OET Listening Parte A: Suspected Fibromyalgia Consultation

Hello?

Come on in.

You must be Mr Royce.

I understand that you've just signed up with the practice.

Yeah, that's right, Mike Royce.

I've joined this practice because my previous GP retired and he suggested I come here.

Right, and I understand you've got an ongoing medical condition you're worried about.

Perhaps you'd like to start by telling me about that.

How did it start?

Well, I suppose it started out as a really strong pain in my left knee.

I think it's called the medial meniscus... is that right?

It came on whenever I tried to bend the knee more than normal.

Then I tripped while climbing some stairs at work and that seemed to make things worse.

I started to get these very tender bumps all over the back of the knee.

They were very painful, even just lightly touching them.

The doctor called them trigger points.

They're called that because pain frequently radiates out from them when touched.

And how did that affect you day to day?

Well, I went back to work after a week or so,

but I was still having knee problems.

I couldn't really squat properly or climb ladders.

That's important in my job; I'm a painter, you know.

And I'm always having to get into awkward positions.

Anyway, I kept going back to my old GP explaining that I still had severe pain whenever I tried to bend my knee.

He gave me all these exercises to do and I tried doing them, I really did.

I made sure I did gentle stretches before I did anything more energetic.

Everything really.

I tried resting like he told me.

I used ice packs when it got sore.

But nothing really worked.

Right, I see.

But then the doctor decided I might be suffering from tendinitis.

So he sent me for some rehab work in the hospital.

That actually did seem to work, at least at first.

But I'm guessing not for long.

Right, the problem came back.

I kept telling the doctor that my knee still wasn't healed.

But it was actually my physiotherapist in the hospital, rather than my old GP,

who noticed that something was wrong with my muscles.

He wouldn't say what it was,

but I knew something was up.

He was doing myofascial release on my hamstrings and I was in agony.

Right, so did you go back to your GP?

I did, but he didn't know what I should do about it.

So I left feeling completely fed up.

That's one of the reasons I decided to come here.

I just feel like nobody's taking this seriously.

I think it's affecting my life in lots of other ways too.

The worry's giving me insomnia for one thing.

I don't think I have actual depression, but I certainly suffer from constant anxiety about when it's going to flare up.

Is there anything that you're particularly worried you might have?

Well, I've researched this pain I'm getting.

To be honest, I'm convinced I've got fibromyalgia,

not just some simple muscle problem, because I fit most of the symptoms.

And I've had pain absolutely everywhere.

Look, I've even kept a pain diary so that I could track what I did that set it off.

You know, the weather, if I was working or not, where it was affecting me, what it felt like.

I figured out from this that it's usually in the same places that I mentioned earlier,

plus some newish places too.

My shoulders and elbows.

And I know that my knee's actually one of the more tender points for it.

What do you think?

Look, I must say from what you've told me so far that I'm concerned enough to look into that possibility.

So as a next step, we need to get you seen by a rheumatologist.

This is a notoriously difficult condition to diagnose,

as I'm sure you're aware, because so many of the symptoms overlap with other conditions too.

I won't be happy to be proved right, but I'll certainly be glad to get some answers at long last.