please tell me what you think

April 29, 2002

Hello everyone, I am glad I have found you

My name is Ana and I am a 26 year old female from

Portugal, Europe. I think I have fibromialgia (I'm

almost sure) but I wasnt " officially " diagnosed yet.

There's only one doctor in Portugal that has been

working with Fibro patients. I had a hard time finding

him and could only schedule an appointment for the end

of May (and because I begged). As you can imagine, I

have been feeling alone and depressed, its hard for

people to understand the symptoms and some doctors

were even rude to me. I am trying to cope but it has

been hard because the pain is terrible and I feel

extremelly tired all the time. I have been reading

everything I can about it on the net and finding this

group really helps too. At this point I cant do much

with my life and people dont understand why. I have

been so bad I cant even shop for groceries or go for a

walk.

I think the people on this list that suffer so much

every day are the real experts so I would like to have

your opinion. Do you think I have fibro?

(its just so hard to wait another month not knowing if

its it ir not and I would just like to have some input

from fibro patients)

My main symptoms are:

-pain all over namelly on my shoulders, back, arms,

hands and fingers, thighs, legs and feet. Sometimes it

feels like flu, others like the muscles are heavy

other times the pain is unbearable

- I feel extremelly tired all the time, feel tired

even when I get up

- Huge sleep disturbances, have a hard time having the

same sleeping schedule all the time, problems falling

asleep and never feels like I rested in my sleep;

- short time memory loss and dificulty concentrating;

-low grade fever that goes away at night,(I dont see

this mentioned a lot, I wonder if some people here

have it)

-need to urinate frequently,

-depression.

Plese tell me what you think.

thank you so much for your time and support

Ana

__________________________________________________

April 29, 2002

Hi Ana,

Sorry to here you feel so poorly right now. I hope this doctor you're

waiting to see helps you. It certainly sounds like you have

fibromyalgia, but without bloodwork to eliminate other diseases, and

a doctor checking you for the tender points charcteristic of this

stupid syndrome, it's hard to say. I wish you luck in your pursuit of

a diagnosis, and in being taken seriously by others, doctors and

friends included. A lot of us have faced rude doctors, and coworkers,

and family members, etc. We are all here for you.

Take care,

April 29, 2002

Hi Ana and welcome. I am 27 and I am also new to the group. Everyone is very

supportive and have an ear when you need to vent. I wanted to welcome you to the

group and I do hope to talk to you again. I need to get my children from school.

---------------------------------

April 30, 2002

You certainly sound as if you may have it. They really have to do the

tests to rule everything else out first before they can absolutely say

that it is fibro causing your problems. Have you checked your tender

points yet to see if you have them? If not, or you don't know what

those are, get on the web and do a search for them. They'll show you a

body with dots where the points should be, and you can get someone to

help you test for them. Have them gently push on those spots to see if

they really hurt when pushed against. If you have the 11 out of 18 (I

think that's the limit), then you probably do have fibro. Good luck and

feel free to ask more questions if you want to.

Darcy

April 30, 2002