**I am not a medical professional. Everything on this site is informational, only a doctor can give a diagnosis. Please seek doctor's care if you believe you have any of these symptoms **
You are in for a fun ride today. We are going to talk about how doctors diagnose Fibromyalgia, and that, my friend, is not an easy thing. Fibromyalgia mimics other diseases and does not have a diagnostic test. The first thing doctors have to do is rule out all the other possibilities. Let's take a look at a few of them and compare them to Fibromyalgia. Before we start comparing, let's review Fibromyalgia's Pain Spots and Trigger Spots.
If you need to, come back to the symptoms and compare them. We will look at Fibromyalgia VS Lupus. There are many similar symptoms.
Next, we will look at Multiple Sclerosis.
The last one I will do is Fibromyalgia VS Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Now to put everything into perspective we are going to look at them all at the same time.
Something to take note of is that these are only the main symptoms. There may be more or less in each individual. These points and areas overlap. In my world of Fibro, they even overlap in the hands, feet, ankles, and knees. This is a reason why it is difficult to diagnose Fibromyalgia, plus no real test. Well, unless you consider this a test, I consider it a pain in the behind and see some issues with it.
Here is a blank one that I redesigned from online. Let's walk through it. I am going to put mine up so you can see it a little better. If you are having problems with downloading this, please email me and I will send one to you.
Part One
You are going to find out what your Widespread Pain Index (WPI). To do this you will count the color circles that you have felt pain in the last week. They want you to exclude any symptoms from any other illness you have and take any medication or treatments into consideration. My WPI is 19. We have been having a lot of barometric changes lately.
Part Two A
Go through each of the 3 sections and determine what the Symptom Severity Score 1 is. Mine is a 6. That is average for me.
Part Two B
Go through and count the Symptoms you have had in the last week. Notice how many of those are on Lupus and MS. I have checked off 19 of the symptoms. Go to the chart right below the symptoms and find the range your number is in and find your score for this section. My score for this part is 2.
What your scores mean
To find out the Symptom Severity Score take 2a + 2b. The score I got was SSS= 8 and WPI= 19.
Now, what in the world does this mean?
1. Take it to your doctor, this would be something good to talk about. Just remember only a doctor can diagnose you. This is not meant to substitute for a diagnosis by a medical professional. This is just meant to help research and have a starting point to talk to your doctor.
2. Diagnostic Criteria for Fibromyalgia is met if the following
three conditions are met:
a. The WPI score (part 1) is greater than or equal to 7 and the SSS score (part 2) is greater than or equal to 5.
or
b. The WPI score (part 1) is from 3 to 6 and
the SSS score (part 2) is greater than or equal to 9.
2. Symptoms have been present at a similar level for at least 3 months
3. You do not have a disorder that would otherwise explain the pain.
It is confusing. There is a possibility that you can have Fibromyalgia and other disorders, but if the other disorder explains away some of the points in this test, then there is a high possibility the test will tell you that you do not have Fibromyalgia.
Talk to your doctor, they will do their best to help you. It would not hurt to bring the test with you to show the doctor. Do it for a month, one test per week. It will also show you how things change for you. Be honest with yourself, the only one that this matters to is you.
“It’s Not Whether You Get Knocked Down, It’s Whether You Get Up.” – Vince Lombardi
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