Learn how Fibromyalgia is diagnosed, including key symptoms, diagnostic criteria, and the tests used to rule out other conditions.
Recently I posed a question in Fibromyalgia Support Group, our support site on Facebook. I am looking for more information about this Fibro-monster, but not what I can pull up in a quick Google search or another strange set of statistics gathered from who knows where. I want real honest to goodness patient-based information from the patients I interact with every day. The real people that have this illness. For there has got to be…
A thought just suddenly popped in my head, seemingly from nowhere, and I am finally able to put my finger on exactly what the stigma of Fibromyalgia brings to the table. See it’s not that we don’t want to get better or are lazy or are working the disability system or are crazy, drug-seeking or just feeling the normal aches and pains of age. That is what the ignorant must believe for some odd reason…
I had an extremely eye-opening and revealing thing happen to me this weekend. Whilst I was dealing with some minor family upset, I Fibro–crashed. All my energy had been spent and exhaustion socked me square in the jaw. I became stiff and inflamed all over my body. I hurt and no position made me comfortable, sitting, standing, lying down, it all just ached. I became foggy and hazy in my brain and the slightest bit…
As I have been opening my mouth more and more about Fibromyalgia, The Crusade, awareness, and the general passion of my life to anyone and everyone that will listen I keep having positive experiences! Where I used to get glazed over expressions of distracted disinterest I am now finding myself bombarded with questions of genuine curiosity. I don’t know if the difference is me or Fibro. No longer mopey and sad-faced as I mumble that…
As most of us are well acquainted, the color of our support ribbon is purple. Purple is a traditional color of royalty, the color of the Crown Chakra which is linked to the crown of the head, the nervous system, and the brain (okay can someone please say Fibromyalgia!), and is representative of pure thought. The Purple Heart represents courage in the military and pride in Christianity, just to name a few of its associations.…
I frequently find myself either bitterly acting out or saying this to those around me. Apologizing to those whose lives are affected by my illness, as though it is something I did or like or want or don’t suffer horribly from myself. As hard as Fibromyalgia is to manage, the guilt on top of everything else is ridiculous! Do other chronic illness sufferers feel the same way or is this particular to our condition because…
I am sick of apologizing for being me. I am sick of apologizing for being sick and not as productive or efficient or clear-headed as I once was. I am sick of apologizing for the passion that consumes me to get Fibromyalgia out of my brain and actually doing something to better our lives. I am sick of apologizing for not going to bed early enough or keeping my house clean enough or taking the…
I am launching THE FIBROMYALGIA CRUSADE! I am a Fibromyalgia patient, not a doctor, scientist, researcher, or Ph.D. I am a real woman living a real-life with a real disease that receives little to no respect or understanding from the world at large. I became ill in 2005 and have devoted the last 5 years of my life to overcome the debilitating and miserable reality that is living with Fibromyalgia. My medical history is complex.…
I attended the birthday party of a good friend last night. Just an intimate and impromptu get-together at her house, I found myself given the opportunity for the first time since I have taken up the proverbial Fibromyalgia cross to promote my condition and raise awareness, the new charge of my life. But I was at a loss as to how to explain it without launching into 20 minutes of background information to answer each…
Fibromyalgia has come a long way since I was diagnosed in 2006. The FDA approved Lyrica a year later and overnight it went from “being in your head” to a real condition…for some medical professionals. Not all jumped on the bandwagon because there is still no definitive test to confirm the diagnosis, but it was mildly legitimized. At least there was a sector that believed us, that we were hurting, throbbing, on fire inside, crushing…