Re: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

trinlay <trin1066@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> I was working for years, paying in a huge chunk out of my paycheck
> for Insurance.  I kept being told, "you are a single mother with a
> small child, OF course you feel run down" (never mind that my family
> was also involved with raising my child, I had more support from
> them than I had from my husband when I was still married to him! ) ,
> Or "We can't find anything wrong with you, you should just quick
> slacking and stop looking for reasons to get off of work...."

> Later my abcessed appendix went off.  No one had, in the whole time
> I'd been complaining of fatigue and gut pain, ran a white count.
> My body had built a wall around the appendix, and I'd been walking
> around with the infection for YEARS before I ended up in emergency
> surgery.  No one had run a thyroid test, or a white count.... no one
> checked for lyme, or arthritis...

Thanks.  Each time I read a story like yours, I feel better about not
having insurance, as it appears I'm not missing much.

> Even after I recovered from the appendix I never really got better, I
> would have episodes (often for months at a time) of severe fatigue,
> muscle stiffness & chronic pain.  I kept working paying a WAD for
> Health Insurance.  At one point my flare up was so bad I lost my
> job. ... I was too sick to drive myself to work, I couldn't turn my
> head or raise my arms from the pain, i was CONFUSED all the time.  I
> ended up on Medical Assistance... they sent me to one of their doctors.

> In a few weeks she ran a LOT of tests, ruled out some things, but
> finally got me a diagnosis.  Even though the Dx is Fibromyalgia and
> Chronic fatigue, (and depression caused by the other two), at least
> it's NOT MS.... it's NOT cancer...

Unfortunately, Fibromyalgia and CFS aren't useful diagnoses.  They
appear to be fancy ways of saying they can't make a diagnosis and have
little idea whether you will get better or how your condition should
be treated.

> She tested and found my iron and vit D levels were scarily
> low.... (despite eating healthy and getting out in the sun when I
> could.) and put me on supplements.

Now those are real diagnoses.  However, unless you have a freakish
diet, they shouldn't have just given you iron, they should have tried
to figure out where the iron already in your diet was going.  Maybe
you're bleeding internally.

> ... if they'd said "You know, right now we can't find anything
> wrong, but lets stay on top of this until we can pin down the
> problem." ...

That's what your doctor now should be saying, instead of diagnosing
you with FMS or Fibro.
-- 
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
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