Fibromyalgia And Mercury Poisoning: What Happens If Doctors Misdiagnose You With The Wrong Condition?

If doctors previously diagnosed you with fibromyalgia, but recent new medical tests reveal that you suffer from mercury poisoning instead of fibromyalgia, speak to a personal injury attorney. You may be able to file a medical malpractice case against the doctors to obtain compensation for the health complications caused by the misdiagnosis. Fibromyalgia is one of the most misdiagnosed health conditions today because of how it mimics other conditions. However, some medical problems, such as mercury poisoning, may go undiagnosed because they mimic fibromyalgia and other conditions that affect multiple body systems. If you don't receive the right diagnosis early for mercury poisoning, your health may become worse over time. Here are things to know about mercury poisoning, why it's misdiagnosed and why it's important to hire an attorney to help you win personal injury benefits for your case.

What's Mercury and How Does It Get Into Your Body?

Mercury is an element used to make thermometers, lighting, dental fillings, and other types of applications. When used properly and under controlled circumstances, mercury may not cause great harm to the body. However, you can obtain mercury poisoning in your body when you ingest, inhale or touch it, such as consuming too much seafood or eating seafood high in mercury.

Although all fish contain small amounts of mercury, some types of seafood contain very higher levels of the element than others, including mackerel and swordfish. But for some people, even consuming seafood with small traces or amounts of mercury can be unknowingly dangerous for their health, especially if they eat the food all the time. Mercury can build up in your body until you develop strange symptoms that mimic other medical conditions, such as fibromyalgia.

Why Is Mercury Poisoning Misdiagnosed?

Many physicians may often overlook mercury poisoning because they may place their focus on diagnosing fibromyalgia instead. Fibromyalgia normally affects the musculoskeletal system but may also cause problems with the immune and digestive systems. Because fibromyalgia has the ability to affect multiple body systems, it's often difficult to diagnose properly by urine or blood tests. Instead, doctors generally examine you physically and ask you questions about your symptoms, such as how long you have experienced pain and where.

Fibromyalgia causes headaches, exhaustion, muscle weakness, and a host of other symptoms that hinder your ability to live a healthy, productive lifestyle. These symptoms also occur in mercury poisoning. But since fibromyalgia also mimics osteoarthritis and other types of conditions that weaken muscle and bone tissue, doctors try to rule the mimicked illnesses out first before making a final diagnosis. In a number of case, the doctors perform tests to find specific signs of the other illnesses.

For example, osteoarthritis damages the joints of your body. Doctors check the fluids between your joints to see if they're inflamed or damaged. The doctors may not look for signs of mercury in your blood or urine because they may not suspect it.

What Happens After You're Finally Diagnosed With Mercury Poisoning?

After the doctors rule out other medical conditions, they may diagnose you with fibromyalgia. The medications you take for fibromyalgia may not work properly because you don't have the condition. By the time a physician checks your blood for unexplained ailments, it may be too late. In most cases, your health declines even further as the mercury in your body spreads to your organs, blood and cells, such as your kidneys and lungs.

Doctors will then need to find out what type of mercury poisoning you have in order to provide the right treatment. For instance, methylmercury poisoning wreaks havoc with your nervous system, which is the system that controls the functions of your brain, nerves, spinal cord, and many other organs. You may require additional medical care and benefits for the medications you need to function if the poison damages your vision, cognitive functions or ability to breathe properly. 

A personal injury attorney may pursue a case against the doctors who initially misdiagnosed you with fibromyalgia. An attorney may want to know if the doctors only based their diagnoses on your physical symptoms for fibromyalgia and the conditions that mimic it, or if the doctors performed detailed and thorough blood and urine tests on your entire body just to be sure there was nothing else wrong with you. 

If you complained to the doctors about the fibromyalgia treatment's inability to control your symptoms, an attorney may want to know how long you complained to the doctors and when. If the doctors ignored your complaints and didn't pursue other testing methods early on, they may be negligent in your care. An early diagnosis and treatment plan for your mercury poisoning may have prevented the additional health problems you face now. An attorney may be able to use the information above to win your benefits.

For more information about mercury poisoning and filing a medical malpractice case, contact a personal injury attorney like those from Stapleton Law Offices.