Living With Fibromyalgia

I had no intention of putting anything on here about my fibromyalgia, but it has been something in my life I have had to deal with a lot recently and I thought others could relate or get some use from it.

I have had it since about 1994 and until recently I have done my best to ignore it. I was diagnosed when I was in high school and was very active, so I didn’t want anything to do with it. I guess I didn’t want to acknowledge that I had anything wrong with me. I think a part of me, even until recently, was embarrassed.

FM has not been accepted like other conditions, so I have always been worried what people thought of me. If someone would notice me hurting, I would just say that I have a bad back. Since I have been on my own, I have just lived with the everyday pain and discomfort; it has just become a part of my life I have come to deal with.

Every year or so I will have a flare up and be in more pain and discomfort than even I can ignore and I would seek out help from doctors, which was always nonproductive. None of them know much about fibromyalgia and would basically give me medication for whatever symptom they felt was bothering me the most, nothing to actually help my condition.

They have been doing medical research over the years on fibromyalgia and recently have even declared it a disease instead of a syndrome which was an accomplishment. However, the medical field still does not have a lot to offer. Some doctors, despite research, even now do not recognize it to the full extent.

I have had an extremely bad summer with my FM, probably my worst flare up ever, and have decided that I am going to finally deal with this. I figure that surely, someone has to have answers and can help. It has been harder than I anticipated, but I think, I have found some hope of relief.

I have been more willing to talk about it and try and seek out answers. I decided to try a Rheumatologist one more time, which was not very productive. He basically said... I can definitely confirm that you have fibromyalgia and asked me if I wanted to take medications.

I am very much against medications at this time, so said no. Before going to him I did some research on my own and went with questions in hand. Most of the questions I had for him, the response was, I have not seen a study on that. I have to say he was better than many doctors, because he was willing to admit that the medical field still does not fully understand FM.

He did give me the name of a book, "Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain A Survival Manual Second Edition". It was written by two doctors that actually have FM, and I have been really impressed by it so far (I just started reading it). I would definitely suggest it to anyone dealing with this, or their family. I have also found someone, by sheer coincidence, which has FM as well, with very similar symptoms.

It is nice to put a face to another person that I can relate to, and not just be someone you read about. Between research and talking with people, I feel very encouraged that I can cope with this in a healthy way, and not push is aside like I have done so well in the past. I encourage anyone going through any difficult medical issue to take an active role and find what will work for you and do it.