Fibromyalgia: An Invisible Disease? An Imaginary Illness?

Fibromyalgia: An Invisible Disease? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

I try not to be a complainer, but last week I was seriously not feeling well. I actually resorted to sending a message to the other women in my community to ask for help (and I’ve never done that before).

I thought I would take tonight’s post to talk about what was wrong with me last week, because I know many women are suffering with the same problem.

The good news is, I finally found a doctor in Florida that believes in my diagnosis. I was only changing doctors because I needed someone closer, I had long since given up on finding a doctor that actually understood or had compassion for my condition. So, you can imaging my shock when I went in for my initial appointment, and the doctor told me that not only did he understand what was wrong with me, but he wrote the book, literally. Can you believe it? What are the chances of that happening? I have to admit, my first thought was…This guy can not be from Florida.

And I was right.

But who cares, he’s here now, and he’s my doctor.

Yippee!

Well, not so fast.

The bad news is, he found something else wrong with me. I know, just my luck. Other doctors had told me, that because I have a lot of joint pain, I “probably” had Fibromyagia in addition to CFS. But I had never been “officially” diagnosed. And I’m beginning to wish I never was.

I made the mistake of questioning the doctor on his Fibromyalgia diagnosis. I should have known better, but I really didn’t want to be diagnosed with another “imaginary” disease. Let’s face it, having one “invisible” disease is more than enough for anyone. I didn’t want to be diagnosed with another disease that people don’t even believe exists. After ten years, I’ve gotten to hate having to either pretend I am perfectly fine, or explain why I’m not but still look like I am.

But this doctor wasn’t going to let me off the hook. He was determined to prove to me that I had Fibromyalgia. So he began to touch what is known as the “tender” points, all eighteen of them. [Let me just add one thing here...The person who developed this lovely diagnostic technique, OBVIOUSLY didn't have Fibromyalgia. Let me put it to you this way - Is a jalapeño pepper "mild"? Is a migraine "uncomfortable"? Maybe if you've never had a jalapeño pepper or a migraine.] I had to admit, the “tender” points were hurting me. And if that doctor touched any of them, even one more time, I would have kicked him in his “tender” point.

So, all of this happened on Friday, March 7th – By the next morning, the pain was radiating from all of these so-called “tender” points and throughout my entire body. I felt horrible, everything hurt me. And I didn’t start feeling better until almost a week later. Don’t get me wrong, I really am happy that I found a doctor that doesn’t treat me like a nut case with a disease that isn’t real…I just could have lived without knowing that my random joint pain was really Fibromyalgia.

It would be so much better if these dammed “invisible” diseases, didn’t have “actual” symptoms.

Also See:

But You Don’t Look Sick

Attitude Is Everything

Lindsey – Living With Fibromyalgia

Sandy – Fighting Fatigue

This Time – This Space

My personal blog – Living With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
CatherineBlogs, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog