Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia

Information Page

Most people knew me as a survivor: a product of a broken home, raised by an aunt and uncle who never seemed to care, a childhood I would like to forget and a marriage that took it's toll on my mental and physical being. Life couldn't get any worse!!! After my divorce, I thought things would be different: I would make a new start by getting the college education I had foregone after high school and obtain a job that would allow me to raise my family in the manner which they deserved. The transition from low self-esteem to liking who I was took many years. Even when the doctors told me that osteoarthritis would put me in a wheelchair at much too young an age, I wouldn't let it send me back to the depths of depression and worthlessness. When life took it's little shortcuts and placed barriers in the way of my success, I managed to get over them. I survived being a mother and father to my children, a student who would take nothing less than the highest grades, an employee who worked three jobs just to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads, and a friend to anyone who needed one. Yes, I was a survivor until that final barrier, a barrier so high it nearly drove me to the brink of disaster.

In 1994, I was completing my first year as a Doctoral student and working as a research assistant for the Cooperative Extension Service. I loved the work because it allowed for more than just the normal daily routine of a teaching assistant. I taught classes off campus, I researched health care issues for the elderly, had my very first Distance Learning experience, and assisted in the writing of an ElderCare Handbook. In addition, I was student coordinator for the MSU/Kappa Omicron Nu (the Human Ecology Honor Society)Mentoring program through my college, gave lectures on welfare reform and single parenting, attended several conferences including a Student Government conference in Washington, DC where I was asked to speak on campus childcare needs. I was also coordinator for the university housing Single Parent Network, active in university housing government and a member of several campus committees. I enjoyed the hectic pace and to this day I do not believe my activities led to the barrier I was about to encounter.

It was near the end of the Spring semester when I began to feel as though I couldn't go through life another day. I had pain yet there was no apparent reason for that pain. I didn't feel well physically or emotionally, yet everyone told me I was the picture of health. It was definitely time to see a doctor!!

I told the doctor all the symptoms I was having and a complete physical was done, including lab tests. Aside from a high blood glucose level (I had been a diet-controlled diabetic for years) and an elevated cholesteral level, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with me. I was sent to a variety of specialists who poked and prodded and found nothing (at least nothing that would explain the pain)!! Was this pain real or "all in my head"? My doctor didn't think so - why did she believe me when no one else did? It came down to that last specialist, the one who would confirm her suspicions. I had Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

So what was this disease that was making my life so miserable? And why didn't people believe me when I told them the diagnosis? A new doctor, this time a Rheumatologist, helped me to understand a little more about the syndrome and suggested I read several books or search the internet. It was then that I found I wasn't alone and it wasn't "all in my head"!! It has been 5 years since my diagnosis and I still don't know all there is to know about Fibromyalgia, but with the help of others who share my pain (and the multitude of medications) I manage to get through each day as best I can.