i'm new to these message boards and the more i read the more i'm wondering....hmmmmmmmm.....how many of you nurse's out there have been diagnosed with fibro, lupus, rls, sjogrene's syndrone or similar conditions? i'm asking cause i'd worked as a lvn for 17 years and just thought that my last 5 years were getting consistantly worse due to all the usual things like bending, pulling, turning, walking miles up & down those concrete corridors---you know just giving good regular patient care. i started having worsening symptoms of fatigue (even with enough rest), constantly aching & painful spasms in weird areas on my body (sometimes just kneeling down to start an iv could cause this), feeling flu-like symptoms all the time, mood swings, bad tooth decay (due to decreased amount of secretions from ss), why i always had to wake up in the middle of the night to get something to drink (which i had kept at my bedside for years), dry eyes & nasal passages (thought it was allergies), running a race everytime when i did sleep (those feet & legs just kept on going & going & going), getting worse after working a very stressful night shift ( you know--short-handed--too many codes to handle with the staff you have on hand) i would feel worse but i knew that i had to go to work cause i had 2 teenage daughters to raise. anyway i had a very good family doctor in the small town where i worked on staff at the hospital and he treated me for everything he could think off , giving me cat scans, ultrasounds, x-rays you name it we did it. even went thru surgery cause we thought it was my ovaries causing the pain in my rt. side at one time. well that pain went away but another took it's place after awhile so he decided to send me to a rheumatologist specialist and for once in my life things began to make sense. all the docs who thought the pain or other symptoms were all in my head cause they couldn't find a reason for them---this man became my answer. i thank god my family doc referred me to him cause i have never felt better sure i have flare ups but i can deal with them. and it also helps that soon after i was diagnosed a year ago that i got married to my ex-husband again and quit work and now the stress level is down. so there is help out there for people like me who once thought all this was just a figment of my imagination cause i was overworked and underpaid lol---but my patient's remarks and laughter made up for alot of that. gosh i was only gonna ask a question but i guess i got to rambling ---- if any of ya have the same problems with your health i'd be interested to know. thanks for listening.
atrial blue
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