Hinesights 20/20

I decided to go back through old posts on my blogspot, and I came across a few from back in the beginning of 2007 where they had been running various tests to try to figure out what was wrong with me, prior to slapping me with severe FMS diagnosis... Of course, even in the absense of my remembering the bull's eye rash I had had a year and a half prior, they should have checked me for LD. This just keeps frustrating me.

Just thought I'd share.... I warn you though, it will be long. But, after getting to know me over the last 2-3 weeks, you're probably not surprised, LOL

This exerpt is from a post I made on 1/14/2007:

[quote]....Last night, the pain had intensified so bad that I didn't even have to move for the pain to literally take my breath away. I was having muscle spasms like you wouldn't believe,... if I coughed it felt like I was going to puncture a lung. The spasms grew so great that it felt as though I had weights on me, keeping my lungs from expanding... It hurt to breathe. It grew to a point where I was crying out quite a bit, and after awhile,.. just plain crying....quote]

Here's an exerpt from a post I made on 4/10/2007:

[quote]....This has gone on long enough, and it's clearly 'something' and so (before anyone starts yelling at me about it, lol) I DID go see my physician!

I've gotten much, much worse,... It hurts to move,.. EVERYthing hurts. All my bones, every joint, every muscle,.. my hands, fingers, wrists, elbows, arms, shoulders, neck, back, hips, knees, legs, ankles, feet, heels, and toes,.... I am exhausted beyond belief, and even with adequate sleep (7-9 hrs) I am still feeling wiped out and in need of (almost) daily naps,.. and STILL feel tired. My eyes are heavy & fuzzy, it's difficult to concentrate because I feel so awful. I don't even have to be moving to be in pain. Sometimes, it's tolerable, others it's excruciating, and I have to fight from bawling,.. and still other times I can't hold in back no matter how hard I try. My skin burns sometimes, some of my muscle tissue burns, I feel bruised on all pressure points on my bones/joints,.. I have stabbing pain in places that don't make sense, and in my fingers, hands, elbows, shoulders, and knees, feet & toes. It comes on sudden, stays a bit, and then fades. It hurts to hold a pen to write, it hurts to hold a phone, hurts to hold the steering wheel to drive, hurts to walk, even stepping on or off a curb, let alone the stairs. It hurts to type right now...

I saw my Dr last night, and she said I definitely have some sort of rheumatoid thing going on,.. question is, WHAT. She ran me through all sorts of clinical tests, which I could do, but not without a great deal of difficulty so much so that she told me to stop trying because she could see it was only hurting me. She said it's definitely effecting my connective tissue, and she's concerned... And she doesn't think it's just my osteoarthritis anymore. I got labs done,... they're running a battery of tests which I fully anticipated. The tech took about 7-8 viles,.. said they were running 10 different tests. I know they're checking for rheumatoid factors, cancer tags, Lupus, and a bunch of other possibilities. I should have some results tomorrow, and she's referring me to a rheumatologist, which I'll probably see next week. In the meantime, she put me on Rx IB, vicodin, and muscle relaxers,.... OTC stuff didn't do ANYthing to help, and actually, the prescriptives didn't do anything for me last night either until I was finally so drowsy I didn't care anymore and basically passed out. I still woke through the night with pain any time I moved.

Anyway,.. *fingers crossed* for them to figure me out & help me,............... I seem to get worse day by day. This has been going on for [a couple] years, but has been getting closer together and worse each time. This is by far the worst I've been yet....[/quote]

Then I added this post on 4/12/2007, here's an exerpt:

[quote]....my labs are back, and everything is normal except my ANA was high, not as high as it could be, but high. This eliminates me from a number of possibilities, yet also opens the door to many others. For now, the big one that my doctor was considering being a plausable cause, was MS, which she has now ruled out, thank goodness. But,.. this still leaves an open door to the original concern of it possibly being Lupus. Now, it certainly may not be,.. about 95% of people who test with a positive ANA do not get diagnosed with Lupus, but the concern here is that I do meet several criteria. Basically though, I still have a great big question mark plastered on me,.... I should be hearing from the Rheumatologist next week and seeing him shortly after. There will likely be many more tests,.. more poking & prodding before anyone can come to any sort of conclusion.

In the meantime, my medication has been changed. The Vicodin was doing NOTHING for me, except add to my drowsiness. I was still in horrid pain even though I was taking 800 mg of IB, 1,000 mg of Robaxin (a muscle relaxer) AND 1,000 mg of Vicodin.

I'm still on the IB & the Robaxin, but they've switched me from Vicodin to Oxycodone. It's about as close to Morphene as you can get in pill form, LOL. Although, I don't care for how it makes me feel (like I'm highly intoxicated), [but] it IS doing a fabulous job in numbing my pain so I am greatful....[/quote]

They slapped me with Fibromyalgia at that point, and never pursued anything else any further...... I never questioned it.

Why the abrupt hault, and then "here's your new 'label'"???

My ANAs were high and I obviously had a lot of neuropathy going on. Neuropathy and muskuloskeletal are two completely different things,.. I had BOTH. I was having cognitive difficulties even then, not near what I have now, but looking in other notes I have from then, I had a lot of red flags going up. I was also having the ear pain & hypersensitivity then that they could never explain. Why didn't they pursue things further??

Hinesight,... I tell ya, it'll bite you in the cheeks every time!!