I’m working on figuring that out myself. Sometimes it’s easier than other times…for instance, I know when it’s osteoarthritis regarding knee pain, as I had that before diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Same with the very specific back pain I get from a cyst around my spine. I can differentiate it from the general less exact back pain I get from fibromyalgia and over doing it. Again, I had the back cyst for years . The fibro back pain I have is new and more related to over doing things. I don’t know if that helps or not, it’s just my experience. I have also wondered how to know when something fixable is wrong, vs the pain of a fibro flare. I don’t want to run to the dr for all the varied pains I experience - but so far it seems to me that my fibro pain comes in flares, according to my activities, while injuries or other painful health issues tend to eventually differentiate themselves. Fibro pain flares for me come with pronounced fatigue and brain fog, which I don’t normally get with osteoarthritis or other pains. Sorry for rambling - I’m not sure if you meant it the way I understood it but you got me on a roll

@A MyFibroTeam Member your answer was perfect. We need to sort things into fibromyalgia, not fibromyalgia categories so other ailments don't progress too far.

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A MyFibro...

It can be overwhelming to constantly be sorting it out- like sometimes it seems it is consuming my life trying to describe, identify, attend to the pain, etc etc

Having much experience with sorting, I knew that my new symptoms over the past 2 years, which began accelerating in number and intensity last spring weren't fibromyalgia. I persservered with my doctor and my husband advocated for me. I finally got a diagnosis. It's white matter disease, possibly MS. Progression will slow and possibly stop if I can get my blood pressure under control.