Unfortunately, the ignorance in the medical community is not limited to Fibromyalgia. When my GP sent me for a stress test for severe chest pain, I had listed Psoriatic Arthritis, Sjogren's and Raynauds, and the Cardiologist ASKED me if they were autoimmune diseases??? That's right, ASKED ME. I was somewhere between anger and laughter, still not sure which, both perhaps. He did then tell me that they have recently realized that autoimmune affects the heart. My thoughts, NO KIDDING, along with every other organ and cell of the body!! Yes, I also listed Fibromylagia, though I really did not have enough space to list everything.
The Rheumatologist dxed it as Costochondritis http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/costochondritis my GP, said well we already knew this years ago, like when he gave me a shot of Demerol in the sternum area.
Unfortunately we are not patients of a clinic like on 'House' where a team of expert diagnosticians are all working together in one room, at one time, to agree on a diagnosis and treatment, until the correct answer is found, and procedure or treatment is executed. So very much of our limited resources are wasted, like time, energy, patience, health, money, while they ask us questions or discover something we knew years ago.
In some places there is a new hospital, new ER, owned by new people. The medical staff turns constantly, nicely put by them is because of poor management. Makes me not want to ever go to places like those. If good professionals do not wish to work there, I do not wish to go there, did not go with severe chest pain, as it did not feel like my heart. My husband called my GP since I refused to go to the hospital. Of course my husband asked if my arms were numb, I relplied that my arms are always numb, have been for years. (Rheum says that's related to my neck.)
So one of the questions I will have to ask my Rheumatologist is where HE would go if he had to go to the hospital or ER. Baltimore may be his answer. That's 80 miles of traffic laden traveling, so...We'll see!
AS to relating my diagnosis to cancer, well cancer is usually limited to one area, where it destroys living cells, autoimmune knows no bounds, it goes after everything, and we still don't get the response of help, cards, flowers, meals brought in. I have taken Chemo drugs for this, it was ineffective in slowing the disease, but not in making me sicker still. The Rheumatologist did not seem too pleased with the results of the Enbrel, but decided to give it more time, since I have had this a LONG TIME, so most likely we will go to the next disease modifier, to see if those shots will help.
Now on the upside. It now takes only about 7 years to diagnose my primary disease, which is about the same amount of time it took me, before this it was 30 years, and the treatments were limited and pretty ineffective, so as my Rheumatologist goes on to tell me, they really suffered.
The medical community evolves slowly, as research takes time, even with things that show up on blood tests, and x-rays. Who knows how long it will take for the invisible diseases, we can only hope the answer is 'not long'. The market is certainly there for better drugs and treatments.