Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A Great Doctor's Appointment

My doctor's appointment went so great with the new doctor. He understood everything that I was talking about. He checked the trigger points in my body and head/face and I learned that I'm a jaw clencer, which I was never aware of doing. He had a systematic way how he went about checking me and it was clear to me he was knowledgable about pain. He grabbed one of his books which had illistrations of the trigger points and where the pain radiates to if you have problems with them. It was illustrating the paths of my pain. He told me that I have a lot going on and mentioned fibromyalgia, chronic myofascial pain, and restless leg syndrome (in my arms). I set up another appointment in which we're going to discuss diagnoses and medication further. He's going to look at all my records, MRIs, and CT scans. I've also been scheduled for an EMG on my arms. I would describe my symptoms and they actually made sense to him. He suggested a book for me to read: "Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain: A Survival Manual". He checked with me about sleeping, anxiety, he looked at the whole picture. For the first time in a very long time I feel like I might be able to treat some of the pain medically. It was the best feeling...I actually began to cry during the appointment and he asked me what I was thinking about. I was thinking it's been 6 years until I've felt a physician really understood what I was going through and could help me out, I've been nervous about work because bosses hadn't believed me or were unfair, and that it's been hard. I'm getting closer to actually being diagnosed and finding new ways to help cope with the pain and I'm really excited.

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