by Chelsea Padget

Created on: September 20, 2008   Last Updated: November 28, 2011

I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 1997, before the physicians knew that it was fibromyalgia. Back then it was called Myoitis, myalgia and chronic pain syndrome.

There was no way to diagnose Fibromyalgia back in 1997. The only way to get a diagnosis was to rule out everything else. And...to rule out everything else involves a lot of tests.  So, therefore I was poked and prodded for two years. Some of the tests they did back then were: Bone Scan, CT scan of the head, Electrophoresis and Stress test among many others.

When all the tests came back normal, and I was still taking 4000mg of Tylenol a day, my physician referred me to a pain specialist. The first thing the pain specialist did was take me off the Tylenol and put me on Vicodin 5/500, twice a day. That helped a lot at that time. He also put me in Physical Therapy to get some strength training and pain management. I was taken off therapy after one year because I wasn't progressing, in fact the strength training was making me worse.

The symptoms continued to get worse. My pain level increased. There were days when I couldn't get out of bed because of pain. Although the pain is the worst symptoms of Fibromyalgia, in my opinion, the other symptoms couldn't be ignored. Confusion, blurred and spotted vision, Gastrointestinal problems, severe headaches and fatigue all worked together to keep me down and off work.

As the testing continued, there were some that had come back positive and were just making matters worse. My physician found that the pain going from my back down my right leg was sciatica, as shown on one of the nerve conduction tests. The pain in my neck and lumbar spine were found to be caused from herniated disks. Some of my stomach pain was caused from a large lump on my left ovary, which was later removed by way of an oopherectomy (removal of an ovary). 

Over the course of the year 1997 until 2005, I had been diagnosed not only with Fibromyalgia, but also with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Sciatica, two herniated disks and chronic Bursitis in my right hip. I also developed, as a part of Fibromyalgia,  restless leg syndrome, insomnia, urinary incontinence, constipation, and sleep disturbances (nightmares).

I had more extensive test done as they became available and was found to have peroneal nerve disease, severe osteoporosis, Irritable bowel syndrome, chronic urinary tract infections and yeast infections. My right hip was so bad that when x-rays were taken, it was found

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