Just because you're mentally ill doesn't mean you're not sick!

No matter how well trained your doctors are, it's really complicated to keep our meds in sync and our bodies functioning well. And so there are times when our body gets out of whack and the doctors - whether p-docs, GPs, or that helpful Ask-A-Nurse at your insurance - are likely to not have the best solution for you. Here are a few I've hit in the last year, just in case they help anyone else.

Chronic muscle pain -- "Fibromyalgia" is the latest disease for women. It's chronic muscle pain, along with a bunch of other symptoms. It used to be considered a depression symptom, but now they have meds for it and ads explaining what it is on television so you can ask your doc to put you on the meds. I'm not going to tell you it doesn't exist, but I am going to tell you a cheap test for whether it's really what you've got.

Go to the drugstore and get a kelp supplement. Generic is fine - what you're after is an extra dose of iodine beyond what's in your multivitamin. You can't overdose on iodine because your thyroid takes up what it needs and dumps any extra.

If you have fibromyalgia, the pain won't go away. If you have an iodine deficiency, it will. You should still make a doctor's appointment because the iodine deficiency could signal something not functioning as it should in your thyroid, which governs a lot of important functions - like your ability to concentrate and focus, which your p-doc might try to fix with different psych meds, when that might not be the issue at all.

P.S.: please note that "ability to concentrate and focus" issue. I haven't been talking to my p-doc about it because I didn't want my meds changed. It's probably thyroid.

Shortness of breath - You're going to self-diagnose this one, with lots of self-accusation. "I've just turned into such a couch potato. This is my own fault. I can't believe I can't even walk 15 minutes on the treadmill ... what a wimp! I just need to work at it ..." Etc. etc. etc.

Then, the morning that you almost pass out while you're making coffee, you'll realize something is really wrong. You'll make an emergency appointment and make your husband cancel his morning meeting to take you. And you'll remember that the same thing happened to your mother ... and it turned out to be something as simple as anemia, not all that uncommon among women of what the French call "a certain age."

So while you're waiting for the tests to come back, you want to remind your girlfriends on line: ignore the idiot Ask A Nurse. Her job is to protect the financial health of your insurance company, not your medical health, so she's going to reassure you that your situation isn't unusual (which is true) and you don't need to see a doctor unless (false condition follows). If you're bleeding heavily and/or often, you're losing iron. You're going to become anemic. You may not want to do hormone therapy, given how many other meds we're all taking. But that's not your only choice. At the very least, you may need iron supplements, and they need to be prescribed and monitored because iron toxicity is nothing to fool around with.