I can say that when reading this, I can relate at this time so very much. Dahlek and I are both battling a raging immune system. Mine was under control for awhile and now seems to be on crawling out of the net we've had it confined in over the last few years. I agree with Wings, sometimes the medicines we've used to control the immune system turn around and bite us. Mine is biting me right now. We tried to back off from some of it in order to help with the breaking bone situation and it made other problems appear. More nerve pain, more joint pain, swelling, etc.

And I found out at the doctor's appointment this week that my doctor actually did not believe me when I told him I was in unbearable pain with my back and legs. When the first xrays of the sacrum did not show any thing, he thought I was exaggerating the pain caused by the Rheumatoid Arthritis. And he told me it was probably a strain and to go home and use heat and it would be better in a couple of weeks. And a week later when I called and told him that I was no better that I was actually worse, he sent me 15 pain pills. All of you here know that I do not take pain pills. I took these.

At the end of that week, I couldn't get out of the bed. Not because of the pills, but because my back was broken. I saw this same doctor on Monday. By that time I had been in the hospital since Sat. morning. He asked me what I was doing in the hospital. I told him because that is where the ambulance brought me because I couldn't get out of my bed. I then had to tell him that the emergency room doctor had diagnosed me with a stress fracture in my sacrum. He acted like it couldn't possibly be and I told him to go see the CT scan they did when the ambulance brought me in. He said that his xrays hadn't found it and I told him they were wrong. He said at that point "I'll get down to the bottom of this!". Then the next morning he came in and said, you have a major stress fracture in the sacrum. You all know the rest of the story.

When I saw him for the follow up after release from the hospital. He apologized to me and told me that he honestly didn't believe me when I told him I was in pain. He said, "You were so calm. I didn't think there could possibly be significant pain. But now I wonder how you were even walking." I told him that when I say I'm in Pain, Believe Me I'm in Pain!! I don't scream, I don't cry. But I don't lie either. Our relationship is new, I have only had him since Nov. But I think he will believe me when I say I'm in pain the next time.

But is this a sign of the time? Doctor's think we are lying or exaggerating? It shouldn't have to be like this. I had to be carried to the hospital in an ambulance, tests were done, other doctors consulted and I was suffering extreme pain. All of this before one doctor believed there was significant pain.

Billye