five years in i realized my rheumatologist was just ticking boxes. not autoimmune, not lyme, not ms, not lupus. by year five the tests were running out. my pain sat at 5-6 most days and nobody had an answer except “well, it’s not X.” then a doc said "given what we’ve ruled out and your tender points…
it’s fibromyalgia." i felt relieved but weird. sorted into a box by exclusion. not MS or lupus or something “real.” just this. the strange part is the diagnosis doesn’t feel solid.
it could be wrong in a way a concrete result never does. like i got ruled out of the real diseases and landed somewhere else. anyone else feel like a diagnosis of exclusion isn’t actually a diagnosis?