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40 Posts
Hi everyone,
I had my first rheumy apointment, (had been diagnosed by dermo already for discoid lupus of scalp.) and wanted to let you know how I got on.
The dermo was a very nice young lady and I feel I was blessed!
She asked me why I was there I explained the painfull joints on and off for numerous years. She manipulated each joint and naturally enough I had no pain in any of them except finger.
Told her about recurrent anemia, she said women our age get that a lot if we have heavy pre menapause periods.
Told her about mouth sores and fatigue.
After checking out my joints she asked me to explain exactly where the pain that I felt was, then she started to prod my muscles and tissues and that is when the penny dropped. My neck, shoulders, upper arms, lower arms, upper chest, thighs, lower legs, and ankles were all very tender and sore to touch.
She asked me about sleep, told her it it was very disturbed due to pain.
I also cant bear anybody giving me any sort of nudge or elbowing me.
So she reckons it fibromyalgia, I am not surprised, I have read a good bit about it on this site and already had suspected that it might be so. She has prescribed Tramadol for the pain and sugested a mild sedative? which I declined for the moment.
She very kindly read out my blood tests which had been done in January by dermo. Kidney and liver function fine, cholestrol and glucose fine and iron levels back to normal after taking iron. I have a positive ANA and elevated ESR ( think she said 40, Im stupid I didnt jot it down.) She wanted to repeat ESR but I have a viral infection and she sugested it would be better to wait until its gone. So I will go in later and do it, She requested a blood test (for muscle function, cant remember the name, and blood test to check the thyroid again, am underactive on meds. so we need to see if pain could be caused by this.
Got blood pressure checked, fine, and had x-rays on feet and hands done.
I asked her if she thought that the lupus could be systemic, she said that with the list of symptoms it could be but we had far to go yet!
I was there for almost three hours, and really felt well looked after, not rushed, and felt very happy with the outcome of my first visit, even if I now have fibromyalgia, at least I now know what it is and can start to treat it. She did stress the importance of exercise,. She gave me a voltarol gel for my poor finger also. Next apointment 6 months. Have a dermo apointment in a week anyway so will think of more questions to torment them with.
Overall I came out very happy, I understand that it is a long process and a bit of a mystery so I have the patients as long as I dont get any worse.
Thanks for listening and for the support that you all give.
Hugs to you all,
Primrose
osy:
I had my first rheumy apointment, (had been diagnosed by dermo already for discoid lupus of scalp.) and wanted to let you know how I got on.
The dermo was a very nice young lady and I feel I was blessed!
She asked me why I was there I explained the painfull joints on and off for numerous years. She manipulated each joint and naturally enough I had no pain in any of them except finger.
Told her about recurrent anemia, she said women our age get that a lot if we have heavy pre menapause periods.
Told her about mouth sores and fatigue.
After checking out my joints she asked me to explain exactly where the pain that I felt was, then she started to prod my muscles and tissues and that is when the penny dropped. My neck, shoulders, upper arms, lower arms, upper chest, thighs, lower legs, and ankles were all very tender and sore to touch.
She asked me about sleep, told her it it was very disturbed due to pain.
I also cant bear anybody giving me any sort of nudge or elbowing me.
So she reckons it fibromyalgia, I am not surprised, I have read a good bit about it on this site and already had suspected that it might be so. She has prescribed Tramadol for the pain and sugested a mild sedative? which I declined for the moment.
She very kindly read out my blood tests which had been done in January by dermo. Kidney and liver function fine, cholestrol and glucose fine and iron levels back to normal after taking iron. I have a positive ANA and elevated ESR ( think she said 40, Im stupid I didnt jot it down.) She wanted to repeat ESR but I have a viral infection and she sugested it would be better to wait until its gone. So I will go in later and do it, She requested a blood test (for muscle function, cant remember the name, and blood test to check the thyroid again, am underactive on meds. so we need to see if pain could be caused by this.
Got blood pressure checked, fine, and had x-rays on feet and hands done.
I asked her if she thought that the lupus could be systemic, she said that with the list of symptoms it could be but we had far to go yet!
I was there for almost three hours, and really felt well looked after, not rushed, and felt very happy with the outcome of my first visit, even if I now have fibromyalgia, at least I now know what it is and can start to treat it. She did stress the importance of exercise,. She gave me a voltarol gel for my poor finger also. Next apointment 6 months. Have a dermo apointment in a week anyway so will think of more questions to torment them with.
Overall I came out very happy, I understand that it is a long process and a bit of a mystery so I have the patients as long as I dont get any worse.
Thanks for listening and for the support that you all give.
Hugs to you all,
Primrose
osy:
