Christina Garcia's Story

What were the steps leading up to your diagnosis?

In 1999, my life as I knew it my dreams of my future was about to change forever drastically.

My first diagnosis was mixed connective tissue disease, but quickly changed to fibromyalgia and over the years has manifested into many other issues.

I have been through the beginning of fibromyalgia in the country, you know, before it got its own medical code which was to be the turn around for us fibromyalgia suffers.

Honestly, I see no difference.

What lifestyle changes have you needed to make?

Oh yeah, a life, I use to have one of those.

I used to be a social butterfly and the go-to girl for fun. We had a group we called the Ready-to-Go crew, and we always were, but now it's still around. I'm just not a part of it anymore.

My kids are almost all grown and gone. My oldest son is 22 years old, and he remembers the past me.

My middle son is 18 years old and attending Auburn University but hasn't spoken to me since Mother's Day, which was four months ago. After I almost missed his graduation. Who can blame him? I left the ticket in the car a mile away and had to walk there and back crying the whole way because he was born the year fibromyalgia struck my life, so he doesn't remember the old me.

His father raised him took him away for a few years, and we have drifted apart. I'm estranged from most of my family and friends due to fibromyalgia.

I have a daughter who is 12 years old and is getting the worst part of it. She never knew me happy and fun. She only knows the mother who's in pain, who can't remember things, and who isn't like her friends' mothers.

Life has gotten even worse, and I have fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, bipolar 1, rapid mix cycling with psychosis, APS, bilateral vestibular loss, and severe depression.

Who has been there for you? How?

Nobody's here for me. The people that do come around me still are here for me to do something for them. They come in they asked me, "If I have this or that." I give it to them, and I don't see them again until they need something else.

I never hear them ask, "What can I do for you?" and "What can I do to help you?"

What accomplishment are you proud of?

Wow, that's a hard question to answer. It used to be not a hard question, but now I don't even think I have an answer anymore.

What's your advice to someone else living with Fibromyalgia?

My advice to you is to love yourself, take your time, and ask for help if you need it. Just put your pride aside and let people know that.

Document everything, always go to your doctor appointments, see specialists, search for answers, and file for disability before your work credits run out.

Don't always think that the doctors are documenting your illnesses, your symptoms, and your medication. Properly check and make sure that they're recording, and if they are not – make them do it.

Never allow anybody mistreat you, doctors included.

Look deep inside yourself and find your inner strength, and when you do, hold onto it tight because it's going to be the only thing that gets you through this ride.

Is there anything else we should know?

What's unique about me? Nothing at all. I'm just a 38-year-old mother of three who refuses to stay down. I have fibromyalgia, but fibromyalgia doesn't have me.