Were you Happy or Sad at your diagnoses with Fibromyalgia?

I was happy too that finally a doctor recognized that I was not making things up, I had a condition that was not all in my head. Since then I am on permanent disability but not until a year after the diagnosis though, at first they had me on temporary disability so I got a lot less money too.

After nearly 20 years of pain, having a name for it was a relief!

Well, for me, I am one of those who has Muscular aches, and pains, etc. and is still waiting for someone to make a proper diagnosis to what it is, and what I can do for it. It seems like once I was told it was RA, and now no one wants to say this is my problem, and thinks it could be something else, and then some think it is due to my being Diabetic that is most of it, but then they do not have to deal with the constant pain somedays especially if I want to walk much, and sometimes just sitting about kills me as well. So for me, it would make me Happy as well to finally know for sure what it is ailing me as well.

I have to say at the time I was HAPPY! to finally put a name to my illness. I had never been one to complain when I didn't feel well. I continued to work through the pains until I couldn't do it any longer. I kept thinking I was losing it. Doctors kept telling me it was depression, so much so that I started believing it myself. I was on so much medication after I was finally diagnosed that my own family started believing I was becoming addicted to the high doses of medication especially since none of it was helping. It was actually making things worse. I was diagnosed 4 years ago. I still hear people say they've never heard of it. I try to explain it and constantly get the response it's all in my head and I should just get out and exercise and I would feel better. No one knows until they go through the pain and comments the agony we all go through who have Fibromyalgia. I still haven't found a doctor who is sympathetic to this illness. Just take this and you will feel better. More meds, more meds, more, more, more. I've given up on doctors and started treating myself. Yes that has helped more than any doctor has. So as of today putting a name to my illness has not made it any easier. I was actually told by a nurse that it isn't an illness it is simply symptoms that needed a name and that's why it was given a name. The frustration has never ended even with a diagnosis.

I was happy and sad with my diagnosis. I finally got a formal dx in September of 2008. I have been trying to get answers since 1999. So, while I don't want to have fibro, I am happy to finally have a name for it and get the proper treatment so that I can at least try and live a half-way normal life.

I suffer from other conditions besides Fibromyalgia. I was put through so many test because they thought that the new problems were related to the other even though they shouldn't. When they decided that these new problems weren't they sent me to a rheumatologist. I did have the RH factor but not high enough to be causing this affect. Luckily they also had a doctor who specialized in fibro. It was a relief to know that there was something wrong and like others said, I wasn't going crazy. So I added this to the list. It is hard because others don't understand. My other problems show physically but not the fibro. My family has come to some understanding but sometimes I feel like I live it alone. I have been dealing with chronic pain now for 17 years. I have come to deal with it but this too welds a double sword. If your not miserable they forget your still in pain. Things have gotten better and I am in a better space today.

ya,even i would like to know what the diagnosis is than to be kept in the dark.it is really agonising ,not to know what the problem is.it is always better to have a name.good luck.

If you were depending on ignorant doctors, I can imagine it would be a great relief to know for sure what the problem was. I've never been officially diagnosed, and my experiences with doctors previous to coming down with a lot of mysterious symptoms told me not to bother with trying to get a diagnosis. This was almost thirty years ago, and much more is known about fibro now. That doesn't mean that all doctors are educated about it, unfortunately, so you're lucky to have finally found one. I spent years thinking that I had a terrible disease that would eventual kill me, and just resigned myself to it. Then, when I got on the internet, I heard about fibro and started doing research. Since I had all the symptoms, it was no problem to diagnose myself. Over the years, much more has been learned, and I find more problems that are explained by fibro. I was grateful to find out that it wasn't fatal, but there's never been anything to make it less painful and discouraging. It does seem to get worse as I get older, but I've learned to work around it as much as possible. Maybe they'll come up with a cure in your lifetime. I certainly hope so.

Hi Moon, I'd have to say it was a double ended feeling. I had been so sick for 2 yrs and nobody could find anything wrong with me. I thought I was going crazy. I had done so many searches online for an answer and kept coming up with things that were close but none that I could point to and say, that's the one. I used to do a lot of sculpting with polymer clay and had joined a forum of other polymer clay enthusiasts. One night there was an open chat in the forum's chat room and I went to check it out. There was about 10 women in there having a great time joking around. One woman asked another woman how she's been feeling lately. The other woman started talking about this thing called Fibromyalgia. I had never heard of it and someone else asked what it was and what the symptoms were. She went on to explain in great detail and the more she typed the more my heart raced. Everything she said was like... THAT'S ME! By the time she got done I was in tears. It had to be the same thing I had, everything was a perfect match. So I got online again and looked up Fibro on every site I could find plus a couple of forums where I could talk to people who had already been dealing with it for years. One of the forum admins e-mailed me a common symptom checklist and a medical diagnostic criteria checklist. After reading through all the info I had no doubts that I finally had a name for why I felt so miserable. So I took my medical history and both lists I had been given online and went to a new doctor. He read thru everything I had, did a huge battery of tests and told me to come back in a week. When I went back he did the tender point test on me and said he agreed with my diagnosis. Honestly it was such a combination of emotions. Total elation that I finally had a name for it and could now deal with what that meant. Terrifying fear that this was now my life, it wasn't going to get any better and now had to deal with what that meant.

I was neither at the time because I really had no idea what it was. Now two days ago I got diagnosed with arthritis and I was depressed all day. You see with the Fibromyalgia, I had always told myself that "at least it isn't arthritis". And now it is. Guess I'd better not go around saying, "at least it's not MS." I might jinx myself. lol But yeah, knowledge is power. How can you deal with something when you don't know what it is?

I was in the midst of the worst of my depression when they finally diagnosed me with fibro. All i can remember thinking is great i have another problem and there is nothing they can really do about it. I was already on one of the popular antidepressants user to treat fibro, so all they did was up the dose of it. What made it worse is that i loved to work, i always have to be doing something, but there was nothing i could do because every time i tried to work, my arms or legs would swell up.