Merely Me gave me a great suggestion to write a sharepost regarding my chronic pain and I thought it was a great idea, so here I am.  On Monday, I was diagnosed with chronic pain and my doctor thinks it may be fibromayalgia.  She didn't want to make that formal diagnosis because she feels a rhumetologist would be better for that job.  For a few years, I have been dealing with unexplained pain.  My body hurt, but most of the pain was in my hands and wrists.  I thought the pain was work related.  I have a job that requires repetative motion, so I got sent to doctors through work several times but nothing was found.  I had the test for carpal tunnel three times in three years, each time the results showed everything was normal.  My job requires me to lift and move a lot, so I thought a lot of my body pain was due to work (and the fact I need to lose some weight).  A couple of months ago, I even went to the emergency room in a lot of pain.  X-rays were taken, but nothing showed up.  I was getting frustrated because my pain was constant.  Sometimes it was bearable, but sometimes it got to be almost too much.  Over the counter pain medicine did nothing most of the time.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom forwarded an email she had gotten from webmd about fibromayalgia.  I read through it a couple of times and realized that some of what I thought were "quirks" were actually symptoms of something bigger.  If my pain gets bad, I get a flu-like achy and really tired feeing.  Right now, I have a lot of trouble sleeping because the pressure from laying in bed starts to hurt.  I can't seem to stay in one position long enough to get restful sleep.  I have some specific areas on my body that I feel pain when pressed instead of pressure (points on my collar bone, ribs, hips, back).  I don't have a lot of energy or stamina when the pain gets bad.  Some fabrics feel really scratchy to me, even if others don't think they are that bad (denim is a good example).  I get really bad "brain fog" sometimes in the morning or if I get really tired.  I do feel really stiff and sore in the morning and at times after work.  Cold, wet, windy weather also makes me feel more stiff and sore.  I also have to "listen" to my body and try to take it easy if it's telling me to.

I'm grateful to my mom for sending me that email.  If she had not, I wouldn't have been able to put the pieces together and tell my doctor the whole story on how I was feeling.  I'm also grateful to have a doctor that accepts fibromayalgia as a real conditon.  I've seen some stories on other message boards about people having to completely switch doctors to get a diagnosis.  I think it's really worth looking into and talking to a doctor about if your body hurts and you can't explain why.  I may not have been dealing with this for so long if I had done so before now.  I've started cymbalta, but it has been less than a week ago.  I sure hope it helps,  I'm 33 and some days feel like I'm 80...lol.  I go back to the doctor in about 5 weeks.  If the cymbalta doesn't help like she thinks it should, I will probably be seeing a rhumetologist after that.  Right now, it's a matter of taking things one day at a time and trying to stay as positive as I can.