You will find my take on Fibromyalgia a bit different than most. In this book you will discover what methods I have tried and used to mitigate Fibromyalgia as much as possible, and more to the point, what has actually worked. You will also experience what it feels like to have this condition through a little bit of humor, because if I didn't laugh, I'd have to cry. I have had this crazy condition for most of my life but wasn't diagnosed until recently and now it all makes sense. Well, as much sense as you can make out of a condition that leaves no stone unturned in your body. This isn't meant to demean this mysterious disorder that affects from three to six percent of the population, most being women. There is probably more than that, but because of the medical community's hesitance to even acknowledge this very real syndrome, it will likely be a long time before we really know what the true numbers are.

             Not everyone who has this condition sees the doctor whether from lack of insurance or just not wanting to deal with it by ignoring it. Fibromyalgia doesn't just go away. It takes a change in lifestyle but it can be a good change. Life can actually be better than it was before.I've chosen to deal with it through humor and positive thought.  You have to when every single patient's symptoms vary. No two Fibro Friends are alike. And just when you think you have it all under control, up pops another fibro symptom. I'm beginning to wonder if fibro is some kind of gypsy curse from generations past and it landed on me. 

            "I curse your family!  No wait, I have a better idea. I curse your great-great granddaughter with a stupid condition that makes her want to gnaw her foot off."  Well guess what, Brunhilda, it worked!

* * * * * * *

I breathed in and out and sat down waiting once again for another doctor. And then she came in. 

            I'd like to say that I heard angel's singing or saw an aura of white around her but I didn't. I was sitting there ready for another round of "Let's guess what Beth is experiencing?"

            At first it started like all the others."You sure have a long list of ongoing symptoms here."(Snicker from doctor.)  "I don't know what to tell you."(She didn't know where to begin.)"All your tests have come back normal." 

            She pored over my three-inch-thick pile of doctor's notes from all of the specialists I had been seeing while trying to chase down what I had.  

            She circled certain symptoms and then took off her glasses. 

            "What is it that you want to hear?"

            No one had asked me that before. I thought for a moment and then began to cry from relief.  She was listening.

            "I just want a diagnosis. I want to be told that this is something that is physical and not just brushed off that it's stress."

            She looked me over. "What do you do for a living?"

            "I'm a positive thought author and speaker." 

            She laughed aloud.  "You're a positive thought author? How are you staying positive through all this?"

            My husband interrupted. "She does, even through her tears." My heart swelled as I fell in love with him again. He had my pain-filled back.

            She rattled off some tests they would be doing. "We're going to connect you to some probes that will read your brain activity and we are also going to rule out Lupus. We're going to check your muscles and a few other things. Are you up for that?"  I nodded, knowing that it didn't matter as long as there was the possibility of an answer. 

            "Could you hop up on the table please?"

            "She can't hop anymore," my husband grinned. I walked over and did my best to get up on the table.  She checked my reflexes and found that I couldn't extend my foot. 

            "Anyone ever check this?"

            "Nope," I said. My confidence was rising.  Finally someone checked something that hurt. She checked my elbows, neck, and knees.  I jumped through the roof.

            "I barely touched you. Has anyone checked this before?"  She had a look in her eye like she actually might know what was going on.

            I smiled.  "No, but it hurts."

            "So I think I know what's wrong with you."

            That is when the angel chorus went into high gear. Someone might have an answer?  She believes me!!

            "I think you have Fibromyalgia."

            She took my symptom checklist and ticked them off. 

            "Let's do the testing for all the things it could be and then we'll say for sure."

            I went in for my brain wave test which really wasn't a bad experience. They put gel in my hair and placed probes on my sleep deprived head to read the rhythm of my brain.  I fell asleep on the table and even got a nice new hairdo―gel and all―out of the deal.  We went back to her office.

            "Everything looks pretty normal.  You do have an unusual rhythm to the brain but that's not really a problem."

            "Okay! That explains it," my husband teased.

            "So I'm going to give you what you want. Here's a diagnosis..." 

            What I'd been waiting for was about to happen. Someone understood, someone believes me, someone is going to make it all go away.

            "You have Fibromyalgia. It isn't curable at the moment. We can only treat the symptoms.  It's not life threatening even though it feels that way.  It's possible that it is located in the central nervous system.  Your body is saying that it is in pain when it isn't supposed to but still we're not quite sure why it happens. 

            "There are many theories as to what causes Fibromyalgia and what it actually is.  We're researching and trying to figure out what it is but it's all speculation right now. Some don't believe that it's even a disorder but we're finding that it's a real physical condition.

            "It's considered a syndrome because there are only symptoms involved.  I believe it will be considered a disease not too far down the road. Not every FM patient has the same symptoms.  Some have just a few that are a mild annoyance, and some have more severe ones like you have. 

            "There are some things you can do but it's really going to be trial and error since every patient with FM is different. So let's start with this." 

            She handed me a prescription.

            "YAY! I have something. It isn't all in my mind.  I mean . . . what?  Not curable?  Don't really know why it happens?  Only speculation?  No miracle pill?"

              So I got what I wanted, a diagnosis.  I had Fibromyalgia. I had the sniffing, sneezing, coughing, aching so you can't rest disorder and you wouldn't believe what I was going to have to do in order to get my life back.   It was like an animal, sometimes predictable and sometimes unpredictable, but you are always on the alert just in case it decides to bite.

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