VA keeps calling it Chronic Pain Syndrome

[stheurer123]

New here.. I have been dealing with pain for years .. after getting out of the Army it got even worse. I didn’t understand because I was still young (28) but I just kept pushing forward! It got so worse I self medicated just to be able to work. Finally went to the VA however they called it fatigue, then depression then chronic pain symptom. When I finally said enough was enough they sent me to see a specialist. After all the medicine and injections with no relief I said something and said the word fibromyalgia.. much to my surprise the doctor said “well we don’t like to give that diagnosis “ we look for other things . Now it makes sense why the VA referred me to this doctor.
I decided to seek my own doctor to get down to my pain and relief.

 

[sunkacola]

Seems sort of silly for the VA in your area to refuse to call it fibromyalgia and instead call it something else that essentially means the same thing, but whatever. Who can understand them.

Just a little word of caution, however: Getting a diagnosis of fibromyalgia doesn't mean that you will get pain relief, unfortunately. Most people who have fibromyalgia do not have an effective way to control the pain or get relief. Many of us here, myself included, are many years past the day we got an "official" diagnosis of fibromyalgia, but getting that diagnosis really didn't change anything. It is something to write down on an insurance form or to (maybe, possibly) help you to get disability (if you are lucky), but since there is no medication that actually works to give relief to the majority of fibromyalgia patients, that's about all it does.

Now, for some people with fibro one or another medication does help. The thing is, you have to try the medications yourself to find out if they will work for you. And there are a lot of other things that go along with medication in the managing of fibromyalgia.

Wishing you the best of luck.

 

[grim1]

The VA itself will avoid the fibromyalgia 'diagnosis' because it's now a presumptive claim for those of us exposed to chemical agents; that doesn't make it easier to accept, but you're not alone. I've had this issue since it was called 'toxic shock exposure' and I'm not much closer to a clear diagnosis, or clear VA claim, myself. Keep the faith...