Secondary diagnosis today

General
1

Dammit. After flaring every other month since the summer and this week, flaring most probably because of a UTI last week and one of our cats dying in our arms around 3 this past Tuesday morning (that’s two we’ve lost this year) or both, today I was given the secondary diagnosis of Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

The rheumy NP made me face the fact that I’m not having a ton of muscle spasms. Rather, the knots in my back and shoulders are fibro knots, the issues I have with my chest wall when I flare and the problems I’ve had wearing a bra all day are because those areas are key fibro pain areas.

For the moment, I’m trying to remember that at least I have answers. I figure I’ll get disgusted (again) when I realize we’ve used another two jars of cocoa butter in no time massaging the knots.

Tomorrow, I increase my Gabapentin and we go from there. I need to work on reducing caffeine but I’m waiting until I’m on leave for Christmas/New Year to do that.

2

I’m so sorry about your cats. We had a rough year last year, losing two in the space of 2 plus months.

The new diagnosis is taken as a relief by some, especially once you make some resultant changes and experience a bit more relief from your pain.

3

Aww… sooo sorry to hear of losing your cats!! They become such a large part of our families :sob:

Sorry too that you now find yourself having to come to terms with fibro diagnosis on top of PsA!! Keeping fingers crossed that medication etc will help relieve symptoms for you!!! I suppose having a diagnosis does mean that now that can be treated separately rather than just assuming that it is all PsA related. {{hugs}}

4

So sorry about your cat - I lost one in June too. Always so sad. And you never know the secondary diagnosis might just help.