The F-Word

I finally saw the pain specialist about my arthritis today. The news was not particularly good. He thinks I'm having some back problems (knew that) and that the pain in my hip might be mostly due to that. I don't agree with that, because my back is not particularly bad now, but my hip is EVIL and worse when it rains--explain to me how muscle pain gets worse when it rains?

Anyway...

He agreed with me that my PCM is a bit of a dolt (not in so many words) in that she didn't know that a negative rheumatology panel doesn't really rule out related problems. When one is in flare, the tests are positive, but when one is not in flare, you can do a zillion tests, but they won't be positive. A rheumatologist--to which my PCM refused to refer me--would have known that. So that was one of the points he left me with... that I may indeed have something RH related (or Lupus, which also hides when not in flare).

But, he went on to say the f-word. No, not that one.

Fibromyalgia.

Just what I always wanted. Something painful, progressive and incurable! Ye ha! Yeah, yeah, I know, it's treatable. You can cope with it. I don't really want to, truth be told. I am still very disgruntled about being in chronic pain. I'm not frightened, rather, I am pissed. Damn it, I want to be healthy again! I am tired of being sick and fat and achy.

The doc didn't say it WAS fibro, but he tested the pain points and they DO hurt. I think the idea is to treat it with fibro medicines and see if it responds. He gave me a scrip for a Fibro med which I forget the name of. We'll check back in 6 weeks to see if it's working. I have to take the darned stuff 3x/day. Which is going to be a trick since I can't remember to EAT 3x/day. He told me to keep taking the Celebrex, but he was able to set my mind at rest about some of the safety issues I was concerned about.

I wish I was happier about this, but I'm not. It sucks.