I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about a year ago after 18 months of chronic pain with really nasty flare ups involving shoulder, jaw, hips, knees, skin, genitals (ouch!), eyes, lungs. Systems across the whole body.
The pain has been life changing and been made worse by the attitude of my gp ‘oh it’s her again’ etc.
At the same time I was told I had osteoarthritis in one hip which was a particular source of pain- much worse than other joints.
At long last I have had a orthopaedics appointment and a diagnostic steroid injection in the hip joint which has revealed very clearly- yes, there’s a big problem in that hip. I will need a hip replacement.
The thing is- since having the injection in the hip (and confined to the joint), I have not just lost the hip joint pain. (I appreciate this pain relief won’t last for more than a couple of weeks.) Everything else has died down too! I feel completely different. All the symptoms that were classified as fibromyalgia have dampened or gone. I would not normally expect one pain free day - I have had over a week of them.
So my question is: to what extent might the symptoms grouped as fibromyalgia be the body’s response (inflammation causing multi-system problems) to ONE undiagnosed, underlying source of inflammation and pain in the body? (In my case, my hip?) Is it possible many people are suffering unnecessarily because they are classified as having fibromyalgia (and thus ime written off by unsympathetic doctors) when what is really needed is a hunt for one joint or organ that is the real problem? So that can be dealt with as a first step?
I should clarify that I am not in the slightest denying the terrible suffering caused by fibromyalgia. People diagnosed with it - like me- are in awful pain. It devastates lives. I’m just wondering if in some cases the diagnosis reflects uninterested doctors not willing to look for a ‘source’ of inflammation and pain in one particular body part. And wondered if this was a thing, or just me looking for answers where none really exist.