I am a 25 year old female, married with two toddlers. I have experienced pain in my joints and muscles since I was small, however since the birth of my children the pain and the symptoms have gotten much worse. Through both of my pregnancies I was on bed rest to due to pre-mature labor as soon as 6 weeks. Premature births with both also. After having my son 3 years ago (daughter is 4), I decided to consult a doctor about the pain and difficulties that I was having. Seven months, two neurologists and MANY “possible” diagnosis later, I was told I have myositis and fibromyalgia. I was put on Bextra, Amitriptaline, Neurontin, and Zoloft. There was some relief for about 4 months and my meds were increased after the relief stopped. I am still getting no relief and my GP just blows it off. My pain is worse when resting but my limbs have gotten very weak. My weight is not an issue, I am 5’6″ & 135 pounds. My swallowing has been effected and I am having problems with falling if I am standing or walking too long. I am not one to call the GP every couple of months, but recently I have had serious concerns about the progression of my muscle weakness. I live in a VERY small community and am having trouble finding a physician who can treat my symptoms with options other than pain killers. I feel that the pain meds just mask the symptoms and I am not getting “treatment” for my worsening problems. I have been trying to my own research online but am at a dead end. Do you have any suggestions for finding a physician who can treat me properly? I am in Central Illinois but am willing to travel. Thank you for any suggestions that you may have.

I know someone who has fibromyalgia who thinks it can affect the internal organs and even the eyes making this a potentially life threatening disease. She says the pain is just as severe as someone who has RA and fibromyalgia is just as serious as RA. Is this true???

I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and arthritis (both RA and OA)- what could the damage to my major organs be? Also I have arthritis in my neck, what are the dangers? It takes me a long time to get comfortable at night, is there a specific way to sleep that would help? I am taking Bextra at the moment.

My wife has been treated for many years for what we thought were migrane headaches, turns out we find that she has fibromyalgia. What started in her head and neck has slowly worked it’s way down to her hips and lower back.The pain is so bad lately that she cannot lay on here side or do things that most of us take for granted.When it comes to sleep she doesn’t get very much at all, she can only sleep for an hour or so and then the pain wakes her up and she has to fight to go back to sleep.There is no such thing as a deep sleep for her. As with the person who wrote the original question, my wifes doctors seem baffeled by this and have tried many different medicines none of wich seem to work.My wife is only 32 years old and looks and feels much older.She doesn’t have the energy or stamina to live here life comfortably,and I feel that I’m watching her slip away from me day by day.I don’t know if this is the right place to come to but I’ve got to get help somewhere, we have insurance and would be willing to travel to find someone who can please return my wife to me and her life back to her.We live in Ky.

I have had FMS for 17 years. I am a hairstylist, I also have swollen muscles arms,legs that have very painful knots in them. I have been to several rheumatoligist and no one seems to know anything about this. My MD said he thinks I have some underlieing rhumatic because of the swelling and an elevated sed rate for all these years. The hightest was 57. I have tried every  medication for arthritis,steroids,elavil,paxil and wellbutrin.  I understand that sometimes it the correct mixture that will help.  I am on wellbutrin 300xl, paxil 2o mgs, and 5 to 10 mgs of ambem.  I take darvacet for pain, I have also been on pain patches for several months,not a lot of releif. This time I have been down for a month. I also have the fibro fogs for several days at a time. This has gotten progressively worse over the years. I have done water arobics, curves, walking (seems to do best). I am at my witts end because I was working to try to forget the pain and then it caught up with me. Do you have any sugestions?

Diagnosed 3 yrs ago with mild RA and last yr with Fibromyalgia. I’ve been on Methotrexate only for 6 months with great results, but I now get attacks up to once a week on a random limb joint. It starts to ache until the soreness prevents use and after 2 days disappears without a trace. Only when I’ve had several attacks on one joint does the ache start to dwell there, eg my wrists now need braces regularly and that was where I got my first attacks. The pain seems to be more muscular without any accompanying joint swelling hence the Fibro diagnosis. My question is why do I find that any antiinflammatory type brings a huge improvement within a couple of hours since many people say there is no inflammation associated with Fibro? Second question, I believe joint deformation tends to occur in the early years of diagnosis and that RA disease can sometimes ‘burn out’ after some 10yrs. Does this mean my symptoms have to worsen considerably before I can start counting this time?