Fibro background

A little bit of background on my fibromyalgia. I’ve had a history of arthritis since childhood up until my late teens. When I became an adult it seemed to subside with only minor to moderate flare-ups on occasion. Then when I hit my late 30’s it came back with a vengeance. The pain went being mild/moderate to moderate/severe and it’s been at that level ever since.

In the March of 2008, I noticed I was becoming more fatigued and had a general over-all feeling of illness, almost like I had the flu. It felt like I was falling apart. I was so sick. I knew something else was wrong with me. Instead of the pain being in my joints, it was now in my muscles and the aches felt like I had a bad case of the flu. I made an appointment to see my doctor. He pressed on the spots that were sore and then, after me saying “ouch” a number of times, he said, “You have fibromyalgia.”

I was so shocked! I thought he must be wrong. I had flu-like symptoms and I felt like there was something terribly wrong. And I was right. It was fibromyalgia. I had read about it before and thought there’s no way I could have that, I don’t have all those symptoms. So I went home and looked it up on the internet. Apparently you don’t have to have all of those symptoms to be diagnosed with it.

So I thought back to when some of those symptoms first appeared and wondered if I had it back when the arthritis first came back. I still don’t know for sure, I’m still debating. But one thing I do know for sure, my life has been altered. The lives of my children and husband have been affected too. That part hurts worse, knowing this condition has changed others lives. I wish it didn’t. The children have been good sports about it. They don’t complain and are real troopers when it comes to dealing with it.

I’ve decided after much moaning and complaining that the better way to deal with this is to try to be more positive and let prayer work for me. Complaining about it, although therapeutic, may actually be doing more harm than good. So I’ll try to complain less and think “happy thoughts.”  Yeah right.

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