Hello, Laurel64:
I regret very much the tendency of certain physicians to mistake AS for fibromyalgia: In fact, this trivializes AS, and can delay proper treatments.
Any doctor unable to properly diagnose AS should then never be allowed to 'try' and treat it! Same with fibromyalgia--if all they have are ridiculous "visualization" techniques, it is way long past to drop that quack and send them a bill for wasting Your time!
The single most common misdiagnosis for women with AS is fibromyalgia, and it is very sad that people continue to believe that AS cannot look so much like fibromyalgia that their physicians can be CONFUSED. AS is a collection of MYRIAD symptoms, and it can masquerade as many different diseases, but fibromyalgia seems to be the focus, so it deserves our extreme wrath.
People who really have fibromyalgia really do HAVE FIBROMYALGIA. I have met several personally, and discussed their symptoms at great length--it is a real condition, but it is NOT AS! One woman, previously bed-bound for over a year, responded to treatments rapidly and in under a week was back at her job absolutely 'normal' except for slight fatigue and has remained 'fibro-free' for over two years. THAT does not sound like AS! If it were, we could close our doors today!
PAIN is not "IAIYH;" it has a purpose: "The CURSE, causeless shall not come." The pain of AS is a real WARNING that something is being DAMAGED--and it is so intense that it should not be ignored by just dulling or deadening it. You purchase a new car and the red warning light comes on and it is irrational to put electrical tape over it and continue driving! So many of us with AS just want to be out of pain, and actually believe that relief from this is "TREATMENT;" it is obviously not!
And the pain of AS should not be ignored because some quack calls it FIBROMYALGIA!
HEALTH,
John
