I went to a hospital doc yesterday for help with my UCTD ( maybe fibro I thought). He was no help at all, apart from taking more blood. But I was interested in what you think about his statement. I asked him if I could have fibro and he said " No, your ESR is 13, which is normal, so you can't have fibro". What do you think?
I went to two of the top doctors in their field in Chicago. Listed in two magazines as being tops in their fields. One was a Rheumatologist and the other a Neurologist. Rheum said I don't don't have Fibro and the Neuro says I do. Had blood tests and I assume ESR was one of the tests I had. Rheum says I did not have the tender points of Fibro patients and Neuro says pressure point test is nonsense. So who do I believe. I'd tell you to get a second opinion, but I've gotten 5 opinions so far without pinpointing the cause of my problem. I've yet to hear of any test that would confirm Fibro.
The ESR is not a difinitive test. A high ESR indicates inflamation. I'm guessing your doc's logic is that if your ESR is normal you do not have inflamation : therefore you don't have Fibro. The problem seems to be that there is no sure test for the problem.
Probably some doc's still don't believe it's real. I don't know if I have Fibro but I do have RLS. Since I could not sleep and was always tired my doc is starting there. Once I can consistantly sleep, we will see what symptoms are still there. RLS is one of the problems that there was no answer for, but there are meds that help.There is criteria to make a diagnosis. Hopefully my symptoms will lead to some help. I don't have the required amount of trigger points to make a diagnosisof Fibro.
The Neuro told me biopsies have been taken by researchers of patients with suspected Fibro and the tissue shows no signs of inflamation. Even though people complain it feels like it and the pain is simular to someone with arthrites. Tissue samples were taken at the height of a Fibro attack. This is why he doesn't believe in pressure points. Theory is Fibro is a chemical imbalance between Adrenelin and Seretonin. Thus the sleep problems, not enough seretonin being produced by the body and not being stored properly. Adreniline not being used properly. Of all the reasons for the cause of Fibro, this makes sense to me. So who knows.
The Neuro told me biopsies have been taken by researchers of patients with suspected Fibro and the tissue shows no signs of inflamation. Even though people complain it feels like it and the pain is simular to someone with arthrites. Tissue samples were taken at the height of a Fibro attack. This is why he doesn't believe in pressure points. Theory is Fibro is a chemical imbalance between Adrenelin and Seretonin. Thus the sleep problems, not enough seretonin being produced by the body and not being stored properly. Adreniline not being used properly. Of all the reasons for the cause of Fibro, this makes sense to me. So who knows.
I find this very interesting. I have noticed going through perimenopause that this is a signficant problem regarding the adrenaline and the seretonin in my body. I have had a very soar neck upon awakening, soar back, although I had a car accident, it's hard to relate or put it all together here. But I can go back before the car accident and see that there were times I had problems with my immune system, fatigue, body pain especially with change of weather. Pains in the joints, etc. Now I have the muscle tremors in my hands and the muscle spasms. Went through the insomnia part, still have that occasionally. I need to figure this out. What good doctors are available in Chicago for detecting if you have FM? I'm currently taking a low dosage of Prozac, 10mg. I split it in half and take 5mg. It is helping. Wasn't depressed just anxious. I wish these jerks in my fingers would stop. It drives me crazy to type lately.
I bought Chicago Magazine and there was a list of top doctors in there. I and they didn't help me much at all. The one guy was $250 for 1st visit and $125 after that. I stopped going to him also. He gave me Ambien to sleep and Lexapro. One was to produce seretonin and Lexapro was to save it. Lexapro made made stomach sick. Tried Zoloft also. Yeah, they numb the pain, but they also numbed my brain. Couldn't take walking around in a daze.
As crazy as this sounds, I bought HGH off the internet along with DHEA. My Fibro symptoms have decreased greatly from it. Been on it about 6 weeks now. I still can't sleep so I take either Xanax or Atavin to sleep. Pzizer and another drug company are suppose to come out with a Fibro drug. I also found that Tramadol works better than Vicadin for my symptoms. I read that Tramadol for what ever reason targets the symptoms of Fibro better than other drugs.
