Newly diagnosed with Fibromyalgia

Hi to all the dedicated healthy page readers,[sm=wave.gif]

I will sum up in short the scenario to bring you up to speed otherwise it would take me ages....[sm=sleep.gif]
At 15 (whilst going through the final year of school) I went on a french trip and returned VERY ill with Pneumonia. I actually believed I was on my way out and needless to say spent about ten weeks very ill and recouperating. I managed to sit my exams but due to missing so much school didn't achieve the A grades proposed for me. I then went on to college but found I would very easily tire, get brain fog and feel unable to muster any enthusiasm for things. I worked my butt off to pass college with distinctions and gained my first job in the travel industry. I held this job for all of six weeks then bam.....as a bolt out of the blue one day I was just unable to get out of bed. I couldn't stop sleeping and weeping and feeling poo! My boyfriend ( who is now hubbie) had to help me to do almost everything.
I had an almost constant headache and generally felt off colour with an oppressive need to doze. I went to the doctor. He ruled I was depressed. I suppose I did look down but who wouldn't but through no amount of explanation got nowhere. I saw doctor number two who ruled the headaches were migraines. I didn't agree as I know a vast number of people who suffer from migraines and none of them had a headache from hell everyday. I was sent to a psychiatrist as the doctors felt that I was opposed to their theories and making symptoms up due to normal blood tests etc. I had even paid private by then to investigate the heads with MRI scans and neurological examinations. All ruled inconclusive.[sm=banghead.gif]

I repeatedly got the symptoms for about a year then they got better enough for me to go back to work but I still suffered occasionally. I held down a job in the DSS for approx 1 1/2 years until the symptoms returned. At this point I was placed onto benefit and kindly pentioned off as I was unable to work again at 21yrs!! Later that year I got married and we moved to Hampshire. There I encountered a very sympathetic GP who was a homeopath aswell and she diagnosed M.E.

I was so thrilled that I actually had a diagnosis. I jogged along but the symptoms had spates of getting better and worse. The heads were something I learned to live with. I then after 2 yrs went into a partial remmission. We moved back to essex, bought a house and had a baby. The house was an endless stress and the pregnancy encumbered pre-eclampsia!! Needless to say the symptoms returned as I was so stressed and with a new born I was exhausted.

I am now 2 yrs down the line and finally my daughter sleeps through the night! However, for the last year I have encountered variuos new symptoms ie. numb toes and fingers, increased headaches, pain in all of my joints, painful peiods, bloating, restlessness and irritability etc. My painkillers (prescibed for my hip condition and arthritis) were doing nothing and finally at the end of my tether I went to the GP begging for help! I am only 32 and for nearly 17 yrs now on and off have lived with pain and symptoms. I demanded that something be done as all tests were normal and I was beginning to think I was going mad!

Finally a new GP suggested I read a leaflet he printed out about Fibrmyalgia. "This seems to fit you down to a tee" he said "do you agree?". Needless to say I did. He has placed me on Amitryptyline 25mg 3 times a day. I have been on these now for 5 weeks. I do actually know what a headache free day feels like again and the symptoms have improved but not all of them have gone. He is considering upping the meds for a while. I am just so thrilled to find I have a diagnosis as he believes I have had this from day one due to ME and Fibro being very near the same.[sm=jump1.gif]