antiquity
02-06-2003, 01:01 AM
Reported February 3, 2003
Validating Fibromyalgia Part 2: More Than Growing Pains
TORRANCE, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- One description of fibromyalgia from a small boy was that the condition makes you feel as if every muscle in your body is about to throw up. It causes chronic fatigue and muscle and joint pain. Doctors say it's hard to diagnose and it has long been considered an adult problem. Now, doctors say those childhood "growing pains" may be the start of it all.
It's not easy being a kid when every muscle in your body aches as you struggle to keep up with your kid brother. Alyson Weinberg says it's even harder when nobody believes you.
"We went to the doctor and they [told my parents], 'There's nothing wrong with your child.' It made me feel like nobody trusted me," Alyson tells Ivanhoe.
Alyson was just 2 years old when she first complained that her body hurt. Year after year, the determined athlete would play through a barrage of mysterious symptoms: an itchy back, earaches, headaches, pain in her neck, stomach, legs and feet. Lab tests were negative. Doctors, suspicious.
Alyson's mother, Lisa, says, "[The doctor asked,] 'What's going on at school?' With this attitude like he knew my kid better than I did. I said you can't tell me this is psychosomatic. I don't buy that."
If she had, Lisa never would have found endocrinologist R. Paul St. Amand, M.D., the man who put a name to Alyson's pain.
Fibromyalgia does not show up on X-rays or blood tests. Dr. St. Amand finds it by feeling for swelling in specific muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. The trouble is, most doctors don't look for it in children.
Dr. St. Amand says, "[Doctors] treat the individual thing. Give them a little Tylenol, give them a little of this and that, but it's patchwork stuff because nobody puts it together."
He says growing pains, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and some cases of ADHD may actually be fibromyalgia. He believes it's a genetic defect in the kidneys that we pass on to our children.
Lisa's had fibromyalgia 40 years. Both of her children have it, too. "It just brought closure to all the symptoms we've ever had problems with and there was no answer. It made sense finally," she says.
Now, thanks to an old drug, there's hope. Dr. St. Amand says guaifenesin, a common over-the-counter expectorant in cold medicine, is clearing symptoms in 90 percent of his patients with no side effects.
The "pain" spots on Alyson's body are even melting away, and she can feel it. The kid who struggled to keep up is back on the mat hoping to earn a spot on the junior Olympic judo team.
"I don't want to quit. If I see a goal, I want to go out and do it and not be held back by something I can't control," says Alyson.
Her pain is now less frequent and less severe. There's still no cure for it, but for this well-rounded 12-year old, it's enough knowing there's a name for it. She says, "I felt better and relieved that this was something instead of just my imagination."
Dr. St. Amand says irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, leg and neck pain and headaches are often early signs of fibromyalgia in children. He says keep detailed records of your child's symptoms and find a doctor who knows the disease.
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=5353
Validating Fibromyalgia Part 2: More Than Growing Pains
TORRANCE, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- One description of fibromyalgia from a small boy was that the condition makes you feel as if every muscle in your body is about to throw up. It causes chronic fatigue and muscle and joint pain. Doctors say it's hard to diagnose and it has long been considered an adult problem. Now, doctors say those childhood "growing pains" may be the start of it all.
It's not easy being a kid when every muscle in your body aches as you struggle to keep up with your kid brother. Alyson Weinberg says it's even harder when nobody believes you.
"We went to the doctor and they [told my parents], 'There's nothing wrong with your child.' It made me feel like nobody trusted me," Alyson tells Ivanhoe.
Alyson was just 2 years old when she first complained that her body hurt. Year after year, the determined athlete would play through a barrage of mysterious symptoms: an itchy back, earaches, headaches, pain in her neck, stomach, legs and feet. Lab tests were negative. Doctors, suspicious.
Alyson's mother, Lisa, says, "[The doctor asked,] 'What's going on at school?' With this attitude like he knew my kid better than I did. I said you can't tell me this is psychosomatic. I don't buy that."
If she had, Lisa never would have found endocrinologist R. Paul St. Amand, M.D., the man who put a name to Alyson's pain.
Fibromyalgia does not show up on X-rays or blood tests. Dr. St. Amand finds it by feeling for swelling in specific muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. The trouble is, most doctors don't look for it in children.
Dr. St. Amand says, "[Doctors] treat the individual thing. Give them a little Tylenol, give them a little of this and that, but it's patchwork stuff because nobody puts it together."
He says growing pains, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and some cases of ADHD may actually be fibromyalgia. He believes it's a genetic defect in the kidneys that we pass on to our children.
Lisa's had fibromyalgia 40 years. Both of her children have it, too. "It just brought closure to all the symptoms we've ever had problems with and there was no answer. It made sense finally," she says.
Now, thanks to an old drug, there's hope. Dr. St. Amand says guaifenesin, a common over-the-counter expectorant in cold medicine, is clearing symptoms in 90 percent of his patients with no side effects.
The "pain" spots on Alyson's body are even melting away, and she can feel it. The kid who struggled to keep up is back on the mat hoping to earn a spot on the junior Olympic judo team.
"I don't want to quit. If I see a goal, I want to go out and do it and not be held back by something I can't control," says Alyson.
Her pain is now less frequent and less severe. There's still no cure for it, but for this well-rounded 12-year old, it's enough knowing there's a name for it. She says, "I felt better and relieved that this was something instead of just my imagination."
Dr. St. Amand says irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, leg and neck pain and headaches are often early signs of fibromyalgia in children. He says keep detailed records of your child's symptoms and find a doctor who knows the disease.
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=5353