My journey with Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia was one of the first diagnosis I received. I was referred to a local rheumatologist, who was lovely, because of the chronic pain and the fact that I would sprain my ankle nearly every single day. As time went on I also developed Costochondritis.

The doctor ran some tests, which came back normal, no surprise there, and concluded it was Fibromyalgia. Unfortunately, she discharged me after putting me on Pregabalin and Amitriptyline with physio and did nothing else. She actually said "rheumatologists don't deal with this......."

People still laugh when I tell them this because who else is supposed to see me exactly?

Now, one thing that really irritates me is because Fibromyalgia has no specialist testing for it, some don't believe it is a condition !!

So what is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a long term chronic pain condition, sensititivy to touch, sounds and light, sleep issues, fatigue and emotional and mental distress, according to the CDC. The cause of fibro is unknown.

Symptoms I experienced:

• Widespread chronic pain

• Touch sensitivity - my skin hurts to itch even slightly

• Fatigue

• IBS

• Sleep problems

Treatments I've tried :

• Amitriptyline

• Pregabalin (to high doses)

• CBT

• Physio (under NHS, never helped as it is not effective for chronic conditions)

• Hydrotherapy (verdict is still out on this as my NHS referral never went through and the one I joined at a local leisure centre was just before lcokdown)

Since I have a lot of other conditions, it can be difficult to figure out which symptom is being caused by which condition. The symptoms listed above were the ones I presented with to the rheumatologist, before I became sick.

Fibromyalgia really needs a lot of awareness, understanding and research because it is so poorly understood. More effective treatment options need to be found as well to better manage the condition.