feel so useless

I'm married, i have 6 children, 5 girls 1 boy, their ages are 23,20,16,15,15,12.

Ive been having aches and pains for years, then last year i just couldnt get out of bed, it felt like my whole body was buzzing and on fire, then day came and i had a massive panic attack and was locked in my bathroom crying down the phone to a locum dr he was brilliant, told me i was suffering from severe depression, but wanted to know how i felt, so i explained my symptoms to him, and her recommended a female dr at the practice, who was fantastic, but was leaving, so i was passed on to somebody else, who has eventually become my rock, he never dismisses me as it all being in my head and sent me to see a consultant rhuematologist, who said i had tennis elbow, when i told my gp that, he was livid, so started the pain relief and antidepressants, i missed my next outpatients appointment, and carried on with the medication eventually being put on morphine patches, after discussing with my gp about me possibly having fibromyalgia, he agreed and wrote to my consultant asking him to see me with him confirming my gps diagnosses, i thought id hit the jackpot when i saw a differerent consultant, how wrong was i, i had questions fired at me one after the other, made to do this and that and the other, asked me what i had to be depressed about, and that i did have fibromyalgia,why i had panic attacks, he got the shock of his life as i was leaving in tears and having a major panic attack he called for the nurses to help me and went in his room and shut the door, as long as i live i will never be going back to that rhuematology clinc.

[Lez12]

Sounds like the consultants you saw are the ones who should be feeling useless.

[crissy]

Makes me sick to hear this, report him, he shouldnt be treating anyone like that!

[Hidden]

Thank you for your comments, it does help to read other peoples experiences, but i wonder how many of us dread the question 'how are you feeling today'?, mmm should i give the long or the short version,? wonder if they do have an hour to spare?? lol xx

[jahni]

my consultant told me to just get on with it and learn to cope, my gp has always helped me more by trying different treatments

[Rach1977]

Gosh, I feel so sorry for you. That is awful. Funnily enough a Dr said to my friend who also suffers symptoms of FM, however is being investigated for Lupus, if you didn't have panic attacks and depression it would be out of the ordinary and he would worry that you were psychotic!! So in his opinion what you are going through is normal for chronic pain.

It is such a shame that there is such a variation between Drs. good luck x

[gizzmo]

my first g.p. was useless,he kept saying loads of people have unexplained pain,just go and deal with it,this went on for 18months before i broke in his surgery.luckily for me my husbands aunt who has had fm for 40yrs told me i had fm so i got on the net and started reasearching it.i told the gp about maybe having fm and he asked my husband to print out symptoms as he didnt know about it,at that point i got back on the net and looked for gps who had heard of it and found one not far from me,that was in sept 2010,in feb 2011 i saw a specialistt at st thomas' london who diagnosed fm staight away,he didnt put me through all the pressure points tests and said to me he knew if i had tried to do the tests i would be ill afterwards,i cried as id got the answer to what was wrong,and he has been brilliant along with my gp.i haven't suffered aslong as some but what i and my family have gone through and still are i would not wish on anyone.i now have controlled medication and people around me who do their best,its not great but 1 day at a time

[Hidden]

i'm supposed to be going back in june, think ill pass on that one, i'll stick with my gp, until its absolutely necessery xx

[dolly45]

Why do drs think they know more about the pains in our bodies than us. We live with it daily - they see us for 10 mins max and they either put us down as nutters or tell us we have to live with it. ~ If only they spend 1 hour in our shoes it sure would be different. Gentle Hugs Rubylux

[Diane-B]

hi i am new to this site, I went to my doctors on and off for about 4 years, had blood tests came back ok, I used to work full time, had 2 children, when i got home cooked dinner in evening, when i sat to watch soaps within minutes i was asleep, sitting up, this went on over the 4 years, doctor saying nothing wrong, i know i had busy life but this not normal, i asked to see rheumatologist, only then did i get answers, diagnosed fm, i nearly cried all those years of aches pains, memory problems, not sleeping deeply enough, waking up as if id not sleeped at all. at last i knew what was wrong, Then he refured me back to doctor, I still have to cope myself, my husband went through the same thing , came home ate his tea, and kept dropping off to sleep, i joked and said you sure you not got fm, went to doctors asking to see rheumatologist, he went to a hopital in Derby, what a difference, he has got fibro, and has follow up appointments, My advice keep plugging away till someone listens, huggs to fellow fibro sufferers

[Hidden]

This is awful. I was under a Rheumatolgist and had alot of problems, said I had fibro and put me under the pain clinic where I tired lots of different treatments that didn't help. I went back to him 6 mths later as I lost the use of one of my arms. I couldn't bend it so it just was just hanging by my side. He sent me for scans and X-rays and found no reason for this to happen. By the time I went back to see him my right arm was moving again but left arm had gone. He decided it was tennis elbow but had a another dr there who thought they should open my arms up and have a look to see what was going on which scared me so much. Said wait till next appointment and see if any thing had changed.

Lucky for me I saw another dr on the next appointment who asked me different questions and asked about spasmiums which I had never suffered with.

Dr put me on Becofen till next appointment to see how I got on and my god they worked so thought that was it and there wouldn't be talk of a op but I was wrong when I went back I saw the normal dr who still thought there was more to it and wanted to open my arms up. I didn't know what to do as tablets were working and I was happy. I decided to refuse the op so the dr signed me off said it was all due to fibro and he couldn't help me any more. I've never been back there and stick with my gp who I found was more helpful.

Becareful with the morphine, I was on it for 7 yrs due to fibro and thought it was helping me but I changed so much but didn't know till I went cold turkey. I found it never took the pain away but took the edge off and that was better then nothing but the side effects and the ups and downs were bad but stayed on them thinking I was still better off. I'm nowadays them completely and on different meds and feel I'm Mandy again and my family say I'm alot better in myself. Please don't stay on them long term and end up how I was.

[Betty67]

Don't give up, you are definately not useless, but ask to see a different consultant. Big but gentle hug