You’d think it would be a red flag. But, especially when you’re chronically ill, you pretty much have to force doctors to pay attention to things.

A while back my wife lost roughly 80lbs over the course of less than a year without any significant diet changes and zero exercise - but a whole lot of attempted treatment for Cluster Headaches. Then one day she started having extreme pain all over her body - like she couldn’t be touched, took 10-15 minutes to walk up a flight of stairs because her legs hurt so bad, her feet swelled up so much she couldn’t wear her regular shoes, and gained 15 lbs in the span of 2 days. It subsided before she could see a doctor, but the weight gain never went away, and then the same thing happened again 2 weeks later.

Finally got into a doctor, told her everything... doc compared my wife’s weight with her visit several months prior and said “that’s fairly normal for that amount of time” (the time between her previous visit and this one) and interpreted my wife’s description of events as “sometimes you’re [slumps shoulders and sighs loudly] just so exhausted and everything feels like too much, yeah?”- ended up diagnosing her with “chronic fatigue syndrome”.

When I interjected and pointed out that the weight gain was sudden over only a couple days, not months, and included severe swelling, she acted confused and claimed “that’s not what your wife just told me” (it was), then seemed to believe that I was concerned about her weighing too much rather than it being a red flag, and proceeded to condescendingly explain to me how women’s bodies work specifically in regards to weight gain while on her period (she wasn’t).

Unsatisfied with that answer, we got a recommendation to see a rheumatologist, who almost immediately recognized the symptoms as Fibromyalgia, even explained how doctors often miss it because they incorrectly believe it’s a catch-all term for “we don’t know why you’re in pain”, and gave us a preprinted chart that referenced every single one of my wife’s symptoms at the exact pressure points where they occur.

She ended up repeating the cycle until she gained back all the weight she previously lost in the span of a few months - again with no diet changes - and for the most part every doctor she’s seen since hasn’t even acknowledged it, aside from a few comments about weight gain being unhealthy (you don’t say?!).