Come and tell me to stop self-diagnosing please - have been tested for RA, Fibromyalgia, etc.

[LilRedWG]

Stupidly, I've looked up symptoms of fibromyalgia and have a few:

Pain - oh, yes.

Fatigue - oh, yes.

Sleep disorder - Nothing diagnosed, but don't sleep well.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Diagnosed.

Chronic headaches - Recently diagnosed with BTM.

Temporo-mandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome - Have had surgery for this years ago.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome - Nope.

So, tell me to stop self diagnosing and to wait for the results of the blood tests.

Am terrified of RA more, as my Mum suffers terribly with it and she would be so upset if she thought she had passed it on to me.

Please give me a slap.

have you been tested for coeliac disease ? I had terrible joint pain, was chronically tired etc and turned out to be coeliac after tests for RA, lupus etc

Was tested a few years ago - all clear.

Hopeful bump for evening crowd to tell me it is just a trapped nerve and to stop being a twit.

stop being a twit!

seriously, best thing you can do is treat yourself gently, you know you arent feeling well, you are having tests so at the moment it doesnt matter what the diagnosis is, let the doctors do that bit while you look after yourself.

have had bloods done to test for lupus this week. I am not looking it up, if thats what I have then I'll look it up after to see what I can do to help myself. Its not my usual approach but I haven't the energy to stress myself out with what ifs.

Gentle unmumsnetty hugs for you.

Thanks Kitten. I know you are right. I will behave.

I do hope that your results cme back okay. Let me know, okay. In the meantime, take good care of yourself. x

LilRedWG - you should stop diagnosing! as should I! I have just read an article on fibromyalgia and it describes me to a tee! Will be speaking to the GP about it next week!!

Just had my blood results back over the phone and 'everything is clear' so no RA.

I wonder if the doctor will just fob me off again when I see him the 25th.

great news about the no RA funnily enough they checked me for RA the week before last.

good luck getting a diagnosis.

Thanks Squidgy - thanks for the support and good luck at the GP next week.

I saw my GP today and he thinks its highly likely its fibro for me and started me on amitriptyline today and i have to go back in 2-3 wks

finally a lot of things make sence though!

Hope you get on as well

Squidgy - sorry I missed this. how are you feeling this week?

Hi LRWG

How did you get on at the Dr today?

I am having a not so great week, sleeping wise I am already noticing an improvement on the 10mg of amitriptyline I have started, I never noticed before but I had stopped dreaming and I have been this week, maybe coincidence? I slept 13 hours last night and still had the cheek to hit snooze on my alarm today! My arms are very painful as is my neck and back, and just exhaused. But at least I know that this is just a blip now and life will get back to normal when it passes, where before I was always waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Im going to push for a formal diagnosis next time I go to the GP, I still can't believe it was reading this thread that made me realise what was probably wrong with me, I had never heard of fibromyaliga

Not too well. GP really wasn't helpful and basically dismissed me and said that he thought the best thing for me to do was to stop being a SAHM and get a job. Am not too happy and feeling pretty confused to say the least.

Glad that your meds are starting to work and that you can see light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry that you are in so much pain though.

It sounds like you need to need to speak to someone else! If you feel anything as bad as I do some days there is no way I could hold down a job! not for any legnth of time anyway. Being a SAHM can be hard enough and I can sit on my bum drinking tea all day if I want/need to.

Can you see anyone else or are you stuck with your GP?

sorry to hear that you are having a crud time

Am seeing another GP in a couple of weeks about something unrelated. TBH, the GP has made me feel awful and I'm very tearful today.

lilredwg.....my middle ds is poorly has been for a few years with what they term 'M.E type symptoms' we have recently as he has become far more symptomatic started pushing for a firm diagnosis and once again he started blood tests etc but M.E doesnt show in blood so they have to rule everything out before they can last resort diagnose M.E.

I find some docs quite unsympathetic too.

LTWG,

I really do feel for you, last year I had a really bad spell with what was thought to be MS and had all the testing done, which came back negative, but still the symtoms kept coming, it was so hard to feel so bad and be told it was a virus and to go and rest as much as possible.

Hopefully the other GP will be more understanding.

take care of yourself.

Sparkles

sorry to hear about your son, hopefully he will get a diagnosis soon and the care he deserves

Good luck Sparkles. I hope your DS gets a diagnosis one way or the other soon.

thanks hes only 13 and cant handle feeling so drained one day yet a few days lter feeling ok ......I never understood people when they complained of apparently invisible symptoms but i think now having lived with it, its a far worse scenario at least with a physical problem you have 'evidence'.

Oh the poor love. That's just not fair at 13.

I can identify with lots of this. Particularly unsympathetic doctors.

For 16 years I've felt extremely dizzy, achy, tired etc etc and was fobbed off with an ME diagnosis. Recently I watched a programme about ear problems and it all fell in to place. I pushed to be sent to a balance specialist, and after many balance tests and an MRI, it turns out I have complete damage to my inner ear on the left side and partial damage on the right.

I knew I wasn't imagining I felt so lousy, but many many drs have mentioned stress, depression etc and I very definitely got the impression they thopught I should pull myself together.

I'm glad to finally have a diagnosis, unfortunately its permanent damage, but I'm hoping I may finally get a bit of sympathy.

Anyway, in a round about way I'm saying keep pushing for help, don't give up and actually googling symptoms isn't always the wrong thing to do IME. Good luck!

I know it takes a lot of training to become a Dr and i know many people have excellent doctors our own dr is exceptionally good but very unsympathetic with symptoms he cant see or diagnose-we have been plodding through this for at least 4 years and its only now we are being seen by a different paed that things seem to be moving slowly slowly.