Question:
I'm 50 years old and I feel like I'm 70. I have pain in my joints that has
become much worse in the last month. The pain is the worse in my hands,
especially my thumbs. I can hardly bend them when I wake up in the morning.
Some of the things that are painful for me are: to squeeze a wet washcloth,
to open jars/bottles/doorknobs, or to carry anything.
The rheumatologist ran a battery of tests including CBC, CBC differential, sed
rate, collagen profile, comprehensive metabolic, and T7. Everything came out
normal. His diagnosis is fibromyalgia.
I did some reading on it. It mentioned muscle pain (which I don't have), but
said nothing about joint pain.
Could this something other than fibromyalgia? I have not had a rash or tick
bite so Lyme has been ruled out.
Answer:
I've had fibromyalgia for 12 years. This really doesn't sound like
fibromyalgia to me. Fibromyalgia causes pain at specific sites.
You have to have it in at least 11 of these sites and in all four
quadrants of the body. These sites are mostly in the muscle. Often
they cause palpable knots or bands in the middle of muscles. I've
NEVER heard of FM without muscle pain. FM can cause joint pain: I
personally get a little pain in the wrists and knees. But I get a
hell of a lot more pain in the muscles in my neck, back and legs.
You're on the right track seeing a rheumatologist for this, but I'd
still go get a second opinion if I were you.
I wonder if you have lupus. Lupus and fibromyalgia are often
mistaken for each other. Lupus can be very difficult to diagnose.
I'm one of the people who it's not clear whether I have lupus or FM.
So I've been through the whole diagnostic merry go round. When I
was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia, all my autoimmune tests were
normal. So my docs all assumed it was ruled out. Then, 10 years
later, I got a funny rash. My rheumatologist is one sharp guy and
said: "lets run a panel just to be sure." Lo and behold: I had
positive anti-nuclear and anti-DNA antibodies. (anti-DNA especially
classic for lupus diagnosis). Anti-DNA antibodies are now
negative, ANA remains low positive. Currently we're calling it
fibromyalgia but keeping a close eye on it and running autoimmune
panels and urinalysis every 3 months.
Sometimes, the ANA and anti-DNA tests will be negative in early
lupus, especially if the doc uses a cheap lab that uses rat instead
of human antibodies in the test. Also, my rheumatologist states sed
rates are often normal in lupus.
There are also a number of other collagen diseases it could be. And
complicating this whole mess is the controversy about how accurate
Lyme antibody testing is. There is a Lyme disease website: I
think it's sci.med.diseases.Lyme but look it up.
I have a fibromyalgia webpage. http://www.primenet.com/~camilla I
have a lot of good information and you might want to check it out.
I'll also send you some articles I have on FM.
