While I agree in principle, there are people with fibromyalgia who wouldn’t know medications exist for it otherwise, because their doctors barely understand fibromyalgia.
“hmmm have you considered that chronic pain isn’t real and you’re lying? Don’t worry, I’m still going to bill your insurance for the full price of an office visit.”
You could always do like I do: not be a woman. No fibromyalgia for me at all. My mother and sister keep ignoring that advice.
But on a more serious note, that really has to suck. Autoimmune diseases are much more likely to affect women and are more likely to be ignored. There was a cool Radiolab episode on them. A hypothesis is that women have an overall more sensitive immune system because their immune system is suppressed during pregnancy so having a more sensitive one means you are less likely to get sick during pregnancy. Use of hormones like estriol seem to be helpful. But if you suffer from fibromyalgia, you probably know a good amount/all of that info and more.
That is exactly it. One of my family members suffered from it for years before finding out about it online, and eventually had to switch to a new doctor that didn’t try to convince them it was all in their head. It’s hard to accept that the weight of a thin bed sheet on your legs being painful is just in your head, yet that’s the line they were given repeatedly.
While I agree in principle, there are people with fibromyalgia who wouldn’t know medications exist for it otherwise, because their doctors barely understand fibromyalgia.
“hmmm have you considered that chronic pain isn’t real and you’re lying? Don’t worry, I’m still going to bill your insurance for the full price of an office visit.”
You could always do like I do: not be a woman. No fibromyalgia for me at all. My mother and sister keep ignoring that advice.
But on a more serious note, that really has to suck. Autoimmune diseases are much more likely to affect women and are more likely to be ignored. There was a cool Radiolab episode on them. A hypothesis is that women have an overall more sensitive immune system because their immune system is suppressed during pregnancy so having a more sensitive one means you are less likely to get sick during pregnancy. Use of hormones like estriol seem to be helpful. But if you suffer from fibromyalgia, you probably know a good amount/all of that info and more.
That is exactly it. One of my family members suffered from it for years before finding out about it online, and eventually had to switch to a new doctor that didn’t try to convince them it was all in their head. It’s hard to accept that the weight of a thin bed sheet on your legs being painful is just in your head, yet that’s the line they were given repeatedly.
Then the drive should be to fix that problem rather than the symptom.
There’s several chronic pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia, that we don’t often know what the underlying problem is.
So, we give people medication that reduces the chronic pain they live with everyday.
And as one of those people, I’ll keep taking nerve blockers if it means I don’t spend half the week praying for death.
Yeah good luck with that.