I was speaking with my Primary Care Physician about issues I was having with my fibro and she told me she thinks there is no such things as having Lupus and Fibro because they share too many symptoms. I was very confused when she said this because I have both and do see differences. She also has lupus. My concerned was about people who only have fibro. What’s your thoughts?
Hello
I also have both. I had a doctor many years ago tell me he thought fibro was the beging of other dz and sometimes it turned into things like lupus and some times it didnt. So i wounder how she treats people who dont have other illness. I can tell a difference and i take meds for both.
Lol, rattletired I believe she was referring to the condition. I was explaining to her how sensitive my thighs and feet are feeling like they were on fire. I was in pain all over to the point where it hurt to touch me. With lupus, I have pain in specific areas that hurts such as knees, wrist, ankles and legs, feels like a vice grip is squeezing and won’t let go. I explained to her I was having horrible night sweats (not menopausal or peri menopausal). She then interrupted and said I don’t know why people attribute the symptoms to fibro or lupus when the symptoms are so overlapping that they can’t have two different diagnosis as in this case. I was in such a fog that I did not really question or ask for more clarification as to why she believed this to be true. Maybe she was in a fog.
My grandmother had fibro and lupus.. and rheumatoid arthritis. So I call bull snake to what the PCP said! It's absolutely possible, and I tend to agree with purplebutterfly. There's enough evidence that fibro is either caused by or causes (chicken/egg, who knows?) a very, very horked up endocrine/immune system, so it certainly isn't much of a reach at all that it's possible the fibrobeast has the potential of inviting it's horribuddy lupus along!
I'm certain they're two different things, but when one thing causes the endocrine/immune system to mess up, who knows what else can happen or even cascade from there? Might be genetic predispositions, too (or any number of possibilities, tbh). My mother was diagnosed with fibro when she was about my age, and she's starting to have signs of lupus at 61. I hope she doesn't wind up with that too, but it runs in the family, as does fibro (and a buncha' other yucky stuff!).
The one thing I am certain of here is that yes, fibro absolutely can and very often does co-exist with lupus, and that they're two different illnesses (oh, I guess that's 2 things I'm certain of! Wheee! :)
I have both and I can definitely tell the difference between the two. (Lupus, fibro)
Hi PurpleFav,
I’ve not worked the forums in a good while but members know me well.
I have Lupus, SCE, secondary sjogrens and in total over 10 autoimmune diseases and fully diagnosed with MCTD plus been told there’s no help for me just meds to contain the cell rates and to me there’s no such illness as fibro.
You could have Lupus but it just loves playing with the blood system and it fluctuates the blood giving off false readings, it can show one minute in a blood test and not in another.
Lupus & so called fibro are identical and you can have Lupus i found out from a rheumo with out it showing in the blood.
(Hugs Tez)
I feel for u and anyone who is dealing with both, bad enough w just fibro, my condolences
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I wanted to jump in here. One can clearly have both lupus and fibromyalgia, as you’ve all seen here. Lupus (and other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis) can cause physical damage to the joints and organs. Fibromyalgia can certainly feel damaging, but so far as is understood at this point, is not. Fibro is not treated with disease modifying meds, or biologics, and typically isn’t even treated with NSAIDs. Rather gabapentin or lyrica are used, which quiet the nerve signals.
I hope that helps to clarify things. The overlap of pain can sometimes make it a bit of a diagnostic nightmare, especially if a person is sero-negative (nothing showing in blood).
Sharon from ModSupport
Hey Tez! So glad you’ve dropped by again! Are you on our other communities as well? (Lupus, Sjogrens etc?)
One of the things that’s emerging in the last few years is that Fibro really is a disease, although its causes and the best treatments remain, largely, a question mark. One thing we do know, is that many people who have pain get told they have fibromyalgia when their doc can’t come up with anything better to explain their symptoms. That’s frustrating, and of course delays the real diagnosis. So what else is new?
So glad to see you back. We have had a lot of changes in the appearance of our communities since you were last here. Hope you manage to navigate through it all OK.
Seenie
Now Sjögren’s’ been mentioned twice I’ll chop in that in my case that’s ‘the other one’ which is causing slight dissent between my docs (similar to the dissent above… 
). And wasn’t it here that sjogrensadvocate was recommended? And lo and behold on https://www.sjogrensadvocate.com/newly-diagnosed it says “Some patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia actually have undiagnosed Sjogren’s”. That’s what my centre for rare diseases says. And my 4 clinic rheums said: Who cares? Well I think it depends. The suggestion of Sjögren’s tells me to take my dry mouth and suddenly regularly needy teeth more seriously. Whilst fibro also has dry eyes & dry mouth I never read any warning about that there. The more I understand what things may be underlying (e.g. sicca elsewhere, throat, stomach, gut, bladder), the quicker I can come up with solutions to the single symptoms. E.g. I get the feeling my feverishness is coming from something autoimmune rather than the fibro. If we don’t differentiate much, but just keep saying: Yes, this and that could be fibro, we lose the significance of small differences, which can help get each symptom better. I’m past the stage where I wanted to to know if something might be fibro. I want to know what mechanism in my body is making me feel that way so I can find cures or alleviances. And in that sense knowing it might be or is Sjögren’s is a bit more interesting. What helps against the feverishness is the Wim Hof breath-hold-exercise or a cold shower (or proper cryo). If my psychiatrist is right that the this coldness not only numbs the pain nerves, but also transports autoimmune and inflammatory processes off, then it’s not just a small temporary help, which fogs over, but a really big one, which heals.
Not sure what that would mean for the relationship between lupus and fibro, but Sjögren’s is an eye-opener to me, whether I have it or not.
Tomorrow I’m going to the pre-examination for the Sjögren’s lip biopsy. Seenie, praps I should think about the Sjögrens forum too, thanks for the suggestion…
(Ehm, is it a problem that I’m using the o with the 2 dots above it, can you read that?)