Is Fibromyalgia Reall a Thing?

[Anonymous]

I don't have fibromyalgia or know anyone who does, but I can't believe how judgmental people are about it on this forum. Generally, doctors are frustrated by patients with chronic ailments they can't diagnose/treat and there is a tendency at times for the medical community to blame the patient in such cases. Just look at ulcers if you want an example. For a long time doctors claimed that ulcers were caused by stress - i.e. blaming the patient because they didn't know the cause. When, at last the cause was found to be bacteria, they had to revise their ideas. I would not be surprised if one day there will be a break through I. Diseases like fibromyalgia too and all this doubting and blaming the patient will end.

[Anonymous]

Only person I know with this diagnosis is skinny and African American as one other data point to refute done of the above stereotypes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have fibromyalgia or know anyone who does, but I can't believe how judgmental people are about it on this forum. Generally, doctors are frustrated by patients with chronic ailments they can't diagnose/treat and there is a tendency at times for the medical community to blame the patient in such cases. Just look at ulcers if you want an example. For a long time doctors claimed that ulcers were caused by stress - i.e. blaming the patient because they didn't know the cause. When, at last the cause was found to be bacteria, they had to revise their ideas. I would not be surprised if one day there will be a break through I. Diseases like fibromyalgia too and all this doubting and blaming the patient will end.

MS also was a psychological disease of neurotic women until MRIs came along and the lesions in the brain became apparent.

[Anonymous]

My mom has it. She is a complainer in general and totally fits your stereotype. However, when researching my infertility I learned there is a high co morbidity with things that run in my family such as thyroid issues and RA.

My mom has a crazy high pain tolerance which I didn't realize until she walked around on a broken foot for 2 weeks before going to the Dr because it wasn't getting better. I then thought "If you can tolerate that, then I can't imagine how much pain you are in every day when you say you're worn out after work". I think chronic pain for decades would make anyone a crabby bitch - so now I am more patient with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom has it. She is a complainer in general and totally fits your stereotype. However, when researching my infertility I learned there is a high co morbidity with things that run in my family such as thyroid issues and RA.

My mom has a crazy high pain tolerance which I didn't realize until she walked around on a broken foot for 2 weeks before going to the Dr because it wasn't getting better. I then thought "If you can tolerate that, then I can't imagine how much pain you are in every day when you say you're worn out after work". I think chronic pain for decades would make anyone a crabby bitch - so now I am more patient with her.

Yeah, I have fibro and it can be hard to tell whether you need to got to the doctor or not. I've had a couple injuries that needed treatment, but it took me time to realize that bc I wrote it off as fibro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom has it. She is a complainer in general and totally fits your stereotype. However, when researching my infertility I learned there is a high co morbidity with things that run in my family such as thyroid issues and RA.

My mom has a crazy high pain tolerance which I didn't realize until she walked around on a broken foot for 2 weeks before going to the Dr because it wasn't getting better. I then thought "If you can tolerate that, then I can't imagine how much pain you are in every day when you say you're worn out after work". I think chronic pain for decades would make anyone a crabby bitch - so now I am more patient with her.

Yeah, I have fibro and it can be hard to tell whether you need to got to the doctor or not. I've had a couple injuries that needed treatment, but it took me time to realize that bc I wrote it off as fibro.

Exactly! It doesn't help her that she refuses to take any pain meds because she's so afraid of becoming addicted. We have to beg her to take Aleve in advance of a big day out so she can recover faster. We're all getting better at helping her pace herself. She's really fastidious about the nutrition recommendations from her Dr, does gentle water aerobics. However DH and I would love to see her really give mindfulness meditation and/or marijuana a try. I think one of those might really help her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea if it's real, but according to one of my friends who's a physician and works in the Emergency Department, the following signs are almost always present in people who suffer from it:

- Minimum 40-50 lbs overweight
- At least one Axis II psych disorder
- Stated allergies to OTC pain relievers such as Advil, Tylenol, Aleve, etc. Can somehow tolerate opiates with no trouble, though! Funny how that works.
- When asked to rate their pain on the 1-10 scale, answer will always be somewhere in the 8-10 range, even if the patient is sleeping or resting comfortably when the doctor comes in the room (hint: if you're able to do either, you are not in the 8-10 range)

Apparently emergency rooms are a hotspot for fibro sufferers. A lot of rheumatologists, neurologists and immunologists aren't willing to prescribe opiates to deal with the pain and recommend dietary changes, PT and NSAIDs instead. That doesn't always go over well, so the people who don't want to hear it head to the ED. Nice.

