I am so happy with all the posts and all the caring and information you have all shared with me.
Really I cannot thank you enough. Have a wonderful evening all of you. I have some homework to do. My husband is coming with me but I have asked him to just be there to listen and not react to anything I tell the doc. I do not complain about all of it at home cause they have seen enough of it. I really try to remain positive as I feel this is better for my mood and especially for my family. Big Warm Hugs to all of you. You are all Angels to me right now and hopefully I can be there to help someone else after I go thru this.. Night all Sweet Dreams Lisa
By the way, Lisa, I almost forgot to tell you that I love my Rheumatologist! He also teaches (Asst Univ Professor), but there is NO EGO, he is the most humble, gentle, well mannered man I have ever had as a Dr, and he has changed my life for the better, and I have a fabulous Internist and Chrirpractor! He is my second Rheumatologist, the first one, told me nothing, my Internist and I knew better, since an autoimmune disease had already showed on my bloodwork. Hopefully you will find yours first try. So glad you are taking your husband for the first visit, it is a very wise idea!
Hi, Lisa. I hope your visit goes well. The insurance will or should be taken care of by the front desk person when you sign in. She or He will ask you for your insurance card then will process it. She'll let you know if you have a co-pay and they'll have you fill out some paper work. Arrive about 20 minutes before your appt. to allow time to fill it out. Some of it will be for insurance purposes and some will be a medical history and various other medical questions such as what meds you take, your height,weight, symptoms you're currently having, surgeries you've had etc.... Once your paper work is filled out, they'll take you back to a room. A medical asst. will do your vitals and take your weight. Hopefully then you'll have a great visit with a good Doc. My Rheumatologist is a male and he's so gentle and sweet. He understands how much pain his patients are in and he feels my joints while we are talking and he just takes his time and handles me with kid gloves. I actually enjoy the gentleness and caring he gives me, he's just amazing! I hope your visit goes the same way. Just tell the Doc about everything that hurts. He or she will or should give you a thorough exam of your joints and or muscles. With fibro, it's muscular in nature so the Doctor will press on the 13 (I think it's 13) different sensitive points in the body that cause alot of pain when pressed, that signals the Doc you have fibro. They are spread out on different parts of the body, both front and back. They are so experienced at diagnosing this, it should be easy! So good luck! Take care.
Since I posted, you have been given some terrific advice. I keep a Word document that is full of advice, prayers, interesting things I have read/been told/learned about through my travels with FM, etc., and I have added more than a few updates from this topic thread alone. I hope you do not find this overwhelming and that the advice is hitting near home. I know it is a lot of info but trust me, it is invaluable and very, very good stuff.
One thing I want to add about my rheumy. He is the seventh Rheumy I've seen for FM and I've been seeing him exclusively for more than a decade. When I think back to the key reasons I think there are two that stick out. First, he is a problem solver. There are no failures in treatments. He tried me on a particular muscle relaxer and I got hives. Rather than complain because that would have been the best muscle relaxer for me, he simply looked at it as an opportunity to try another one at a higher dose, which allows him to reduce the dose of sleeping meds, etc., Much of treating fibro, whether you are a doctor or the patient is having a willingness to be flexible and patient.
Personally, I think the second reason he is the best doctor I've ever had is that he is an optimist. I'll often go in feeling like crap and he goes into mama bear mode, coming up with a course of action and a plan of follow-up. But he always, ALWAYS leaves me feeling better about myself and my situation. I don't care how I come in there. Two appointments ago, I was so raw emotionally, that he came in, said hello and asked how I was doing. I started to answer and immediately started bawling like a baby. He quickly grabbed a tissue, handed it to me,let me honk my horn and wipe my eyes before telling me that "you know that everything is going to get better from here, right? Let's figure out how we can make you feel better, okay?"
The next time I need to look for a rheumy (my current rheumy has twenty years on me and had a very close brush with death recently), I will interview each one to find out if they possess, at a minimum, these two qualities.
Aloha. To tell you the truth, this is such a complex illness, it takes more than one doc to figure it out and then help you with your pain. I went from my Internist & she sent me to the Bone & Joint doc, who then sent me to a Rheumy, who then sent me to a Chronic Pain doc who is weaning me off Viicadin & now he wants me to see a Phycologist to help me. What the … If u know what I mean! So yes the Rheumy will give you meds until he can’t anymore; Im talking about narcotic drugs, then off you go to a therapist. If I had to do it all over again I would go to a Holistic doc which is what I’m going to start doing now; they really try to find out the root of your problem; it probably takes longer this way but its up to you, if you want to get meds try not to get narcotics because you will always need more & more to the point where they cannot prescribe anymore for you. The first time you go to your Rheumy he willl take the standard point test for fibro then he will probably give you Cymbalta, Savella or Lyrica, those are the 3 meds they usually start out with. Hopefully, this will help with your pain. Also, try do do an exercise that is not too hard on you; it should feel better, not worse. I suggest a heated pool. Ok that’s my two cents worth. Good luck & keep us posted!