I’m 53. For the last 41 years I’ve been dismissed, undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and now diagnosed but the wrong treatments have poisoned my body creating more issues that my functional medicine doctor still cannot figure out. 13 years ago I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia. I did monthly remicade infusions for ten years. I had maxed out my dose and intervals but it wasn’t helping as much as I thought it should so my physiatrist prescribed prednisone which was my personal crack! Nothing made me feel as good as steroids. And I was reminded of that every time I went off. I decided I’d rather have a life and deal with any side effects later. I started gaining weight, which was expected, and developing inflammation in weird places that hurt to touch more than normal. All my doctors said it was the prednisone and would go away when I went off it. So I did but it didn’t go away and my body was looking more and more out of proportion. The hard painful fibrous lumps around my mid section kept me from sleeping. The lumps on the inside of my knees hitting each other as I walked created gait issues and pain in my hips. My rheumatologist insisted it was fibro. I finally found answers with the help of Google. Of course there are no doctors in my state that even know about this connective tissue disease so I traveled out of state and out of network and got a confirmed diagnosis of lipedema and have since started the only treatment known to treat this, staged surgery to remove the diseased tissue. I can finally sleep! The lump across my low back that made it feel like I was lying on a log was gone. Now I’m dealing with all the residuals from 41 years of unnecessary meds. I’ve completely given up on traditional medicine and I’m putting all my eggs, even though they’ve long since dried up (teehee) in the one basket of a functional medicine doctor. I’m trying to have faith that she can figure the rest out. I just don’t want to wait another 41 years. Thanks for listening.