New and Seeing Doctors

Hi, I'm new, just found these forums today. I have not been diagnosed as having Fibromyalgia but I suspect it's what I have. Here's a brief overview.

Back in 2007 I started taking zoloft for anxiety, and shortly thereafter I started getting muscle pain, like electricity going through my muscles. I have joint pain too, but it's overshadowed by the intense muscle pain. In about 2009 my sinuses started getting stuffed. Not runny like allergies, but more like swollen so that I can't breath, mostly when I lay down at night. My neck was also starting to hurt at the same time as my muscles.

In Aug 2010 I stopped the zoloft, thinking maybe it was causing the muscle pain. March 2011 I started getting a sore throat, and still have it, and it's getting slowly worse. My neck pain is so bad I finally broke down and started physical therapy to help it. I also grind my teeth at night now, and never used to before. The last couple of months I've also started getting minor, annoying headaches. And I never have been prone to headaches before.

Also over the years I've started loosing my ability to concentrate. Work is getting harder for me all the time. I'm a programmer so I really need my dumb brain. LOL. I also don't sleep very well, and finally got some Ambien from my GP.

I also love to do agility with my dogs, which is very physical and I'm on my feet sometimes 12 hours a day on the weekends. I've gotten to the point where this takes so much out of me physically that it takes a week or more to recover from a weekend of activity. Used to be it only took 2 or 3 days to recover, but this last time it took me a week. UGH. It's my passion and what I love most in the world, so I'll suffer through it, but it does affect my job in a negative way. I get so tired, my muscles are just one fire, and I want to sleep all day afterwards.

So anyway that's a big nutshell.... LOL. But last month I decided I need to start pursuing the doctor route. So I started with a Naturopath, but he didn't really want to diagnose FMS and gave me some Vitamin A and D which hasn't seemed to help much. So I went to my GP. She sent me to a Neurologist who did a Brain Scan MRI which came back normal (she though maybe I had MS). I need to call the Neurologist back. But I figure I need to follow the doctor path, and see what they can find. I'm thinking it's FMS, and perhaps I can find a doctor here in Utah to help me out with it. But the resources in Utah are pretty slim it seems.

Oh... I was also diagnosed as having Interstitial Cystitis in November of 2010. I was really hoping that controlling that would help me in other ways, but it hasn't really. However, I'm glad that I don't feel like I have a bladder infection all the time now, when I really don't. That is miserable. I control it with diet, which works fine!

Cynthia

Post Edited (CynthiaBlue) : 7/18/2011 10:24:23 AM (GMT-6)

Hi CynthiaBlue,

Welcome to the fibromyalgia forum. How old are you? MS usually strikes us in our 30's from what I understand. I truly hope that you don't have it. Fibromyalgia is bad enough, but not as bad as MS.

You do have a lot of fibro symptoms. Has anybody directed you to "fibro 101"? It is the second thread on the forum. It is a stickie so it will always be at the top of the page if you ever need to refer to it. There is a list of symptoms on that thread and also a lot of information for you to read.

I hope that you feel better soon. Keep posting. Keep seeking out information. Wishing you to have a lovely day.

Hugs, Karen

Thanks for your replies! I so hate going to doctors, but I guess that's nothing different from most everyone else on the planet. =P And I do tend to defeat myself before I even go, thinking 'they won't find anything' or other such things. But I finally decided a month or so ago that I really need to just suck it up and go. My anxiety always kicks in and I feel like a complete idiot, and it's hard for me to keep pushing forward and standing up for myself. I'm really hating going to the Physical Therapy, it's hard for me to say if something hurts, or isn't working. I just usually suck it up... that was how I was raised. Even to this day, I feel like if I don't have physical proof of being sick, then I'm not really sick and I need to just suck it up. =P So of course getting through the junk in my own head is hard too.

I am spending time reading over the Fibro 101, good stuff very interesting. I've been reading about FMS on the web for some time now, and have read some books on my Kindle, too. So I'm getting a lot of info in my head. I also have nasty PMS and have since about 1994. Sometimes I just feel like a complete mess. I wish I didn't have to work. My husband is going to school since he lost his job a few years ago and since the economy is so bad, he isn't having luck finding a new one. Hopefully once he gets his bachelor degree that will help. He graduates next spring. And I only have 2 years 2 months 12 days until I can retire. I swear the days are squishing together more and more and causing me more stress. Which I guess is kinda dumb but oh well. I'm 44 years old. I started working when I was 21 and can retire at 25 years with a pension... and I am really looking forward to that, a pension is rare anymore. I hope I don't get laid off before then!

Oh and the sinuses... I've been on lots of allergy meds and none have helped. Nasal irrigation doesn't seem to help either. So I don't know what the deal with it is. I wish it were allergies and something would help clear me up. The only thing that really works is Afrin, but I can't use that more than a couple of days in a row or I get totally addicted to it. :( I did see a ENT doctor about it, and he said he can do surgery to open up my sinus passages, but I really don't want to do surgery if I can avoid it.

Post Edited (CynthiaBlue) : 7/18/2011 12:35:53 PM (GMT-6)