I also had a hard time being diagnosed, my family physician said you have been complaining about this since you were in your teens. I told him then shouldn't you have tried to find out why.

I was diagnosed with IBS when I was about 23 by a specialist who was trying to find out why I kept passing out, turns out I had an ear infection that I did not notice (I get a lot) and my inner ear was out of whack.

I live in Canada, and have been on some trials including a Botox one and have yet to find relief. It is progressively getting worse. However, I do not have to work any longer, it was a nightmare for me as well. I have a lot of other things wrong as well, and after much fighting did get granted LTD from my insurance company and I had 7 doctors backing me up(my GP and 6 specialists in different fields)and with the same amount of difficulty got CPP disability (like your Social Security). Every year they review with my doctor's to try and get me off of them but my doctor's keep saying I can't work. If you are in bad enough shape maybe you could try and stop working.

Do you have any of the other syndromes like IBS that often meld in with fibro? If so maybe getting treated for some of them may help. Once I switched doctors the doctor I started seeing referred me to a sleep specialist, and am being treated for a number of sleep disorders, and this doctor felt I had either fibro or myafacial pain syndrome (I have both) and he referred me to a rheumatologist and a physiatrist who diagnosed these and other problems, put me in the trial, and started me on other treatments. Now I am getting worse, much more pain and more frequent but for a while I was having more good days. Also I have started perimenopause and this may be causing some of my additional problems. So it's worth looking into.

In Canada MT Dew does not have caffeine, all clear drinks such as 7Up etc. are not allowed to have it. If you live anywhere near a Canadian border maybe you could try it. Yes some of it is lifestyle changes need to be made, but I only noticed a slight improvement with those. Getting stretched by a chiropractor, not adjusted, sometimes helps for a few days, massage also used to help me for a few days but my registered massage therapist moved away, and my insurance only covers registered ones, I tried another one but she left me in terrible pain. My chiropractor said only some massage therapists take training in fibro it isn't required training so I'm still looking for a new one.

Hi Yvonne ~

I use electro accupuncture for arthritis & fibromyalgia and rarely take meds for pain now. A handheld "Stimplus" made by Body Clock works great for pain and helps "chase it down" to other sites. When you use it on a painful spot sometimes it will "echo" in another place & I move to there for a few minutes. With the small wire & earpiece to hear the tone change, you can use this at work, anywhere, without drawing undue attention. As I understand it fibro is exacerbated by stress but does it really matter if it is coming from our heads first? The pain is real enough to make me want to scream sometimes. In my case there was physical, mental & emotional trauma & the body retains memories of that. One thing I refuse to do is to "own" the disease and the labels the docs gave me. For instance, I will say I was diagnosed with PTSD, arthritis, and Fibromyalgia, not "I have" whatever. I figure even if docs say it can't be cured I can still be the first as long as I don't become too attached to it. I've found a good therapist helps too. When we are happy we tend to have less pain. Same goes for getting involved in various projects that require concentration such as reading, writing, painting, music, crafts that help to take the mind off the pain. Right now I'm having fun with a cracked rib too but Stimplus is helping that. Please check it out. I think it will help many people. Mine is close to 10 years old & button is starting to stick so is time to order another one. At around $100. it is worth every penny & can save tons on prescriptions. Good luck, and may you all have a wonderful pain free day. Peace ~ Golanv

I'm Katherine, I was diagnosed with Fibro sort of against my will. I sought a second opinion - i didn't mention Fibro to either Rhuemotologist - at the time i didn't know much about it or belive in it - i cried on my way home from the dr. because i thought he was calling me a hypochondriac eventhough that's not what she and he said. Once i accepted it, it's only been around 9 months since diagnosis, i started looking up about it and was surprised at all the symptoms i had. What troubles me the most is my arms and upper body - it feels bruised all the time - My legs don't hurt at all but my hips are very painful. If i don't take the neurotin regularly i can feel the difference. I have other diagnosis's. I know it's something to do with pain sensory - my body thinks sensations are painful. I'm also extremely ticklish, are you? I have intense headaches every day - i'm not happy with my pain medications as i almost think they make it worse but it's hard not to take them when i'm thinking the pain is just going to get worse.

