i spent five years going to different doctors, each testing for something different. rheumatologist said it wasn’t autoimmune. neurologist said it wasn’t neuropathy. gastro checked everything.
bloodwork always came back normal, which is almost worse because then you sound crazy when you explain the flares and fatigue. my GP finally asked about tender points and whether i get worse when i don’t pace myself. we talked about pain scale and what ‘normal’ felt like before this. she suggested fibromyalgia and honestly, i cried.
not good tears, just… i’d spent five years thinking i was failing some test i didn’t know existed. the diagnosis happened because she asked the right questions instead of just ruling things out. but it took so long, and i wasted time trying to ‘prove’ something was wrong when really i just needed to describe my actual days.
is that typical? did anyone else get bounced around like this before someone took the diagnosis seriously? i’m curious if the ruling-out-everything approach is standard or if i just got unlucky.