Dee74
03-31-2006, 10:07 AM
Hi guys. I've never posted on this board before, but I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few years back and in the past, I had posted on the Fibromyalgia board a few times. I will try my hardest to keep this as short as possible!
A quick history - Alot of pain in my legs.. it started as what felt like muscle pain, but is now mostly joint pain and what I would describe as a toothache type of feeling in my shins and also in my arms from my elbows down to the fingertips - It's not constant pain, but it's happening off and on everyday now. I also have extreme tiredness off and on.. it's not an everyday thing, though. Chronic nerve pain in both arms, but that's most likely coming from my neck since I have one severely degenerated disc. Rash on my upper body for the last year.. one doc said it was a heat rash, one doc said a fungus type of thing, but no meds we have tried have helped. I know there's tons I'm forgetting, but we'll just start there.
I've never had an abnormal CBC other than low platelets. This has been going on for 2 years, about 2 years after I became "sick". They're typically around 120-ish. So, not extremely low. I was sent to a hematologist who diagnosed me with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia and sent me on my way.
Fast forward to two weeks ago.. My new doc sent me for another CBC. She didn't tell me the values with that test, but just said that everything on the CBC was abnormally low. She figured it had to be a mistake at the lab - be it the sample was mishandled or contaminated in some way. So, we did another CBC. Everything but the white cell count and platelets went back up a bit just to a normal range. My white cell count is still down from my normal 7.2-ish to 3.2 and platelets are at 110.
The thing that I'm concerned about is that the one CBC that everything was abnormal on, was the very first time that we'd been able to time my bloodwork on a day that I felt like absolute hell.. a day that I would normally consider a "bad fibro flare day". It hurt like crazy to even walk and I was highly fatigued. Those days happen at least 4 or 5 times a month. A few times, my docs have been concerned about possible Lupus, but all of the ANA tests have been negative.
So, I'm being sent back to my old hematologist, but I wanted to know your thoughts on all of this.. Is it possible that I don't have Fibromyalgia at all and something else has been causing my pain all these years?
I'm pretty worried now that my counts are all lowering.
A quick history - Alot of pain in my legs.. it started as what felt like muscle pain, but is now mostly joint pain and what I would describe as a toothache type of feeling in my shins and also in my arms from my elbows down to the fingertips - It's not constant pain, but it's happening off and on everyday now. I also have extreme tiredness off and on.. it's not an everyday thing, though. Chronic nerve pain in both arms, but that's most likely coming from my neck since I have one severely degenerated disc. Rash on my upper body for the last year.. one doc said it was a heat rash, one doc said a fungus type of thing, but no meds we have tried have helped. I know there's tons I'm forgetting, but we'll just start there.
I've never had an abnormal CBC other than low platelets. This has been going on for 2 years, about 2 years after I became "sick". They're typically around 120-ish. So, not extremely low. I was sent to a hematologist who diagnosed me with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia and sent me on my way.
Fast forward to two weeks ago.. My new doc sent me for another CBC. She didn't tell me the values with that test, but just said that everything on the CBC was abnormally low. She figured it had to be a mistake at the lab - be it the sample was mishandled or contaminated in some way. So, we did another CBC. Everything but the white cell count and platelets went back up a bit just to a normal range. My white cell count is still down from my normal 7.2-ish to 3.2 and platelets are at 110.
The thing that I'm concerned about is that the one CBC that everything was abnormal on, was the very first time that we'd been able to time my bloodwork on a day that I felt like absolute hell.. a day that I would normally consider a "bad fibro flare day". It hurt like crazy to even walk and I was highly fatigued. Those days happen at least 4 or 5 times a month. A few times, my docs have been concerned about possible Lupus, but all of the ANA tests have been negative.
So, I'm being sent back to my old hematologist, but I wanted to know your thoughts on all of this.. Is it possible that I don't have Fibromyalgia at all and something else has been causing my pain all these years?
I'm pretty worried now that my counts are all lowering.