echo wrote: . . . sorry if I came off sounding like a jerk the other day. I'm just a bit tired and exhausted and tired of feeling like i'm falling apart
Well, I haven't heard you sound like a jerk, myself. Maybe I'm not listening closely enough? Seriously, if you can't vent here, where can you vent, right? I hear some angst, yeah. But it's your
health, after all. Being fired up about that is a good thing, I'd say. Your doing what you can and trying things is the best way not to fall apart in all the ways that matter most.
echo wrote: . . . I wouldn't mind so much to take a pill like that if there was a decent diagnosis of whatever XYZ disease, but not because they don't feel like finding the root cuase of the problem and just think ' it's all in my head'.
I hear you. But a diagnosis is just a name. Maybe it helps to put a name to things when we can. But in the grand scheme of things, names don't matter all that much. And just because a doc prescribes a drug that may affect your head, that doesn't mean the problem is 'all in your head' in the idiomatic sense. Most diseases are at least partially in our heads literally speaking--the brain is a vital organ that controls a lot and is affected by a lot.
Many medically named problems have normal manifestions in certain people and not-so-common manifestations in others. Your body is unique, so your symptoms may not be falling neatly into any set of symptoms that can be wrapped up in a package and tied into a pretty bow. So a doc who is trying to help may make some stabs in the dark. And if some so-called psych meds help with chronic pain or chronic fatigue, it may be worth it to dabble in that without worrying about any stigma. It is more important that you feel better. Sometimes being on the meds long enough to give the body a break so it can heal can work in the long run. If you respond to a certain med, that may be part of the diagnostic process, in a way. So you may not want to turn down help just becuase you can't be handed a diagnosis. Only my opinion. And, I admit, not a popular one.
Most docs realize that the best they can do is merely use a few tools to help the body do its own thing to get better. They collect a list of symptoms, make a hunch, and then throw some chemicals at the problem to see if anything gets better or worse. It isn't a perfect system by any means, but it occasionally helps people. So, let's say, theoretically speaking, in your case, that a doctor has no idea what the real problem is but still prescribes a med he thinks will land somewhere in the ballpark of helping you feel better. That's still practicing medicine about as good as it gets these days for many complaints. It isn't the doc's fault that scientific understanding is so lacking. At least he isn't rubbing cow dung on you while doing some blood-letting with a holy bone in one hand and a pendulum in the other. (No offense to any witch-doctors in the house )
But in my opinion, the most important thing for any woman experiencing symptoms of chronic pain or chronic fatigue to do is to find a doctor who can correctly hear how a woman expresses her symptoms, a doctor who isn't dismissive of symptoms from females. That doc may be a male or a female. But in my opinion, it is all too common for doctors, even female doctors, perhaps unwittingly, to fail to take women with those symptoms seriously. You have to do your best to judge whether your doctor is taking you seriously.
echo wrote: . . . maybe my sense of humor will come back too, and I can think of something witty to say to Snoredog about the tongue tether?!!
Sounds to me like the sense of humor is still there, even if it is buried under a rough time at the moment.
Please excuse me if I come off preachy with my wacky opinions above. I assume it must be discouraging to feel like you are trying every medical approach known to humankind one at a time, but I believe that as long as you haven't thrown in the towel on the process, chances are you or a doctor will stumble on something that will help more than hurt.
Either that, or Snoredog will divine the magic pressure number that will reinflate your spirit.
Fight hard, echo.
