Did My Rheum Diagnose Fibro Too Fast?
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in April this year, after spending the last two and a half years having unexplainable pains, tiredness, and an overall feeling of being unwell that comes and goes seemingly at random.
It took most of that time to convince my doctor to have me looked at by a rheumatologist after multiple rounds of physical therapy to address specific pains and use of over-the-counter painkillers did little to nothing to help me.
Before I was sent, I had my ANA tested and it was put at 1:1280, which finally gave her reason to send me to a specialist.
I was seen exactly once by the rheumatologist, who pressed on what he called pressure points to see if they caused me pain and pretty much all of them did cause intense pain. I also had blood drawn and tested to search for anything out of the ordinary, but all the tests came back normal and my ANA had gone down to 1:640.
I also had both of my hands and feet x-rayed for the first time ever, with none of the x-rays showing any damage or degeneration, so they said that ruled out arthritis.
After that singular appointment, the rheumatologist said I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and all treatment will be done by my PCP, the same one who'd sent me there to begin with.
Since then, it feels like my joint pains have been getting worse at an alarming rate. My fingers, wrists, and ankles are stiff and painful more often now and it's become harder to grip things. I've tried the muscle relaxers my PCP prescribed but it feels like they just mask the problem and make me even more sleepy.
I just can't help wondering if a single rheum appointment like that is truly enough to diagnose fibromyalgia, or if the fact that I've had two and a half years of unexplainable issues while all tests come back 'normal' besides the ANA is really enough, because I see people here say it took them years and years to finally get a fibromyalgia diagnosis.
Do I have reason to believe they didn't test me enough for other things if all the basic blood tests and x-rays didn't find something jumping out to investigate further? I don't have the insurance or the ability to travel to where other specialists are to ask for another opinion (I was lucky I could even get seen by this rheum the one time) so I'm wondering if there were more tests they could have done besides blood tests and pushing on my pressure points that I should push to have done after the fact.