It only took 35 years for the right diagnosis!

[NoFoolPrice]

I am angry, relieved, stunned - mostly angry though. After 35 years of intense pain, false diagnosis, emergency rooms, big needles, prescribed drugs, self-medication, lost jobs, and more pain, pain, pain, I was finally diagnosed correctly. Drumroll please....I have had a dislocated shoulder from a car accident since I was 15. My life would have been so different if someone would have listened to me back then. I was in shock the first hours after the accident, it was a very bad wreck, I didn't realize I was hurt until late that night, by then nobody believed me when I told them. I would have actually been able to keep one of the jobs I have loved and could have had a great career. You can only call in sick with 'I can't move my arm again today' so many times. I wasted months spent in bed knocked out on pain killers and muscle relaxers. My rheumatologist said I may not have acquired fibromyalgia if I had been treated back then. I was relieved when I first found out, now I'm just angry. He said that physical therapy and surgery will help, but there is too much damage and scar tissue built up now to actually correct it. My life has revolved around that stupid pain and it would have been so simple to diagnose and fix it so many years ago. Guess it was just easier to assume the pain was from the arthritis or fibro. It just makes me so sad to know what coulda, shoulda, woulda been if only my shoulder wasn't dictating my options all of my adult life.

[dv8grl]

I feel for ya. Medical "professionals" never really want to listen! They just want your money & to fill you up with drugs that will make them MORE MONEY!

[Army-Mom]

sending prayers and hugs.

[ilikefree]

I feel for ya. Medial "professionals" never really want to listen! They just want your money & to fill you up with drugs that will make them MORE MONEY!

ITA! But at least you know the cause of all your pain. Hopefully now that you know what it is you can have something done about it and not be as bad. {{{HUGS******

[Jackie_Blu]

I feel for ya. Medial "professionals" never really want to listen! They just want your money & to fill you up with drugs that will make them MORE MONEY!

ITA, too!! I can't even imagine your anger and feeling of what was lost at bearing the needless pain for all those years..but you certainly are entitled. :hug

[ElleGee]

I am a fibromyalgia sufferer as well. I was dxed 3 years ago.. I have a greaty doctor *nod

I feel your pain

[pepperpot]

That stinks! :mad:

[Unicornmom77]

I am a fibromyalgia sufferer as well. I was dxed 3 years ago.. I have a greaty doctor *nod

I feel your pain

Me also, I was diagnosed 4 yrs ago @ age 26... I am still well enough to use exercise and diet to manage the effects. And I don't take any prescription pain meds. I am sorry that you had to live with such a painful injury all these years! BIG HUGS! (Soft as to not hurt cha!)

[ahippiechic]

I was just diagnosed with fibro also.

That sux that it took so long to find out what was wrong. Hopefully things will get better for you.

[ElleGee]

this thread reminded me to refill my amitriptyline *heh

[PrincessArky]

OMG I am sorry to hear about all that has happened because of this but thankful now that you know what is wrong you can start to feel better

[tljohn123]

Ok, what is fibromyalgia? I hear so many people who have been diagnosed with this, but I don't know what it is!!!

[ElleGee]

it's a chronic pain disorder that usually has a whole battery of symptoms that are not detected as a problem..

[ElleGee]

BTW my fibro was caused by a car accident when the top half of my body went thru the back windshield of a car when we got hit from behind..

My sister has chronic fatique syndrome from having mono as a teen

Fibro is usually injury related and CFS is bacterial/illness related..

According to my research....

[ahippiechic]

BTW my fibro was caused by a car accident when the top half of my body went thru the back windshield of a car when we got hit from behind..

My sister has chronic fatique syndrome from having mono as a teen

Fibro is usually injury related and CFS is bacterial/illness related..

According to my research....

My Dr told me that my last round of chemo might have triggered the fibro for me, I didn't have any of the symptoms before that. But it took a while to diagnose, because at 1st, they were just treating the symptoms individually, not looking at them all as a set.

[Kelsey1224]

I am so sorry. It is just too horrible to imagine. I can certainly understand your anger.

[MamaArc]

Oh wow to live with this pain for all them years. Did they not do an xray or anything? You would think they would've found that out by now.

[NoFoolPrice]

Thank you for all the replies and understanding. I wasn't expecting the anger factor and it just hit me hard this morning - that unnecessary pain has ruled my life and I just feel outraged that I had to go through it. On the bright side, now that I've dealt with all that pain for years, the surgery and healing should be a piece of cake. Maybe I never described the pain to a doctor correctly, this time it was like a lightbulb went off in my doc's head when I described it - 'There's this little guy with a rubber band on a winch in the left side of my neck, there's a big giant gripping my left shoulder and squeezing it hard, there's a wire being taughtened and scraped back and forth across my collarbone and there is a ring of fire dancing around my upper arm'. Perhaps he has heard a dislocated shoulder described like that before...
Any of you with fibro taking Lyrica yet? It's the first prescription drug specifically for fibro. I just started taking it last week and I think it did help me get through this weekends rainy weather, too early to tell yet. I know of one person that has been taking it a few months and he says it is a miracle drug. I am a little worried about the side effects, a couple of which I am experiencing already, but as any of you with fibro knows, we'll try anything that might help! Thanks again for your kind replies, I needed that!

