CFS, fibromyalgia usually another illness.
: In most diagnosed instances of CFS or fibromyalgia, the patients are
: suffering from another very serious debilitating illness that if not
: treated, can lead to death...
Horseshit. Joe thinks everyone with CFS or FM has Lyme Disease. There
are *some* (relatively few) people with CFS who turn out to have been
misdiagnosed and to really have Lyme. It is certainly worth doing an
extensive workup for Lyme in a person with CFS, particularly if joint
pain (as opposed to muscle pain) is present. It might even be worth a
full course of antibiotic treatment, given that there is controversy
about the accuracy of Lyme testing.
But there are plenty of us who have already tried extended courses of
antibiotic therapy and did not respond a bit, or even got worse. People
with CFS are also NOT dying of the serious cardiac and neurologic
complications seen in Lyme.
As to FMS, it appears to be a symptom in a lot of disease processes.
Not just CFS: people with a whole slew of autoimmune diseases like lupus
often fit the diagnostic criteria for FM. Many people with sleep
disorders like sleep apnea fit the FMS diagnostic criteria. Even some
folks with Lyme fit it. Saying all FM is really Lyme is like saying all
headaches are Lyme or all skin rashes are Lyme. There is such a thing as
primary fibromyalgia syndrome but FM is basically a symptom of many
illnesses.
Look: we folks with CFS don't go around saying that the people with
chronic Lyme really CFS instead. Mind you: there are people in the
medical community that think that; but our experiences with the medical
profession tend to make us side with patient adovcacy groups.
Just because you've suddenly found a hammer doesn't mean that everything
around you is a nail.
--
"The trick is to keep an open mind, without it being so open
that your brain falls out."
Camilla Cracchiolo, RN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shrine of the {*filter*}netic Madonna BBS 213-766-1356 Los Angeles
* CFS/Fibromyalgia/AIDS support * General medical information *
Left-wing Politics * Church of the SubGenius * Skepticism & Science
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
