My First Experiences With Fibromyalgia

When I first started feeling Fibromyalgia, I thought I was getting the flu.  When the pain didn't go away I began to wonder if it was Lyme's disease because the symptoms are similar, but the tests came back negative.  Every part of me ached terribly.  I went to the hospital looking for answers, but they just tested me again for Lyme’s and told me there was nothing they could do.  They never mentioned anything about Fibromyalgia.

After a month of pain that kept getting worse, my fiancé's father urged me to see his friend, a respected orthopedic surgeon.  He and his daughter, an ER surgeon, read over my entire medical history.  They ordered blood tests to determine whether inflammation or the HLA-B27 gene was present (both of which are signs of a much more serious problem.)  Both tests came back negative.  After a complete physical examination they determined the pain is caused by Fibromyalgia.  So I have a name for the pain.  I am so grateful to these doctors for the care and concern they extended to me during a time of great distress.  Not knowing what is going on with your body can be scarier than knowing.  I know I’m not going to die from this mysterious pain.  Even so, I left the doctors’ house in tears and scared I would have to live with the pain I was feeling forever.   

So what is Fibromyalgia?  

Doctors don’t know what causes Fibromyalgia and apparently there is no cure for it.   Fibromyalgia is really just a term for pain that doctors don't understand.  Reassuring, right?  I have been told by several holistic practitioners that Fibromyalgia isn’t a disease, rather, it is a symptom of dis-ease--a symptom of imbalance in the body that causes a disruption in the internal systems.  The more I research, the more this philosophy makes sense.  I’m determined to get to the bottom of this, and I feel certain it won’t be through traditional approaches.  No offense, Western medicine...but how can you treat something when you don’t know the cause?

One of the reasons it is so difficult to diagnose and treat fibromyalgia is because often times people suffering don’t have any “readable” symptoms.   I have heard the skepticism in the voices of close friends and even family when I’ve canceled on an event or tried to explain why I wasn’t going out.  “You look fine,” they will say.  Every person I meet with Fibromyalgia has shared the similar experiences.  It breaks my heart hearing the pain in their voices when they relate that their friends and family don’t believe they are suffering or worse, that their pleas are really just a ploy for attention.   This aspect of the ‘disease’ hurts beyond belief.   To look at me, you would think I’m a picture of perfect health, but there is more to being healthy than being physically fit.  More stuff happens INSIDE the body than on the outside, but we seem to overlook these internal processes so often in our culture.  

If you have experience with Fibromyalgia...

or any chronic health issue, please share your story on the Exploring Joy Facebook page.  We must begin to communicate about these issues if we are to begin to understand them.  We aren’t progressing by keeping silent and suffering alone.