineer, I'll have to remember to use that when discussing the issue with naysayers. I understand that medical professionals deal with a lot of different disorders and conditions, but it's their job to figure out what is wrong and treat it. I think if there is no improvement, treatments should be stopped, and after a series of trials with no improvement, perhaps the initial diagnosis should be revisited and questioned.
 
Reading these posts, lets me know that I am not alone! I also had plantar fascitis about 6 years ago and 5 years ago had 2 shoulder surgeries. Chronic pain after the first surgery and what seemed to be a frozen shoulder was the reason for the second surgery due to injections not helping at all. Did ok (not great but ok) up until a year ago. I broke my foot exactly a year ago and went undiagnosed for 7 weeks. My physician told me it was a bad sprain to use the foot as much as possible in spite of the swelling and pain being excruciating. Finally went to a large ortho specialty clinic where a repeat MRI was done, and there was a nasty fracture as well as at least 3 torn tendons which resulted in 4 months of wearing a boot. Since the fracture, my health has started to really fall apart.

I am so fed up with the medical profession. The middle of February was so bad for me that I practically crawled into my primary care Dr's office (the same one that misdiagnosed my foot a year ago), and he took one look at me and said I know what you have, "fibromyalgia". His response was when you want to go on cymbalta or savella give me a call, otherwise I will see you in 6 months......needless to say I am looking for a new primary care physician. I did go and see a rheumatologist who ruled out any inflammatory markers and because I was sero-negative for lupus, RA, and everything else he said nothing was left in his basket but fibromyalgia. However, my neurologist is adamant that it is not fibro and now he wants to do a lumbar puncture due to thinking that it is a viral infection that has attacked my nervous system.

I think the issue with my foot really opened my eyes to the fact that we need to listen to our gut and if something just doesn't add up or seem right, you are never wrong to seek out a second opinion.
 
This is why I was really happy with my doctor. He ruled out everything else. No RA, No Lupus, No OA, lots of appointments, lots of blood work. It took me almost 10 years to find a doctor that took my symptoms seriously. But once I found a doctor that listened, he was amazing. I would agree for someone not to settle with a Fibro diagnosis alone, with out ruling out other conditions that Fibro may be piggy backing on.
 
I have heard that new methods of diagnosis like brain scams have been developed. Anyone with something to share on this? In the absence of better and specific methods, the best thing to do is to go to a second doctor for a second opinion. I would not recommend a specialist but a GP is fine since he would take a more wholistic approach to the disease at this stage.
 
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