NeuroTalk Support Groups - Why Did It Take Sooooo.. Long To Get Diagnosis?

I had hip,back, and shoulder stiffness and pain for years and was told it was probably start of osteoarthritis. Prescribed NSAID's like Celebrex, Vioxx and Bexstra ETC.

I think that my original bouts of back pain 20 years ago,that would come and last for 1-2 weeks at a time and then slowly recede, were in fact the beginnings of PD. I saw Chiropractors, Physiotherapist's, Osteopaths ETC. But the spells of Back Pain would keep coming on and were getting worse and lasting longer. I had a high stress job as a Professional Municipal Firefighter, and assumed it was caused by my job and working shift work. Funny thing though, once I started taking PD meds after my diagnosis, the back pain spells went away. Things that make you go Hmmm!

The thing that bothers me most of all is the fact that I spent TEN years going to Doctors with various complaints like back & hip pain, irritable bowels (spasms), severe constipation, gastric immotility, fatigue, muscle & joint pain, balance & gait problems, and finally numbness & tingling in hands & fingers when waking up in the morning.

The back/hip & muscle and joint was treated by Rheumatologist (NSAIDS), the gastric & irritable bowels was treated by Gastroenterologist(gastroscopy & colonoscopy), numbness & tingling was checked by Neurologist( DX'ED carpal tunnel syndrome ). End result of all these tests was I was labeled a Hypochondriac ... which if you knew me ... goes directly against my personality and who I am. The point I'm getting at is, all these Doctors and after 10 years of symptoms, they didn't connect the Dots.... They treated or analyzed each of these symptoms separately. When in fact, together they point to the obvious .... the BRAIN & Central Nervous System ... which is, if you like analogies , the Central Processing Unit of the body. They missed it for TEN years !!! Is this what others have experienced Pre-diagnosis... or am I the only one?

Is PD that hard to diagnose?