So, there I was, innocently reading the paper this morning. And there was an article about how Cymbalta was approved for use with fibromyalgia.
But could they just leave well enough alone and talk about how fibromyalgia is finally getting recognized and treated? Oh, no. They had to keep on quoting doctors talking about how it's all in our heads. Especially because the doctor who initially created the diagnosis now regrets it.
Yes, there was some good information mixed in there. And it did make the front page of the New York Times, above the cut even. But it makes me furious that so much of the article was taken up with casting doubts on the reality of fibromyalgia.
The main thread in the denials was this: giving the illness a name means that people focus more on pain others would just tolerate or ignore.
Let me tell you this: yes, I do focus more on it, and stop ignoring it. Does this mean the pain is new, or the attention to it increases it? Well, let's think about that. About two years before I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, my hands and feet started hurting really badly in the mornings when I woke up. I ignored the pain.
About a year later, I noticed that one of my feet continued to be mildly uncomfortable (compared to the morning pain) throughout the day. Also, it was swollen enough to make it difficult to get my shoe on. I finally went to the doctor, who at first dismissed it, and then sent me to an orthopedist, who diagnosed the BROKEN FOOT. So I have it on very good evidence that the pain from fibromyalgia is subjectively greater than the pain of a broken bone.
Fibro pain has distracted me from the pain of a broken tailbone, and from the pain of badly abscessed teeth. The fibro pain is objectively worse than things that are generally objectively deemed quite painful.
I personally think this: saying that diagnosing fibromyalgia makes people feel pain is like saying that me learning about racism is what made my family racist. As though they were perfectly normal before, and now I just see racism everywhere.
Because if I hadn't learned about racism, I wouldn't have thought that telling someone they only got into college and graduate school because they were black (rather than, I don't know, intelligent and hardworking) wouldn't have been racist if I hadn't learned about racism.
Because the pain that kept me from noticing I had broken my foot wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
Think about it.
Monday, January 14, 2008
RANT!
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4 comments:
i know FM (fibromyalgia) is real and is NOT in your head. i have other friends who have FM, and i canNOT even imagine the pain you must be in ...
take care and hope to hear from you in the near future.
oh, i'm pretty clear on that one, too. although when you commented on not being able to imagine the pain i must be in, my first response was to say "neither can i." ;)
i sometimes wonder how it is that my life is so filled with things "people say" are all in my head (or unnatural, or made up, or things i choose to do to be difficult). you know, like the abuse history, or fibro, or DID, or being a lesbian, or left-handed....
I heard something about this too, but I heard it told that the drug also seemed to affect the neurocenters in the brain that were responsible for causing the pain of FM and that was why it is helpful for those suffering from the disease. Sounds to me like the NYT reporter didn't do all the homework and jumped to some conclusions.
I think you're right, Rising Rainbow. I mean, they use tricyclic antidepressants for diabetic neuropathy and shingles pain and nobody is claiming those conditions are fake. It's just the way the brain is wired and the way the brain processes pain and emotion. Which this guy would have learned had he bothered to do his homework.
And you've made a very important point, JA, about tissue damage pain and fibro pain. Sore muscles for me can be far more painful than what appears to have been the tore ligaments in my left ankle. The point is that our brains are not processing pain correctly - so we feel it both too much and not enough. And that is a very, very serious disease on multiple levels.
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