Like so many others, I am very frustrated with my doctor. She's a PA assigned to me through the military medical system. She doesn't hear me.

Unlike so many others that have had trouble getting a fibro diagnosis, she jumped on that possibility for me and won't look at anything else. (I don't have any pain medicine right now either but I have lots of allergy meds)

While I now have widespread joint pain, it started in one joint and has been slowly spreading for years. I do not have the trigger points at all. I have uncontrollable psoraisis on my scalp, I do have myofascial trigger points which act as pain centers. I see a massage therapist every three - four weeks to "iron" me out. It helps a lot.

I have so many other things though - recurrent miscaririages (until I had the plumbing disconnected), I wheeze and have trouble breathing sometimes. My hands swell daily. There are times I am so tired that nothing else matters but collapsing on my bed. I get what I believe is the malar rash on my face from time to time. (the lung thing and the face thing are new/increased in the last two-three months). I honestly think I have either lupus or psoriatic arthritis.

To prove my theory that she doesn't listen to my, I submit my ankle story. I sprained my ankle on Jan 6. It was bad. Instant swelling like a half a softball was under my skin. Lots of bruising (I don't bruise) too. At my two follow-up after the ER visit, I told her that I thought things were torn,. She told me I was getting older (40 now) and that it would likely take 6 weeks to heal. At the six-week mark, I told her it wasn't healing. It still hurt. Because she thinks I only have fibro, I also think she mentally subtracts from what I tell her my pain levels are. She orders an MRI as a baseline but it is to shut me up since I was crying in the office because I was frustarted. Then there was drama to actually schedule an MRI with the military, but I got it scheduled within a week (4AM, thank you!). The NEXAT DAY I get a call that states that there are several abnormalities and a tear. My physical therapy referral has been pulled and I have been referred to orthopedics for a consult because of options and prognosis. Since that didn't do anything but scare me, I got a copy of my MRI the following Monday and started deciphering it. I have a completely torn ligament, several other sprained ligaments (including one that isn't supposed to sprain) and a stage I fracture in my talus dome. Serious Poo Poo! I ended up being reffered off post to an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in feet and ankles. I see him on Thursday so I don't know what to expect. I just assume surgery is in my future.

So because she didn't listen to me and because she pooh-poohed my pain levels, I now am looking at 6-8 weeks in a cast and 3 months of rehab. I bet she's wrong here too. I wrote her a detailed letter asking for a refferal to a rheumatologist and/or an endocrinologist to look into my issues further.

I just really needed to vent that! Thanks for reading.