Advice please - Could I have fibro?

Hi all,

I'm sorry if this has been covered 1000's of times before, but I could spend hours reading threads to get answers & everybody has their own symptoms.

I've been in pain with my lower back since Dec 2015. It came on all of a sudden & was intense pain. I would literally take very strong painkillers & be on the sofa asleep for most of the day. Although I have always had to be careful with my back because doing things like lifting have always irritated it, it has never been like this before.

I had to take 4 & 1/2 months of work whilst I worked on trying to get to a point where I could manage the pain.

In this time I was diagnosed with diverticulosis. I was also diagnosed as having quite bad lordosis & also hypermobility. I also have IBS.

I also had the test to see if I had endometriosis because I've also got symptoms which suggested that could have been an issue & there is a big family history with women's problems with my Mum. I don't.

My Mum also has slipped discs.

I saw NHS physio's, private physio's, I had acupuncture.

The physio's just gave me exercises to do. The NHS physio basically said that if I reduce my stress (I'm a secondary school teacher - very stressful job) eat better & exercise more, everything will be fine.

Well, in the time I was off, I was doing yoga/stretches for around an hour a day as well as taking pain relief (co-codomol) & although it helped the pain, I was still in pain every day. I wasn't anywhere near as stressed as I wasn't at work & I was eating better because I had the time to eat better (cook from scratch etc.)

So, where I am now....

I was at a steady point with the pain, still in pain every day, still taking co-codomol every day, but managing it. The pain has also moved to my mid back (where the shoulder blades are).

A few weeks ago we had Ofsted in. Doing 2 * 15 hour days on 4 hours sleep (plus still working the rest of the week), plus the increased stress has now meant that I've got terrible pain in my neck. When I say neck it is actually the bone where the neck/spine meet.

I've been off work for 2 weeks, but need to go back on Mon.

I had an MRI scan on Mon, so need to wait another week for the results to come back.

I've also had injections in my back (I could only have anaesthetic because I had a chest infection at the time & he wouldn't inject the steroids) which made it worse.

I've also been paying to have weekly alternative therapy since Oct ish. He's done electro-acupuncture, a technique similar to cupping & manipulative massage therapy. It gives short term relief, but hasn't really made much difference.

He thinks that there is inflammation on my actual spine. My spine is also incredibly painful to touch with very little pressure in certain places.

I am knackered all the time, given the chance I'll sleep for 10+ hours, I also get the brain fog that has been mentioned as a symptom of fibro.

I have issues with anxiety, all around work. In particular, I'm now stressing big time that they'll try & make me redundant because of my attendance.

The alternative therapist that I see thinks that I have fibromyalgia, but in the words of one of the Doctor's at the practice "I'm not interested in what he thinks, he isn't a Doctor."

Very helpful!

I really had to push to get the MRI scan, but after a year enough was enough. I'm also going to push to get referred to a rheumatologist ASAP.

Things that help are the painkillers, heat & doing my exercises/stretches & I use an actipatch at work (similar to a TENS machine.) This is just for my back. For my neck I'm using heat patches & have been taking naproxen & I was given diazapam for a short time, but I've come off that now.

I was just wondering if anybody else has had a similar experience to me & if you have any advice of where to go now?

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Btw I'm 30 (just turned) & I am overweight, but actually my mobility is good. People seem to think that I'm fine because they see they moving & I look fine to them. However, what they don't see is the pain killers, actipatch & stretches needed to just get to work. I find it really frustrating to be honest.

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