Hi everyone. I'm new to this board, tho I've been lurking for a while. I suspect that I might have fibromyalgia for many reasons. In a nutshell, I am in constant pain, some days I feel as if I can't move my legs (kind of like they are incased in concrete), and many other symptoms to long to list which I've read in other people's posts.

It seemed to have started for me when I had a very bad fall about 3 years ago which really messed up my left ankle. The injury took a year to heal fully and during that time period I suffered with severe swelling and pain almost on a daily basis. Things snowballed from there in many ways; other illnesses, major life stresses to personal to relate here, 9/11 (I work in NYC and was quite traumitized by the event for a long time), my gallbladder was removed, several rounds of fertility treatments, death in the family, blah, blah, blah!

I began experiencing bouts of excrutiating pain in my arms and hips, for no apparent cause. One night, I woke up to use the bathroom and basically crumbled to the floor the pain in my hip was so intense. I spent about 3 months barely being able to walk. Several months of my left arm so painful and incapacitated that I was practically in tears all day long. I'm sure many of you can relate.

I'd been seeing doctors trying to figure out what exactly is going on. My primary care physician was puzzled and hasn't been much help in being aggressive about helping me find out.

I was sent to a hand specialist for the pain and numbness. Nothing showed up. My orthopedist was totally useless in every respect. I finally dumped him and found another, who thankfully was more proactive. He sent me for lyme and arthritis testing (and some others I can't remember). Everything came back negative, hips ok, knees ok, arms ok. However an MRI found I had congenital narrowing of my spinal column at the lumbar sacral area, along with a small herniated disk and bone spur. He also was a bit puzzled tho, because it didn't seem that this problem should be the cause of the enormous amount of pain I was in but admitted it could be or; it could be something else entirely.

And of course, being such a slug because of being in pain, I've gained quite a bit of weight which I know isn't helping matters either :(

He put me on a regiment of arthrotec 50mg 2x daily plus 300 mg of neurontin at bedtime. This seemed to help a lot but I still have periods when it seems the problem flares up inspite of the meds. He was the only doctor I saw that seemed to take me seriously and did suggest I followup with other types of doctors and therapies to see if anything else was at play, which brings me to my question (sorry I was so long-winded getting to it :) )

I know many doctors do not believe in this particular disease/syndrome. I am not sure what type of doctor to followup with, so I guess I'd like to know what kind of doctors people here are using. I also have found that many doctors (my primary care especially) seem very resistant to prescribing medications that may help other than anti-inflammataries. Also, if anyone is in either NJ or NY, and uses someone they can recommend, that would be great!

All I know is I've been feeling miserable for years now and find it difficult some days to do everything I need to do. I try not to stress out about it but you know, life does intrude and things do have to be done eventually. I work fulltime (thankfully, as it turns out, no kids or I don't know how I'd be coping). My husband has health issues of his own so it isn't like either of us can pick up the slack for each other to much.

Thanks for reading/listening and any help you can give me.
Laurie