my daughters knee pain and fatigue

My daughter is now 21 but for most of her life she has complained of joint pain, mostly her knees and sometimes the joints in her fingers. I have taken her to the doctor many times throughout her life and finally an arthiritis Dr. said it is fibromyalgia. She gets extremeley fatigued and it is really wearing on her again as she doesn't think that at 21 she should be so tired. Do you have any ideas or help for this condition?
Thank you,
Dawn

[Dr Vinod]

Dear Dawn69,

Hello!  Welcome to the forum.

We will give you all the  required information about Fibromyalgia.

The symptoms of fibromyalgia are long term, widespread pain, fatigue, and heightened pain in response to pressure.  Other symptoms may include joint stiffness, tingling of the skin, prolonged muscle spasms, weakness in the limbs, nerve pain, functional bowel disturbances and chronic sleep disturbances.

Your daughter is suffering from joint pains in the knees and fingers so we would recommend you to further go for investigations for arthritis before concluding on Fibromyalgia:  like a latest X-ray and estimation of Rheumatoid factor. This can diagnose her if she has any Rheumatoid arthritis or Osteoarthritis. And if required other tests can be done.

In absence of any other symptoms and diagnostic features your arthritis Dr has diagnosed for Fibromyalgia.

Criteria for Diagnosis:

The American College of Rheumatology defines fibromyalgia according to the presence of the following criteria:

1) A history of widespread pain lasting more than three month and affecting all four quadrants of the body, i.e., both sides, and above and below the waist.

2) Tender points: There are 18 designated possible tender or trigger points (although a person with the disorder may feel pain in other areas as well). During diagnosis, four kilograms force is exerted at each of the 18 points; the patient must feel pain at 11 or more of these points for fibromyalgia to be considered. Four kilograms of force is about the amount of pressure required to blanch the thumbnail when applying pressure.

There is no recognized cure for fibromyalgia, but some treatments have been demonstrated by controlled clinical trials to be effective in reducing symptoms, including psychological or behavioral therapies, medications, patient education, and exercise.

Fibromyalgia is a controversial diagnosis. Many members of the medical community consider fibromyalgia a ‘non-disease’ because of a lack of abnormalities on physical examination, the absence of objective diagnostic tests makes it a difficult proposition.

Exercise improves fitness and sleep and may reduce pain, we also advise you to give her temporary relief by applying heat to painful areas. Try different forms of physical therapy, massage, or acupuncture because most patients find exercise, even low intensity exercise to be extremely helpful. Other problems any Physician can give her symptomatic relief.

Take care and keep us posted on future developments.

[texas123]

A related discussion, knee and foot pain was started.