Seniors should be forewarned: there are medical conditions that are mimicked by other diseases. Problem is, they are often misdiagnosed by medical professionals – even your doctor. Here are a few of them, as well as some of the most commonly suspected diseases, just to keep you informed:
Lupus is an inflammatory disease that is characterized by energy loss and body pain. It is often misdiagnosed as simple fatigue especially when aging, muscle pain and rheumatoid arthritis. Doctors commonly detect low blood count and pleurisy in the lungs but the most significant test would be the presence of active lupus erythematosus cells. Clear indications of this illness such as butterfly rash and photosensitivity are manifested on the late part.
Parkinson’s disease is also one of the noted illnesses that is often misdiagnosed. This ailment commonly affecting the seniors has often been mistaken for Alzheimer’s, stroke, traumatic head injury and essential tremors or ET. The only way to test and verify it would be through clinical examination. The medical professional must have a keen eye and should always be open to all possible conditions. It follows that we have to be more patient when a series of tests are being done to us since this is one way to avoid misleading diagnosis.
Fibromyalgia is the widespread pain in the joints often perceived as Rheumatoid arthritis and fatigue. When our body ages, we expect that the amount of activities would be lessened. Joint pains are most of the time, normal especially when aging, but we must make sure that the pain does not reach a duration of more than 3 months and in areas less expected to experience pain.
After a walk in the woods, when you may feel like you’re going to catch a flu, then after a while you see rash in your legs and arms, you might see it as a minor allergic reaction right? Well, you have to watch out if chronic pain occurs and the rash is slowly developing into a bull’s eye formation. These are the major symptoms of Lyme’s disease due to bacterial infestation of deer ticks. Medical attention should be sought so that a dose of antibiotics would be given. If left untreated, serious complications might take place.
Multiple sclerosis is manifested by muscle spasms, balance problems, problems of the eyesight and incoherence. It mimics signs of Lupus, Alzheimer’s and bipolar disorder. Blood tests done to this patients eliminates other disorders, while lumbar puncture and Magnetic Resonance Imaging will reflect damage of the disease to the brain and spinal cord.
It would be best to take second opinion if we are not that satisfied with initial diagnosis. There are diseases that mimics other diseases’ symptoms perfectly that it has become harder to detect correctly. It is also dangerous if we are treated on the disease which we don’t have in the first place.