Hello to all fellow sufferers, I was diagnosed in the 2003. My story began with a fall from a table. I fell hard on a linoleum floor at my floral shop. A few months passed after the fall with no symptoms. Around May of 2003 I noticed I was having trouble focusing. I was a wedding florist and my memory and creativeness began to fog. I also noticed my legs feeling heavier and heavier. Stairs started to become harder to climb and there was a feeling of swelling in that bone at the base of your neck in the back. I kept reaching back there thinking it was swollen and yet nothing. The mental fog grew worse. I could not remember numbers at all. Credit card numbers were hard to remember just to write them down. I started really struggling to get through a day. Someone would leave a voice mail and I could not remember how to retrieve it. This brought tears of frustration. I could no longer multi task at all. If I was driving to work, I could only do that, not stop on the way there or back. It took everything just to do the one thing of driving to work. Within a short time I simply stopped. I woke up one day and could not get out of bed. I just lay there with zero ability to get up. I could stagger to the bathroom, then back to bed. This went on for about 5 days. That's how long it took me to gain enough energy to go to the doctors office. I told my doctor it took me 5 days in bed to get there. They tested and tested. And found nothing. I went home bewildered. I stayed home for about a month. Resting. Closed my business and just basically stopped. If my son wanted a glass of milk, he might just have well asked me to move the house 3 feet, both would take the same amount of effort. I was scared, hurting and downing about a dozen Ibuprofen a day. I would even take Tylenol with them, like candy trying to stop this pain. It would sometimes take me 3 hot baths before noon just to get clear headed and relaxed enough to get up. Clearly I was very ill and clearly I was on my own. I was also running a bed and breakfast at the time and desperately tried to continue. Luckily, it was a slow season due to wildfires. My other son was getting married in August of 2003 and I was worried about being able to attend and function. I went to the book store and started looking for answers. I found a fibro book and started reading. I was convinced I had MS so I looked for answers there also. In the fibro book I read about the possible pain and muscle relaxers, and decided I needed flexoril. I highlighted in pink all my symptoms and the drugs I wanted then took the book and my aching body back to the doctor. He took a look and said wait a minute.He brought in his PA and she spent about 1 hour with me asking me questions and examining me. She was awesome. One question that convinced us both is did I have severe leg pain -"growing pains" as a child. YES, and I could remember crying over the pain. Question 2- was I taking in or handling a lot of phosphates? YES, I am a florist! I was processing fresh flowers every week, my hands were green with the plant material. My body was filled to the brim with phosphates, she mapped me and diagnosed me with fibro. I was put on guafenisen and started that protocol. For 3 or 4 days I felt like a truck ran over me and my urine stream was twice as much as normal. I was flushing out the phosphates for sure. I began to feel less tight, less lumpy. And maybe a bit better except for the severe lower back pain. To sum this up, I stayed on the guai therapy 1 year. Closed my floral company, sold my Bed & Breakfast and looked for work to do from my home. That's another story, I can share later. Still I had severe pain in my lower back and it took a couple of years and trials with meds to discover that for me, Cymbalta was the solution to ending the pain. It blocked my pain receptors and today I have about a level 3 of pain compared to a level 6 before the Cymbalta. I still have flairs and fall is the worst time for me when the weather is turning cold. I do not handle stress well or trying to do too many things at once. I do one thing at a time and only if I am able. I hope this intro to my experiences helps others. This is not a mental illness, it is a real illness that is very painful and frustrating. But it is something you can learn to function with, I say function because really, life will never again be like it was before fibro. But it can still be good and it could be a lot worse if we had something else. So we just have to do our best to make lemonade with our lemons. Cheri

Thanks Cheri - that was very helpful information for me. God Bless.

Please find a post on 'Polymyalgia', written by Evah.

wow i lust joined and already i've found a nich. when i was undiagnosed i went from dr. to dr. trying to get relief from a pain that had no name. Now that i've been diagnosed w/ FM.i'm trying to get relief from a pain that has a name.I don't tell any one because guys ain't supposed to have fibromyalgia.