In 2007 all that changed.
My first symptoms were subtle, came on slowly. I felt fluish but never getting too sick. Just achy body, headaches, and just over all not feeling that great. I just took ibuprofen everyday and continued living.
Then one day out of the blue, my right elbow was hurting, I couldn't pull laundry out of the washer as the pain was unbearable. After several days of this I went to my doctor and was diagnosed with tennis elbow. He put me in physical therapy and they started working on my elbow. Then as suddenly as it came on, it went away.
I was still having flu like symptoms so I went back to my doctor and after evaluating me and doing a what I called a poke here and there test, he diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. He advised me to learn pain management. My pain management was to try to ignore the pain.
A few months later I started having excruciating pain in my kidneys and very bloody UTI's. I was rushed to the ER several times. I was told I was having kidney stones and so I started treating those. I had several more episodes of the kidney stones, once my oldest son Joshua, had to call 911 as I passed out on the floor from the pain. Then as suddenly as that came on me, it went away. This was 2008.
2009 seemed to be up and down with that familiar "fibromyalgia" discomfort, but again my pain management was to ignore it. At this point in my life I was taking at least 800mg of Ibuprofen a day as the body aches were uncomfortable. I tried running again and doing aerobics but it was too painful and at this point I was feeling tired alot.
2010 I went downhill fast with excruciating neck pain and headaches. My doctor had xrays ordered which showed I had a military neck, meaning it was completely straight and not curved like a normal neck. No more jogging for me. The headaches were so bad and then my right arm went numb and tingling. My finger tips were always numb and tingling, then my right cheek felt numb and heavy. The tip of my tongue stayed numb for two months before it suddenly went away. My doctor at this point ordered 2 MRI's which showed mild disk compression, I was diagnosed with Cervical Degenerative Disk Disease but nothing that explained the numbness and my right arm losing strength and tingling and the constant throbbing arthritis pains. I was sent to the neurologist for further testing. Carpal tunnel was suspected but the painful testing (they put needles in your arms and hands and send electrical shocks in! AHHHH) showed 'inconclusive'. They couldn't understand where all the pain and numbness was coming from. So I was sent to the neurosurgeon as the neurologist and my primary doc said I would need the disk compression surgically taken care of.
The neurosurgeon sat down and took one look at my MRI and said she didn't see any reason to do surgery as my neck wasn't that bad and she said I needed to learn pain management and do yoga! I think not! I went home that day feeling like I was back at square one, no answers, no relief from the daily aches and pains, and the arthritis pains were getting increasingly worse.
At this point I gave up and decided I was just going to live with it, maybe it will all go away. It was during this time that we were in the adoption process for our adorable son, Abraham. We almost thought we would have to give up the adoption process as my mysterious sickness was overwhelming at times. But we persevered and God gave me the strength to continue on.
So pretty much until a diagnosis I lived this way, painful joints, headaches, slurring speech, brain fog, blurry vision, heart palpitations, weak muscles, sloppy handwriting, forgetfulness, some days I had no pain miraculously, but then it would all come back, off and on...year after year, popping Ibuprofen just about daily until..................
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