A health update

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

Now that the whole emotional mess has been explained, It's time now to update you all on the hell of my physical health.

Have spent the whole of my fall semester being told by every doctor I've seen in NC that I have no problems and that it's all psychosomatic.

All blood tests have been negative. MRI's have been negative. Cat Scans have been Negative

Monday: See Neurologist. Completely blows me off because of psych history tells me he doesn't know what it is but it's not his field.
Tuesday: See Cardiologist. Doesn't blow me off but tells me to see a rheumatologist.
That night: spend night in bathroom. Now know it is a stomach virus as brother now doing the same. Have never been more violently sick in my life. Have lost four pounds in two days. Still not feeling the greatest.
Wednesday: In excruciating pain particularly in my joints. See General Physician. For once he doesn't blow off my problems as stress. Immediately schedules an appointment with Gynocologist? wtf?! because apparently some of the symptoms can be attributed to STD's.

On way to gynocologist car breaks down. Standing out in cold, crying with pain, just wanting some friggin meds. Finally get to the gynocologist. Dr. Florence. She says, what the hell are you doing here? you don't have an std! never the less, I'm put on the examining table, tested for STDs whcih let me tell you is NOT FUN although I'm sure it could be slightly more unpleasant for guys. Crying in pain because of my hips and having to lay on that stupid table. Then she pokes around on my abdomen causing me more pain and starts freaking out about the amount of pain I am in. Have a pelvic ultrasound done. That's negative. Sent over to the hospital to have a CAT scan of my pelvic area and abdomen. Made to drink a full 1000mL of liquid when i can barely keep down a ritz cracker. Drink it, go in to have IV but I can't get it because I've had an allergic reaction to a medication before in which I stopped breathing, so I drank all that crap for nothing. CAT scan done, totally negative. Go back to Dr. Florence. She orders blood work, including and HIV test. wtf?! and wants to talk about exploratory surgery to find out what's going on in my abdoment. Mom freaks out. General Doc won't give me pain meds because he was afraid it would change the results I have with rheumatolofist the next day. Go to sleep at 4:30 that afternoon, exhausted from pain and sleep for 15 hours straight.

Wake up this morning and head to rheumatologist, pain has lessened thankfully. Go in. Explain all my symptoms. Does a bunch of clinical tests. And diagnoses me with fibro myalgia.

So wtf is fibro myalgia? Good questions FMS (fibro myalgia syndrome) is a disease that many doctors don't even recognize as a disease. In fact it wasn't reconized by the WHO until 1993. It is a syndrome in which an individual experiences severe chronic pain for no identifiable reason in various and alternating places on the body. For me it is my joints, although it also manifest itself gastrointestinally and with headaches.
Basically there is nothing wrong in my joints or intestines to make me feel pain. They are perfectly healthy and normal. However, there is something misfiring in my brain that tells my brain that I am in pain and that there is something wrong. Is it in my head? well sort of. But the pain is truly there. Just because there is no reason to have the pain doesn't not mean the neurons are not sending that message. FMS is directly linked with sleep disturbances, something I have been striken with my entire life. I have also been stricken with inexplainable ailments my entire life and been repeatedley told 'it's in my head.' The irony of it being that the saying is not entirely false, although it is hardly a 'made-up' or 'fake' complaint. The cure: None. Not that, such a thing really phases me by now. I will have a mood disorder for my entire life, what's another chronic illness to add to the list? However you can learn to live with FMS and uncontrolled it can be a debilitating disease. The key is good sleep with no disturbances and exercise. If I'm in pain, tired and feeling sick, exercise! If I want to nap, exercise! The pain releases stress hormones which disturb my sleep which cause more pain. Exercise to keep stress minimal and therefor pain minimal. Also a lot of new age stuff is supposed to help. If I wasn't who I was and not the person I am with medicaitons they may have tried me on tricyclics (a class of anti-depressants) however, they don't want to mess around with my psych meds, so they told me to change my life style.

The odd thing is, the symptoms started to really crop up about a month and a half after I hadn't been dancing for several hours a week. I was scared I'd have to give up my dance career, when in fact dance is probably one of the healthiest careers for me. Who would have known?

Not much more to update. Will have the results of lymes and all the std crap within a week. *rolls eyes* If Dr. Florence said it was bogus I am not worried about the results of all that stuff.

Anyway. I should go. I am exhausted and it's been a long day. Just thought I'd let you all know.

~Elyse

Dancing Dreams

A health update