The women I knew with Fibro are all thin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you believe it is real OP? Of course it is real. People are suffering from it every day. Is IBS real? Give me a break.

I don't think IBS is real! I was diagnosed with IBS years ago but I had Celiac. About 10-15 years ago adult GI docs knew nothing about Celiac disease and thought it was an extremely rare childhood disease. I suffered for years being misdiagnosed as IBS. Horrible. I wish I could sue the doctors I saw who dismissed me as "stressed out".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Apparently emergency rooms are a hotspot for fibro sufferers. A lot of rheumatologists, neurologists and immunologists aren't willing to prescribe opiates to deal with the pain and recommend dietary changes, PT and NSAIDs instead. That doesn't always go over well, so the people who don't want to hear it head to the ED. Nice.

I was curious about this so I visited some fibro online support groups and read a number of posts about ER visits. Of the 50 or so posts I read that were about patients visiting the ER, 39 were visits due to comorbid conditions that were complicated by having fibro. Here's one that stood out to me:

:i have interstitial cystitis r/t my fibro. Well normally i wouldn't need to go to the er for this because i have home treatments and medication to take care of it..but once or twice the cystitis was so persistent it just came right back day after day and soon enough i was pissing blood from the irritation of the bladder walls...so off to the ER i went. Needed treatment included-catheter to empty bladder , dilation and flushing with soothing medication, IV hydration with preventative antibiotics), strong pain meds. =) thank god for the ER otherwise i could have easily caused severe damage to my bladder and or kidneys." http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/fibromyalgia-discussions/general-support/3049774-fibromyalgia-and-er-visits-a-question

So, this patient needed strong pain meds which a harried ER doctor could see as "drug seeking", but what was he or she supposed to do about the blood in the urine? Was he or she also "catheter seeking"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't you believe it is real OP? Of course it is real. People are suffering from it every day. Is IBS real? Give me a break.

I don't think IBS is real! I was diagnosed with IBS years ago but I had Celiac. About 10-15 years ago adult GI docs knew nothing about Celiac disease and thought it was an extremely rare childhood disease. I suffered for years being misdiagnosed as IBS. Horrible. I wish I could sue the doctors I saw who dismissed me as "stressed out".

IBS is real and actually under-diagnosed. I know many women and men who have suffered in silence for decades before being correctly diagnosed in their 50s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only person I know with this diagnosis is skinny and African American as one other data point to refute done of the above stereotypes.

Good God people, these are not "stereotypes", they are statistics. It's funny how EVERYONE on this thread isn't overweight, or isn't a woman, or isn't white (or their friend with fibro isn't one of those things). The fact that you have a skinny black friend with fibro does not change the fact that the majority of fibro sufferers are fat white women. I don't know if that actually means anything....but personal anecdotes about your skinny black friend don't change reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only person I know with this diagnosis is skinny and African American as one other data point to refute done of the above stereotypes.

Good God people, these are not "stereotypes", they are statistics. It's funny how EVERYONE on this thread isn't overweight, or isn't a woman, or isn't white (or their friend with fibro isn't one of those things). The fact that you have a skinny black friend with fibro does not change the fact that the majority of fibro sufferers are fat white women. I don't know if that actually means anything....but personal anecdotes about your skinny black friend don't change reality.

You are stuck on the fat white women thing. Have you seen a medical professional about that?

[Anonymous]

Fibromyalgia was one of those hokie conditions suffered by middle-aged, multiple-cat-owning, wrist-brace-wearing women.

I don't understand your point - if the condition is more prevalent among middle aged women, it must be fake?

[Anonymous]

Unicorn