#because she's been sleuthing on these particular health shenanigans

[deadmomjokes]

Hey, anyone remember back in, like, 2017/18 how I was tentatively diagnosed with fibromyalgia because of severe debilitating pain and fatigue, among other symptoms? Didn’t trust that doctor because she really just threw the term out there as an excuse to not do any testing. She threw some pills at me, refusing to refer me to a specialist because I wasn’t showing conclusive symptoms (like, that’s a reason they have specialists, to figure out the weird cases!). I quit taking those pills after several days of terrible side effects, and finding out that the pills interact with the medicine I was already taking and could have killed me.

Needless to say, I had good reason not to trust her, so I considered myself as not officially having a diagnosis because that lady was TERRIBLE.

Things got better because ???  but got worse again after having a baby (not a big shocker there). My new PCP is, like, the best doctor on the planet, and referred me to a rheumatologist asap. Unfortunately, the rheumatologist was... less than helpful. He basically told me to just exercise and lose weight, despite those being the very things I specifically told him I was having trouble doing. Beyond that oh-so-helpful advice, he shoulder shrugged me because my blood work showed no autoimmune or rheumatoid issues, and the one set of x-rays he did on my knees (only knees cuz ???) didn’t show physical damage.

Thanks, my guy. Such a good use of everyone’s time and money.

Anyway, my PCP made the professional stank face at rheumatologist and went to work on the fatigue side of things in the meantime. Tweaked meds. Ordered a sleep study-- normal. Loads of blood work-- hey, low Vitamin D and iron storage! Did 3 months pills to correct those, and just went back for a follow up.

Iron is... still low? and the vitamin D is on the super low end of “acceptable.”

But the big thing is, guess who’s back?

My old nemesis, working-diagnosis of fibromyalgia!

Doc says that given my chronically low vitamin D, my persistent fatigue, and pain without autoimmune disease or apparent joint damage (she’s still salty he only x-rayed the knees, but can’t justify full body x-rays to the insurance’s satisfaction), as well as persistent depression/anxiety that are only marginally responsive to medication, and severe brain fog/cognitive slowing, fibromyalgia is a possibility. She did the pain points test, and, uh, yeah. Basically all of them. One of them going so far as to trigger a lasting spasmodic back ache that I’m still fighting over 24 hours later.

So new antidepressant for me, but one in the same category that’s good for treating fibro, too. We’re moving forward under the assumption that fibro is a possibility. Also continuing vitamin D and iron. (Fun fact, my doctor says that her other patients with fibro seem to use vitamin D faster? more poorly? than other people, and almost all of them need heavy supplementation during the winter. She also said they tend to be more sensitive to lower levels, so we’re aiming for me to get to the high end of normal and see if that helps.)

I just find it hilarious that two doctors arrived at the same conclusion for totally different and opposite reasons.

“I can’t be bothered to do my due diligence, so I’m going to throw around a condition I clearly don’t understand and not tell you anything about it or managing it or what to look out for. Take your dx and go away.”

vs

“I went through the process of eliminating everything else first, listened empathetically, did everything bureaucracy would allow, and I think this condition fits your symptoms. Let’s operate under that theory while not risking your health, and here’s loads of info about it and things that tend to help. In the meantime, let’s see if we can trick your insurance into paying for these other tests just to be sure it’s not something else.”

Gotta love that chronic illness life, am I right?

#i trust this doctor #we picked our insurance just so we could have her as our pcp #she's the best and if she says i have fibro #i will accept it from her #because she's been sleuthing on these particular health shenanigans #for over a year #she's amazing #so i guess i have fibro now? still?