Ishla
04-24-2007, 12:56 PM
Hi All,
I have a long winded request of all of you. You don't know me, and I don't know any of you, especially because I am new to this forum, but I have learned so much about all of you just from reading posts that I really feel a kinship with you all.
I am going to see my Doc in June for my regularly scheduled blood tests and status. I am a diagnosed hypothyroid patient. I started going to the doctor about 5 years ago for unusual pains, very low energy, and unusual weight gain. That doctor was and still is a friend, but I fired him because he just wouldn't listen to me, and when I arrived one day with a list of my symtoms that "to me" verified that I was indeed hypothyroid (especially an obvious goiter) and requested treatment with hormones, he basically told me that he was the doctor, as so many do. The tests that he had performed up until that point showed my levels as "normal", so he of course new what was best, even though I was misserable and crying to him litterally and figuratively for help.
A friend recomended me to her long time family physician, an OB and general practitioner who has so far listened intently, and performed very broad spectrum blood tests and is currently treating me with synthroid, 175 mc a day. He also perscribed Effexor among a list of about 8 other drugs to control a slightly high blood pressure, very high cholestrol, high blood sugar and triglyceride (sp), and treatments for COPD. I feel like a pharmacy, but I still hurt horribly, and the pain meds... tylenol 3, wooo hooo, is loosing its potency for me. At the time he sent me home with the Effexor, he had briefly mentioned FMS, but it didn't click for me. He is not all that knowledgable about FMS, but seems to be open minded about it.
Iv'e been seeing this doctor about a year now, and like him very much, but I need some advice about how to inform him without distancing him about what I want.
I think I have FMS, but before I can push for a diagnosis, I need to know if Im right, or if I'm doomed to many more years of limbo.
Here's what's going on... about 25 years ago, I began noticing fatigue and lots of flu-like aches and pains, but nothing really major. I am blessed with being a possible DES baby, and have had reproductive problems all my life because of it. I started mensus at age 11, and within 2 years, began having very heavy periods. By 17, my periods were so long and heavy that I was only having about 2 weeks a month blood and pain free, and I was anemic. At 18, I had ovarian cysts. At 19, became pregnant, (finally, took 2 years of determined trying) and gave birth to a premie ( oh, he's a wonderful boy, but some other time for that story), and while trying for a second child, ended up having an etopic that ruptured at the 13 week point. Up until recently, I blamed everything on a prolapsed uterus, because a year after the etopic, I had a hysterectomy (at 27) for a severe prolapse ( my cervix was so low that it was actually hanging out) Over the next 20 years, I saw my energy levels slowly dropping, and attributed it to aging, until 6 years ago. I started having hip pain. Sometimes severe, then lower back pain. Then my feet quit on me. It felt like I was walking barefoot over one of those expanded metal door matts used to scrape mud off boots. It is a burning pain, intermixed with what feels like stone bruises that come and go intermitantly. I had to quit work because I got to the point that I couldn't stand for more that 15 or 20 minutes on those awful feet. Today, I feel more energy because of the synthroid, but I still suffer horribly from pain.... especially when a LOW pressure system comes toward us. It puts me down so hard that all I can do is curl into a fetal position and cry.
What am I suppose to do?
I have a long winded request of all of you. You don't know me, and I don't know any of you, especially because I am new to this forum, but I have learned so much about all of you just from reading posts that I really feel a kinship with you all.
I am going to see my Doc in June for my regularly scheduled blood tests and status. I am a diagnosed hypothyroid patient. I started going to the doctor about 5 years ago for unusual pains, very low energy, and unusual weight gain. That doctor was and still is a friend, but I fired him because he just wouldn't listen to me, and when I arrived one day with a list of my symtoms that "to me" verified that I was indeed hypothyroid (especially an obvious goiter) and requested treatment with hormones, he basically told me that he was the doctor, as so many do. The tests that he had performed up until that point showed my levels as "normal", so he of course new what was best, even though I was misserable and crying to him litterally and figuratively for help.
A friend recomended me to her long time family physician, an OB and general practitioner who has so far listened intently, and performed very broad spectrum blood tests and is currently treating me with synthroid, 175 mc a day. He also perscribed Effexor among a list of about 8 other drugs to control a slightly high blood pressure, very high cholestrol, high blood sugar and triglyceride (sp), and treatments for COPD. I feel like a pharmacy, but I still hurt horribly, and the pain meds... tylenol 3, wooo hooo, is loosing its potency for me. At the time he sent me home with the Effexor, he had briefly mentioned FMS, but it didn't click for me. He is not all that knowledgable about FMS, but seems to be open minded about it.
Iv'e been seeing this doctor about a year now, and like him very much, but I need some advice about how to inform him without distancing him about what I want.
I think I have FMS, but before I can push for a diagnosis, I need to know if Im right, or if I'm doomed to many more years of limbo.
Here's what's going on... about 25 years ago, I began noticing fatigue and lots of flu-like aches and pains, but nothing really major. I am blessed with being a possible DES baby, and have had reproductive problems all my life because of it. I started mensus at age 11, and within 2 years, began having very heavy periods. By 17, my periods were so long and heavy that I was only having about 2 weeks a month blood and pain free, and I was anemic. At 18, I had ovarian cysts. At 19, became pregnant, (finally, took 2 years of determined trying) and gave birth to a premie ( oh, he's a wonderful boy, but some other time for that story), and while trying for a second child, ended up having an etopic that ruptured at the 13 week point. Up until recently, I blamed everything on a prolapsed uterus, because a year after the etopic, I had a hysterectomy (at 27) for a severe prolapse ( my cervix was so low that it was actually hanging out) Over the next 20 years, I saw my energy levels slowly dropping, and attributed it to aging, until 6 years ago. I started having hip pain. Sometimes severe, then lower back pain. Then my feet quit on me. It felt like I was walking barefoot over one of those expanded metal door matts used to scrape mud off boots. It is a burning pain, intermixed with what feels like stone bruises that come and go intermitantly. I had to quit work because I got to the point that I couldn't stand for more that 15 or 20 minutes on those awful feet. Today, I feel more energy because of the synthroid, but I still suffer horribly from pain.... especially when a LOW pressure system comes toward us. It puts me down so hard that all I can do is curl into a fetal position and cry.
What am I suppose to do?