Posted by Victoria on April 27, 1999, at 15:38:01
In reply to Re: fibromyalgia, posted by Elizabeth on April 24, 1999, at 0:23:15
Elizabeth, It seems to me that diagnoses in this area are a bit like the blind men and the elephant--there seem to be lots of so-far-poorly-understood dysfunctions in brain chemistry and function, and depending on what complex of symptoms you have and what kind of doc you consult you'll get different diagnoses. It sounds to me like you fall in the same general category as what I have, but with a slightly different group of symptoms. I'm feeling a bit discouraged at the moment. I was doing quite a bit better for the past few weeks on trazadone and serzone, but have had a flare-up of pain and fatigue (had out-of-town company and did too much, I guess). I'm pinning my hopes on Dr. Goldstein. I'll let you know if he finds anything that works for me.
> Victoria, thanks for the links! Very helpful.
>
> Some symptoms I have:
>
> - The main thing is the back, neck, and shoulder pain. I wouldn't call it severe but it is quite unpleasant.
> - The pain seems to be worst in the morning and at night when I'm trying to get to sleep. I don't have trouble falling asleep on nights when I don't have pain.
> - I had an episode of recurring, severe headaches when I was 14 that resolved with Prozac. (They seemed to be associated with the onset of depression.) I've seldom had headaches of any sort since.
> - I have always had very bad menstrual cramps (NSAIDs do work for this, of course).
> - I have had an essential tremor ever since I can remember; when it gets bad or when I need to do fine motor work, I use a beta blocker.
> - I'm definitely hypersensitive to cold.
> - I've had various GI symptoms (mainly constipatioin and vomiting) that were written off as "anxiety."
> - I've had tendinitis, but so did everbody I knew in college (due to overuse of computers, presumably).
> - I seem to have tenderness in a number of the diagnostic pressure points.
> - I've had a number of random skin problems; my skin seems to be sensitive.
> - I'm accident-prone. I drop things a lot. (Interestingly, I noticed that this improved with buprenorphine and not with other antidepressants.)
> - One summer when I was going dancing a lot, I started having foot pains, and even walking difficult.
>
> I have early-onset (diagnosed age 14) "melancholic" depression - this preceded the pain. I also have social anxiety (probably not bad enough to be called clinical social phobia, though). I don't know if I've ever been diagnosed with panic disorder, but I have had spontaneous panic attacks as well (it's been suggested that this is actually a sort of psychomotor epilepsy, though).
>
> Some symptoms I *don't* have:
> - chronic fatigue
> - leaden paralysis (feeling of being heavy or weighed down)
> - migraine
> - multiple chemical sensitivity
> - TMJ
> - unrefreshing sleep (if I actually get enough)
> - paresthesias
> - irritable bladder
> - RLS
> - IBS (in any normal sense of the term)
> - premenstrual dysphoria
>
> So what do you think? And how can I go about dealing with this, regardless of whether it's FM or not?
>
> Thanks for your help...I'll definitely bring this up with my doctor, but I'd also like to talk more about it with people who've experienced it.
poster:Victoria
thread:5041
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990401/msgs/5365.html