Doc Martin

[ailsamary]

Oh my word, have just heard them mention polymyalgia on Doc Martin, shame he gave the age as 70 rather than the over 50 that it first manifests itself. Also told his aunt to she needed to slow down , and she said it was treatable

at least its being mentioned

[Lou1064]

I think Polymyalgia is a different condition to Fibromyalgia, I'm no medic by the way xx

[panda60 in reply to Lou1064]

It is. My mother and sister both have it and it is treatable by steroids.

[ailsamary in reply to Lou1064]

yes i know it is different and was diagnosed with both, but they both come under the rheumatologist and the general heading of arthritis, and sometimes they are confused with each other. It is the fact that it was mentioned in a mainstream programme and treated as something real. Both have nondescript joint pains, severe fatigue and it is just so good that they were treating it as a real illness.

Its a start

[Shadows-walker in reply to ailsamary]

Indeed it is ,and it wasn't on house 😊

[TheAuthor]

I am so genuinely sorry to read that you have been diagnosed with both and I want to sincerely wish you all the best of luck.

All my hopes and dreams for you

Ken

[TwinklingStar]

Yes Polymyalgia has been a recognised condition for many decades. It is always unfortunate and devastating for patients that the medical professions take so long to recognise supposedly "new" conditions - often many decades! It's not that long ago that people with Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis and Epilepsy were dumped into Psychiatric Hospitals!

This is an interesting article regarding the history of Polymyalgia:

rheumatology.oxfordjournals...

I hope you find this informative.

Love and hope to you.

from Twinkling Star

XXxxxx

[ailsamary in reply to TwinklingStar]

thank you, yes that was interesting, i always thought fibro had been around the longer though under other names such as fibrositis.

i often wonder what people from a few centuries ago would make if they were catapulted into now. I remember a great aunt languishing in hospital for months, and my granny always used to bemoan the fact that my grandad wouldve survived nowadays with his heart disease - again i think he was in hospital for a very long time.

The advances made in the past century have been astounding to say the least and in someways thanks to the wars where all lot of emergency medicine had to think on its feet. And before anyone mentions florence nightengale, she actually had an abnormally high infection rate, i cant remember why. Although its where the practise of the pillow case ends being turned away from the door - it was to stop sand geting in them

[Shazzzy]

My gp used to call my joint pain polymyalgia as something to name it until I got my diagnosis.

[ailsamary in reply to Shazzzy]

Well in a sense that is right myalgia does mean muscle pain not dependent on a specific cause, and given its full title polymyalgia rheumatica, this could be the difference.