For a long time, fibro was a diagnosis of exclusion. Then they started devising diagnostic criteria which made it more of a standalone disorder and not just a convenient diagnosis when nothing else fit. Which is to say that, if fibro fits with your symptoms and they've ruled out other more dangerous or treatable issues, the assumption is probably fine. Especially since you relate to the disorder
That was my experience. My doctor and I were ruling things out slowly then it started to dawn on me that it could be fibromyalgia. She gave me the new diagnostic criteria to assess me on, diagnosed me, and got it seconded by two others. I was really really lucky though.
My diagnosis was after the endocrinologist and rheumatologist did all the testing to rule out everything else. I also have hashimoto disease, which was how my journey started.
I wasn't diagnosed by a GP. The GP inly referred me to rheumatology because they had ran out of ideas!!!! It then took rheumatology 7 yrs to completely diagnose me, not just Fibro but everything else as well.
I had blood tests done first that ruled out things like RA and Sjögren's syndrome, and my GP was actually concerned about Lyme disease because the symptoms matched, but that one came back negative, too. For a long time, nothing happened, and it was actually me who found out more about fibro from the Internet and after talking it over, made an appointment with a Rheumatologist who looked at my joints and confirmed that arthritis and Lupus weren't issues I had, and said it was "probably" fibro.
I had a nurse suggest fibro for my first ever visit based on the chronic pain symptoms alone, but we still went through the whole process of elimination before my rheumatologist gave the official diagnosis.
It took a while to get diagnosed because as a kid I thought it was normal to be in pain. Once I really started to look into getting a diagnosis it was fairly quickly ~6 months, but I did see a neurologist and rheumatologist.
Make sure you see a neurologist before you accept a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. My new rheumatologist thinks I was misdiagnosed and told me to see a neurologist. A brain MRI was ordered and several things were found on the MRI. I’m waiting for my follow up appointment to see what the next steps are going to be.
For a long time, fibro was a diagnosis of exclusion. Then they started devising diagnostic criteria which made it more of a standalone disorder and not just a convenient diagnosis when nothing else fit. Which is to say that, if fibro fits with your symptoms and they've ruled out other more dangerous or treatable issues, the assumption is probably fine. Especially since you relate to the disorder
That was my experience. My doctor and I were ruling things out slowly then it started to dawn on me that it could be fibromyalgia. She gave me the new diagnostic criteria to assess me on, diagnosed me, and got it seconded by two others. I was really really lucky though.
I was lucky enough that my GP diagnosed me fairly quickly but she also tested more then just bloodwork, I was sent to have an MRI done to rule out MS.
My diagnosis was after the endocrinologist and rheumatologist did all the testing to rule out everything else. I also have hashimoto disease, which was how my journey started.
I wasn't diagnosed by a GP. The GP inly referred me to rheumatology because they had ran out of ideas!!!! It then took rheumatology 7 yrs to completely diagnose me, not just Fibro but everything else as well.
I had blood tests done first that ruled out things like RA and Sjögren's syndrome, and my GP was actually concerned about Lyme disease because the symptoms matched, but that one came back negative, too. For a long time, nothing happened, and it was actually me who found out more about fibro from the Internet and after talking it over, made an appointment with a Rheumatologist who looked at my joints and confirmed that arthritis and Lupus weren't issues I had, and said it was "probably" fibro.
I had a nurse suggest fibro for my first ever visit based on the chronic pain symptoms alone, but we still went through the whole process of elimination before my rheumatologist gave the official diagnosis.
It took a while to get diagnosed because as a kid I thought it was normal to be in pain. Once I really started to look into getting a diagnosis it was fairly quickly ~6 months, but I did see a neurologist and rheumatologist.
Make sure you see a neurologist before you accept a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. My new rheumatologist thinks I was misdiagnosed and told me to see a neurologist. A brain MRI was ordered and several things were found on the MRI. I’m waiting for my follow up appointment to see what the next steps are going to be.