In 2009 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Living with fibromyalgia hasn’t been an easy journey either. I was so scared because I had no idea what was wrong with me. I felt like I got run over by a truck and wearing clothes hurt. Before my diagnosis, I visited the hospital several times, and they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. So, I became my own advocate. I kept researching until I found doctors that believed me and helped me during this hard time.
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Due to attendance issues at work, I was forced to try and come up with a reasonable explanation. So far, doctors had blamed menstrual woes as a major cause of my problem. The all-over pain was explained to me as "all in my head." Finally, I was referred to a rheumatologist who did blood tests and X-rays. Now this was 30+ years ago and no one had heard of it, but I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was given pain medication, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory and…
About seven years ago I started suffering from pain in my body and fatigue. My primary doctor told me it was stress and extra weight and that all I needed to do was exercise every day and not stress. She put me on steroids for the inflammation in my neck/back. When that didn't work, she had an X-ray done, which showed nothing. As years passed I wasn't getting better. I was having a hard time lifting my arms from the nerve pain. My PCP retired…
My fibro story starts eight years ago. It wasn't a climactic beginning; it was just achey low back pain that got worse the longer I sat writing my MA thesis. It seemed like a common enough problem to have, except for the fact that I was 23. The nurse told me to take ibuprophen 24/7 and stretch. About a year later, I developed chronic pelvic pain (vulvodynia). I diagnosed myself and had to return home from working abroad to pursue treatment. During that time, my…
I have advanced spinal degenerative disc disease; I lost two discs before 40, developed spondylothesis (twisted spine), and had a spinal fusion after having one if my discs removed. I developed fibromyalgia over two years ago after my operation. It took me two years to get diagnosed with this condition. I have been to hell and back. I have been off work sick more times than I've been off work over the past two and a half years. I suffer exhaustion, widespread pain, especially in…
The steps that lead up to my diagnosis were long — it took three years for me to receive my diagnosis. To be honest I think it took me the first two years to really realize something was really wrong with me. I'm the type that does not go to the doctors unless absolutely necessary; so when I finally reached that point I would say my fibromyalgia was live and in living color. The pain and fatigue was unbearable at that point. Fibromyalgia runs in…
One morning, I woke up to pain in my hands, arms, feet, and legs. My hands were very stiff. My veins were popping out as well. I was feeling very tired, almost lethargic. Trying to move was extremely difficult; it felt like I was being stabbed by a thousand needles all at once. It lasted for a couple of hours, then disappeared. A couple of days later, the same exact pain came back in all areas of my body. Unlike the last time, the pain…
I began by searching the symptoms I was experiencing online. I then came across other people experiencing similar symptoms and was almost positive that I knew what I was suffering from. The excruciating pain continued, so I found myself in the emergency room many times all to be disappointed because I left the same way I came in, without any answers. All the tests came back negative. This went on for months, until one of the doctors told me I was suffering from fibromyalgia. At…
After 15 years of chronic depression, bipolar depression, and chronic pain illnesses, my primary doctor finally discovered that I was suffering from fibromyalgia. I suffered many migraines and low back and muscle pain most of my life. My life was full of miserable appointments with many specialists, and not one ever had a solution but only said, "it's all in your head!" That's when I knew to seek another opinion. My family doctor did not give up on me and it was the best decision…
Fifteen years ago I was a single parent of a young son and I had the energy to go from zero to 60 in a second with no issues at all. I was like the Energizer bunny and found myself working as much as 90 hours in a week in my corporate career. It didn't take long for that to come to a screeching halt. I developed a migraine that simply would not go away! I had suffered with migraines, some level of fatigue, irritable…
I was reading incessantly, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. When I found a scholarly medical journal about fibromyalgia, I was astonished, 100 pages in, I had EVERY symptom in the book! Literally. I thought maybe I was being biased, so I decided to scroll through to a random page, and if I had the symptom on that page, then I'd believe it. I ended up on a page about Morton’s toe, which a pedicurist had told me earlier that week that…
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