Mrs Laudanum : “Dr, I am sure my Fibromyalgia is causing my headaches. I need something stronger for the pain!”
Dr Pons (Neurosurgeon): ” Nah. Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis given to people that can’t handle reality”.
21
Jun
Mrs Laudanum : “Dr, I am sure my Fibromyalgia is causing my headaches. I need something stronger for the pain!”
Dr Pons (Neurosurgeon): ” Nah. Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis given to people that can’t handle reality”.
what a dick.
I know exactly one person diagnosed with Fibromyalgia who rarely misses work (certainly no more than the average person would), rarely complains about it and keeps active. But I know more than 1 person with Fibromyalgia … your patient sounds exactly like those people. Fibromyalgia is the reason they can’t work, can’t run their own errands and clean their own homes … but it magically goes away when it’s time to do something enjoyable.
I’m sure it is a real affliction for some people … but others are malingerers or junkies who have found a diagnosis. They do a disservice to people who are actually suffering.
Some years ago, I met a friend to play tennis. (I hadn’t seen her for a long time.)
Parking was terrible in the area so I had to walk some distance. She popped out of her car right at the courts. How’d you find a space so close? I asked. Turned out she had a handicapped parking permit because of her chronic fatigue syndrome.
I’m afraid that made me very skeptical of CFS claims.
Couldn’t agree more with the neurosurgeon.
Because it’s often diagnosed by ‘ruling everything else out’, I think Fibromyalgia has become the catch-all disease for some combination of “I’m tired of dealing with this patient” and/or “I’ve run every test I can think of and I’m not sure what’s going on” combined with people who are overstressed and tired from this bizarre world we live in, with a side dish of those who look up symptoms on the internet and know exactly what to complain about.
I’m sure there really are people out there with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and the like. But, call me cynical, I don’t believe the majority of the diagnoses are correct. Sometimes it’s the doctor, sometimes it’s the patient, sometimes it’s both, and sometimes it is real.
Just to weigh in. I have been dx with Fibro. That was 16-17 years ago. I was never satistified with the dx and treatment plans and long story short; I stopped going to the dr for it and stopped complaining.
While my comfort level waxes and wanes I can tell you these things…
1) My treatment plan was ‘exercise’. With our families schedule and where we live – I need a hour and a half to exercise for 1/2 hour. I don’t have that time.
2) I identify with the housework comment. I work full time to keep the house. I come home sore and exhausted (but if I’d just exercise that wouldn’t happen?) I then get to pick what gets done. Dinner for sure / dishes maybe. Major, health-related cleaning, yes. Wall and windows? Are you nuts?
3) I am stubborn enough to work thru pain. I delivered two kids w/o any pain meds and was refusing them with a lodged gall stone. I am tough. I will work thru it for my job, for my kids, and to save face. My pride won’t let me fail in front of you – but then I am done when you aren’t looking. I may be doing something stupid, but that doesn’t make me weak or a liar.
4) I’m frustrated too. I have been working with this, I’ve been a leader to your campers, taught games and crafts, sat a meetings w/o moving, driven for hours (always leaving me sore) and yes, parking in normal parking. All while keeping it quiet, private and together. Then, I see someone who is looking rather chipper, getting out of the HC parking spot, who is on disability for the same dx and I want to cry! Are they really any different than I am?
The answer comes back to the fact I avoid the drs. In part because I don’t believe that my symptoms are as bad as I portray them, But also because I am not willing to give up blocks of time I can spend supporting my family in the evenings to exercise and that is the first thing I am told to do.
In other words, the attitude that I can fix this myself and that I must be drug seeking (instead of solution seeking) took away the hope years ago.
But, if you’d like to come clean my walls and vaccuum behind the furniture – come on over. I’ll feed you! The dining room table is a mess, but I’ll still cook and the kitchen is clean.
Dr. Pons apparently sucks at continuing education, because according to the Mayo Clinic, Fibromyalgia is very, very real.
I have chronic fatigue too….it’s called 4 kids and working 50hours a week. ;)