Looking for some help or advice

Hello there!

Thank you for taking the time to read into this thread. I am an 18 year old girl looking for any type of help or advice. I've been struggling with symptoms of something that so far I have not gotten any answers for. I do not know if I have fibromyalgia, but I have done a little research and I do not know enough if it is a possibility. I wanted to put myself out there to have someone try to point me in the right direction.

When this first all started I had some lower back pain that I thought was a kidney infection, so I went and got it checked out and that wasn’t it. Then I had bad abdominal pain to the point where I couldn’t get out of bed and walk and sit to pee. It wasn’t appendicitis, and I thought maybe I had ovarian cysts or endometriosis My original doctor thought it was all in my head because I had a fear of dying in my sleep from my appendix rupturing. Eventually he told me to stop going to him so I went to someone else. I’ve had pelvic exams and ultrasounds and they all came back clear. One time it was so bad I went to the ER because I couldn’t bend over to put my jeans on in the morning. I changed birth control prescriptions a couple times and it kind of helped. I had a very nice gynecologist that listened to me and wanted to do everything to help me, but she wasn’t a surgeon, so to get checked for endometriosis I had to meet with someone else. He said he didn’t think the symptoms were consistent enough so he didn’t want to do an exploratory surgery. So I was back to where I started. My abdomen hasn’t been so bad lately, but I can’t tell if it has gotten better with the birth control or if I’m just so tolerant of the pain now. I also found out that I have raynaud's disease.

The new pain I’ve been experiencing is mostly in my back, more specifically my shoulders. At first, it really scared me because I thought I was having chest pains. I saw a new doctor and she thought it was positional, so she told me to work on my core and wear a back support brace. She took x-rays of my back and found nothing unusual- except for my bad posture. I’ve been taking Naproxen and I can’t say that it helps tremendously. I just went back yesterday to her for a follow-up. I told her I thought my pain was more superficial than my spine, because my back is so tender to the touch. I can’t sit in a chair without my back hurting because it is being pressed against the back of the chair. My arms are always sore and I get jolts of pain that run through my elbow and I can feel it in the very tips of my fingers. My legs always feel like they are too tired to move and they weight 1000 pounds. I’m tired all the time, no matter how much sleep I get. I can’t sleep completely through the night. I sleep in like two-hour intervals. She took some blood to test my inflammatory rate and she talked about referring me to a Rheumatologist. This is more than just bad posture. So the doctor asked me if I had anxiety and I said sometimes I get worried about little things. (But everyone gets a little anxious sometimes, right?) And she was very quick to prescribe me anti-anxiety medication. I was shocked. I probably won’t take the medicine, it intimidates me. It was like she was so quick to give it to me because she thought I wanted at least something. But I don’t want a magic medicine, I just want answers. I feel like the doctors i’ve seen do not want to listen to me.

I think my problem is that my symptoms are too vague, but how else am I suppose to say them? I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt normal or comfortable. I’ve always been in some type of pain, whether it is a little or a lot. I feel very helpless and I don’t know what to do. I am very close to giving up because I don’t think any doctor wants to listen to me. I turned 18 this fall so I have to start taking matters into my own hands since everything medical is all confidential. My mom has been working very hard to help me with all this and we both don’t know what to do anymore. I’m trying to talk to as many people as I can to get their opinions and see how they can help me. So, please, anything you have to say to me please tell me because I’ll appreciate the smallest amount of help or advice. Or even if you know anyone that can help me, let me talk to them. Any blogs, or forums, or people that I can talk to that can I help me it will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much

Paige

Hi, Paige, and welcome! I'm so glad you are seeing a rheumatologist. They should be able to help you. They will run you through a myriad of tests to rule out other illnesses that have many of the same symptoms as fibro. So, if you do have fibro, this will help you be diagnosed.

Fibromyalgia has so many weird symptoms and the back and shoulder pain affects most of us. But do practice good posture. That helps anyone. We usually have pain in all four quandrants of our body. When I was hit with fibro it started in my feet and worked up my body in 45 minutes! When it hit my elbows, it was like I had banged that nerve and I had "electrical" type pain run down my arms into my hands and fingers. This sounds like a little of what you are experiencing. Everyone has a different story as to how they develpoed fibro. There is no set pattern with this illness.

Fibro isn't an inflammatory illness. Most of us have test after test and they all come back normal. It can be frustrating but this goes with the fibro territory.

Karen is correct about IBS but not everyone has this. Many do, though. I'll tell you that my daughter has endometriosis and last fall she started with back pain and abdominal pain...especially in one side. We thought it might be appendicitis, too, but it turned out to be endometriosis. She sees a specialist for this also. Unfortunately, I don't remember what they did for her, if anything. She is fine now and didn't need surgery for it either. It does sound like you ruled out the appendix and that's good.

Do read Fibro 101...the first thread on the forum. There are links to good info about fibro and you will learn a lot there. Good starting links for you would be Symptoms, What Else Could It Be, and A Thorough Explanation of Fibromyalgia. These will help you see if you still think fibro could be a cause of all your discomfort.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you better. Don't hesitate to ask questions because we are here to help you. Hope to hear more from you soon.

Sherrine

Thanks so much for your replies and support.
The Fibro 101 thread was very helpful by the way!

My next follow up appointment is in 6 weeks. Soon I should hear back about that blood test. Last September I was tested for several autoimmune diseases, and they all came back negative. Unfortunately LabCorp doesn't seem to keep records for more than a year so I cannot show them to my new doctor, which is lame because it isn't cheap to have the tests done again! Also I'm suppose to take the Naproxen more regularly instead of taking it when I need it.

As for the anti-anxiety medication, I have no idea what to expect. I've never taken anything like that before. I also don't know what it is called because I haven't had the chance to pick it up yet. Is there anything to worry about? What can I expect if I take it?

If I go to see the rheumatologist, what questions should I ask him? What are some "key" things I can tell him about my symptoms that would better help him find a diagnoses?

Also, what is the pressure point test? I can't find a lot that is more in depth in explaining it.

Post Edited (Samantha Paige) : 12/21/2013 9:33:33 PM (GMT-7)

So I've noticed something interesting.

Since Dec. 19 I've been on Christmas break and I haven't had any school work to do at all and I've been getting lots of rest and sleeping in everyday.

about four days ago I stopped taking the Naproxen because I was going to a neighborhood Christmas party and I'm thinking what the heck its the holidays I'll have a glass of wine and I didn't want all that medicine in my system.

Well, I didn't get my glass of wine but I haven't experienced any back pain even while off the Naproxen (over the past 4 days).

What could this mean? Could the pain be caused by stress from school? Could it be because I'm sleeping more? Or did I just have a bad flare up and now it's calmed down a bit?