[ahippiechic]

I had been taking just 800 ml Motrin for the pain, but she gave me Tramdol the last time I went. The pain hasn't gotten bad enough to have to use it yet tho. I'm doing the diet and exercise and it does seem to help. We discussed the Lyrica, but we didn't feel it was needed right now. She said she had quite a few who have tried it and gotten very good results with it. I hope it works well for you.

[NoFoolPrice]

Oh wow to live with this pain for all them years. Did they not do an xray or anything? You would think they would've found that out by now.

I remember having two x rays done many years ago of my arm, but not my shoulder. I guess they just assumed the problem was in my arm because I could not move it. I don't really know how I could have functioned all these years except it must have partially slipped back in sometimes, I honestly don't know. I've always had pain there but not always debilitating pain, I would be functional for a couple months and then totally down for the count for months at a time. I also have arthritis in my neck and that was one thing the pain was attributed to. I think most drs. have just assumed it was from the fibro. I've also made my right arm my 'working arm' over the years, I've babied the left arm and always held it in the same position, like its in a sling, so I guess my body kind of unconsiously tried to protect itself. Another thing was a lack of health insurance - I usually didn't have insurance because I couldn't hold a job long enough, My shoulder would flare up and I'd be fired before I could obtain heath insurance and see the same doctor for any length of time or actually get tests done besides in the E.R.

[BeanieLuvR]

I am glad that you finally got to the root of your problem but sorry it took so long. Prayers and hugs sent your way. :)

[NoFoolPrice]

I had been taking just 800 ml Motrin for the pain, but she gave me Tramdol the last time I went. The pain hasn't gotten bad enough to have to use it yet tho. I'm doing the diet and exercise and it does seem to help. We discussed the Lyrica, but we didn't feel it was needed right now. She said she had quite a few who have tried it and gotten very good results with it. I hope it works well for you.

Thanks, I do have high hopes for the Lyrica. Even if it doesn't personally work for me, at least they've finally come out with something! I take amitriptyline and flexeril for the fibro, sometimes ibuprofen helps. The flexeril puts me to sleep so I try not to take it too much. ITA that diet and exercise are the way to go if you can control it that way - I know thats not easy, and a lot of work, good for you!

[Mom2Shaun]

OMG, that's horrible! I can understand how you feel; I would be angry and upset too!

But I hope the surgery and therapy can at least relieve your pain as much as possible. No doubt about it, it's not fair. But all you can do is try to enjoy the present as much as possible. (I know that's inadequate for the way you feel right now, but I've been saying this to myself for the last few weeks over something that changed my life for the worse 28 years ago.)

[ElleGee]

I tried the Lyrica. It did squat for me.. all it did was make me feel 10x worse than I did. All I am taking is the amitriptyline, Klonopin for muscle stiffness and panic attacks, percoset when it's really bad, ibuprofen when it's not too bad.

[IthinkNOT!]

I tried the Lyrica. It did squat for me.. all it did was make me feel 10x worse than I did. All I am taking is the amitriptyline, Klonopin for muscle stiffness and panic attacks, percoset when it's really bad, ibuprofen when it's not too bad.
My mom started on the lyrica about 2 weeks ago. Her doctor told her it would take about 2 or 3 weeks to feel the full effects. But within 2 days Mom was already feeling better, she had more energy and wasn't in as much pain. We are trying to get approved through the PPA for it though, as it is a little pricey. Hope it works as well for you as it did for her.

[SLance68]

I can totally relate - I too was in a car accident - broke my forearm - had 2 surgeries to fix it. Then complained to my Dr. because I couldn't put my arm up high enough to put my hair in a pony tail. Now keep in mind the shoulder/upper arm area had been X-rayed by 3 different Ortho's - and then my 3rd Ortho started moving my arm & had them x-ray them differently - and low and behold my upper arm was broken. Weird part was they fixed the bones together but let the shoulder dislocate - had to fix the bones before they could fix the joint. I just hope you have not had any damage to your rotator cuff, such as a tear as those are harder to repair than bones.

So I can understand how they can miss diagnosis and I am sure you were mad as heck but probably also relieved that there was finally an answer to what was wrong with your arm.

Just get ready for some really fun physical therapy - they will probably have you do the "blackburns" exercises - if they don't kill you they will certainly cure that dislocated shoulder.

[baragabrat]

I can so relate. I had my first migraine when I was pregnant with my second child. (over 40 years ago) So from 1967-1989 I was a miserable mess, with the headaches only getting worse. X-rays, scans, meds of different kinds, lots of Valium...I gave a new meaning to *****iness.

I had 6 days of pain per month, for 22 years. I'm telling docs it had to do with my period because that's when I got the headaches. No one listened. I got to a really bad place in my life and told my doc how I was feeling. Within 2 weeks I had a total hysterectomy. With the year I was migraine-free. And although I've had headaches since, none of them have been migraines. I am so grateful.

I am so sorry, NoFoolPrice, that the answers came so late for you. But you have some answers now and can breathe a little easier for them. And hopefully that knowledge will help somehow.

[kelblend]

I'm so sorry you had to wait so long. I'm sure I would probably go through a lot of different emotions if I had to go through that. Hope whatever they do for you helps more than they think it will!

[Jackie_Blu]

I feel so bad so many of you are suffering with fibro. I have a friend who lives near me who also has it and I know it can be debilitating. I received an email from Primary Source today, and they have a product they believe can help, if any of you would like to look into it, here it is:

http://www.psopc.com/benefits/fibro.shtml

:hug