My Fibromyalgia Story

The past 8 months have been a living nightmare. I have been in constant pain, I'm now at risk of losing my job and my confidence and mood are plummeting rapidly. Why? Read on.

For years I have been tired and not just the usual sleepy feeling; I'm physically drained all the time...even after 14 hours of sleep!! My GP has always put it down to my Mental Health condition and the medication I'm on for that.

I noticed around 4 years ago that my hips didn't feel right. They ached and occasionally it would feel like the femoral head had come out of its socket along with there being absolutely no muscle strength there.

Not long after starting my job 2 years ago, I was having trouble walking to and from my car to the buildings I work in (around 1/4 of a mile), as my ankles would cease up. Completely lock up, no movement in them at all, just a huge amount of pain. My GP didn't really think anything of it and sent me for physiotherapy on my ankles and was certain that my ligaments around my hips were inflamed.

Fast forward 6 months. I returned from my holiday to Florida with a severe blocked nose and didn't think too much of it (even after 8 weeks!!). Turns out that the above and this were my warning signs.

I'd completed physio no better or worse off, just a few hours of my life I was never getting back. But at least I tried!!

When I returned to work after my holiday, there were a few issues with machinery and things we were being forced to do which were really pushing our allocated appointment slots. 

I began to get excruciating pain in my back when bending to clean our equipment and it soon started to radiate into my hips. Again I thought nothing of it as I was bending down (to floor level) 75+ times a day and my stress was through the roof.

My GP prescribed me Co-codamol and Naproxen and I self certified for a week off work to rest my back and recover. 

I began to feel better after a few days however there was still a constant dull ache in my hips.

The day I was supposed to return to work, I woke with a shoulder I could barely move and a hip I couldn't put weight on. I soldiered into work and arranged to see my GP again that day.
Fortunately my new GP took my symptoms much more seriously than I was. She arranged for blood tests to be taken and ordered me to take a further 2 weeks off work.

My blood tests all came back normal with a slight raise in my inflammatory marker. I went for a further blood test a week later to see if anything had changed. It hadn't.
At this point, the pain in my body was spreading rapidly. It was in almost all of my joints.

I was referred to Rheumatology for an early arthritis consultation. Fortunately for me, my waiting time was 4 weeks from referral to appointment instead of the 17 week waiting time I was told!!

The Rheumatologist was brilliant. I had written down everything that had been happening in the past few months and symptoms I had noticed years prior (fibro fog is a real struggle especially at times I feel anxious).
I had a quick physical check over which lasted only a few minutes and that was it.

My rheumatologist conditionally diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia as I had pain in 13 out of the 18 pressure points. He arranged 2 ultrasounds and an MRI to rule out anything else that could be causing my pain and other symptoms before he would confirm his diagnosis.

My scans came through very quickly (perks of working in Radiology!!) and although I shouldn't, I checked my own results which fortunately came back all normal. Due to this, my Rheumatologist diagnosed me with the F word, Fibromyalgia.

I was discharged from rheumatology there and then, with only a referral to physiotherapy and the same meds I had been on for a few months prior to this consultation. 

I feel abandoned. I've been told I have to learn to deal with this on my own (in a professional healthcare kind of way). I am in pain daily, my memory is going rapidly downhill and I am becoming more and more depressed. My first Physio appointment isn't too far off so that's keeping me slightly more positive. I'm one of the lucky ones who has got a diagnosis very quickly; the average diagnosis of Fibromyalgia is 3-5 years!! This is a condition most haven't heard of until they're diagnosed or somebody you know is diagnosed; I'd never heard of it in my 24 years, but boy do I know about it now.

This is my diagnosis story.  I will continue to keep you all updated with my quest of "managing to cope with my fibromyalgia demon".