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Why is Fibromyalgia So Hard to Diagnose?

fibromyalgia graphicFibromyalgia is a complex, chronic health problem. Its chief symptoms are pain or tenderness, especially a tenderness or soreness that is made worse when touched. Fibromyalgia is also indicated when fatigue, poor sleep, memory and cognition issues (often called “Fibro-Fog”) and severe moods are present.

Other symptoms can include headaches (tension and migraine), digestive issues, pelvic pain, jaw or face pain as well as depression and anxiety.

Fibromyalgia can be tricky to diagnose.

Typically, patients who experience fibromyalgia have symptoms that can have multiple causes. To make things even trickier, there is no fibromyalgia test.  Frequently, diagnostic tests will be ordered to ensure that other diseases or injuries are not the cause of the symptoms. These could include x-rays and scans such as MRI and CT scans.

In addition, there is not even a single “cause” of fibromyalgia. It has not been found in gene studies, but it may run in families. For many patients, there are triggers to fibromyalgia. These can include injuries or other diseases, or even stress. For other patients, there appear to be no significant triggers.

Doctors will ask you where you are feeling pain, will ask you to describe the pain’s intensity and will often touch or palpate parts of your body to see how your body responds to slight pressure and touching. Doctors will also want to know how long you have been experiencing the major symptoms (pain, fatigue, mood disorders and cognitive issues); typically a 3 months’ duration is necessary before a fibromyalgia diagnosis can be reached.

Fibromyalgia pain needs to occur on both the left side and the right side of the body and should also not be isolated to one small area.

Physicians have to rule out a whole host of other diseases before definitively diagnosing fibromyalgia. As a result, many physicians are still hesitant to diagnose fibromyalgia.

Filed Under: Diseases That Cause Pain Tagged With: diagnosing fibromyalgia

Aches and Pains? Is It Fibromyalgia?

painFibromyalgia is a disorder whose chief symptom is pain, the kind of pain that is called musculoskeletal pain (in the muscles, bones and joints).

The other significant symptoms of Fibromyalgia are intense fatigue, difficulty sleeping, problems with memory and severe moods (either swinging between highs and lows or even a vague depression).

Fibromyalgia is a very complicated disorder. Sometimes it evidences itself after a physical or emotional trauma, sometimes it shows up after a medical procedure, and sometimes there appears to be no “trigger”.

You could be at risk for Fibromyalgia if you have rheumatic diseases. Fibromyalgia is more prevalent in women.

Diagnosing Fibromyalgia:

Fibromyalgia can be tricky to diagnose. In general, fibromyalgia will be suspected if you experience pain, often in the form of a dull ache, pain that does not go away for at least three months. The pain needs to be experienced in multiple locations, on both the left and right sides of the body and both above and below the waist.

Treating Fibromyalgia:

At Michigan Spine and Pain, we are aware that Fibromyalgia treatment must be individualized. We cannot eradicate Fibromyalgia, but we can work together to try to keep the symptoms at bay through therapies, medication and maintaining a good level of general health, through proper diet, exercise and restorative sleep schedules.

Medication can be as simple as over the counter pain relievers, prescription pain relievers, certain anti-depressants, medication to aid in sleeping better or certain anti-seizure medication. All of these substances need to be monitored and part of regular conversation between you and your health care provider, so we can be sure that the medication is effective and is not creating other unwanted side effects.

Medication and healthy life style maintenance are two parts of the puzzle. Often times, other interventions can be quite helpful, too, including psychological counseling to find strategies to decrease stress, physical therapy to learn gentle stretching exercises that can help, acupuncture and massage therapy.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: diagnosing fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia, fibromyalgia treatment

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Mount Pleasant, Michigan
2480 W. Campus Dr., Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858

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