Fatty Deposits / Dercum's Disease

[MEL0129 9]

Does anyone have this?

[MEL0129 9]

I have another concern about fatty deposits that are concentrated in my thighs and arms. They are encapsulated within a Calcium shell. They go through flares, causing them to press on nerves. They can be very painful and make weight loss very hard to achieve. This condition is also called adipose dolarsia or Dercum's Disease.

[livingwithdercums 0]

HI

I have had Dercum's for over 25 years now.....

I used to be very slim and active but following a car accident I very quickly put on a huge amount

of weight even though I did not eat much more or do less than I had previously....

all the doctors I saw said I was eating too much and needed more exercise...no one believed me when I said I was not over eating.........

I also had a lot of pain in my bones and muscles as well as pain in my body fat (which doctors told me was impossible)

I had trouble sleeping,felt hot all the time,had memory and concentration problems and many more symptoms..

it was all put down to the car accident and I was given painkillers....

I soon developed some very noticeable lumps under my skin which were very painful ...

my doctor told me they were lipomas and did not hurt...but they did !!

I googled painful fat/lipomas and pages and pages about Dercums came up.. .

When I started to read it my stomach hit the ground,it was like reading all about me !!

wow,I wasn't going nuts after all !!!

I read that Dercum's often seems to be triggered by trauma or even stress..

and that it often causes generalized obesity as well as the fatty tumors....

looking back I can remember slight symptoms and changes to my body but my troubles blew up after my car accident..

I have been able to keep my weight steady but just cannot lose it as the fatigue and pain makes exercise difficult.

I have since been to a pain clinic as well as my general practitioner who have found a pain med schedule that works well enough for me to be just comfortable at rest..if I over do things I pay for days afterwards

.There is not much else to do except surgical removal of the worst lipomas...

Sadly I have arthritis in my right knee and need a knee replacement urgently so my doctor referred me to get

Gastric sleeve surgery to get my weight down so that I have the best outcome from the knee surgery.Apparently Gastric sleeve surgery is quite good for those with DD according to several women on DD forums that I have spoken to who have had it done.

I am waiting on the public list to get it done as I do not have private health insurance and cannot afford to pay outright.

[MEL0129 9]

Thank you for responding to my post. I understand how you feel. However, I can't get my doctor to add Dercum's as an official diagnosis. He says he agrees with me. I found it out of frustration. After many nights of no sleep from my legs aching and hurting, I was massaging my legs and realized many nodules under the skin that were very painful. So, one night I googled "painful, tender nodules under skin". Dercum's was the first thing that came up. Right away I knew I had found the answer. All the symptoms you mentioned, fatigue, intolerance to extremes in temperature, pain, brain fog. I've had a partial knee replacement this past Feb. Still, whatever I do, I pay for it for days, aching and sore all over. My doctor only knows what I've introduced him to about Dercum's. I'm in SC, and I've only met 2 people who know what it is, both nurses. It's very frustrating, lonely, and depressing. Friends do not understand. I'm jumping all around. I have too many in my thighs to have them removed. The doctor doing the ultrasound showed me on the screen what looked like layers of eggs in my legs. He told me that I could.not get them removed because they are so many in my legs. I don't know what to do.