My Fibromyalgia Story, Part 1

On this special "holiday" that is used to raise awareness for Fibromyalgia, I thought I'd recap my story for those who are new to my site.

I started having some strange tingling in my left arm on August 17, 2006. I went straight to one of my coworkers because I was completely freaked out. I'm no small cookie, so I was scared, of course, about my heart. This coworker thought maybe it was a pinched nerve though, and not to be too worried because I didn't have any other heart attack type symptoms. (Whew! Although I know that can be a bit of a guessing game....) So he immediately recommended a chiropractor nearby, and he was able to get me in just about an hour later.

I was again a bit freaked out, never having been to a chiropractor before and having heard horror stories. But the guy I met was a really nice, gentle, Christian man who really helped me feel better. He also believed it was likely a pinched nerve, and started having me come 3x a week. Thankfully it was close by and I went for a couple months very regularly. But after a while, I started to have doubts that it was helping me, and I was getting close to hitting my limit for chiropractic care, so I backed off to once a week and then once every other week. Eventually I stopped going altogether because I didn't see much benefit.

I started to wonder how this could be a pinched nerve that eventually led to all over body pain. I was surprised he hadn't taken any X-Rays. I was hearing some things that made me wonder about what good this was doing, and instead concentrated on the bad things. I had to really be assertive about certain things, and didn't understand why he wasn't more proactively telling me things to be thinking about or looking into.

I'd been researching online a lot. I didn't understand all that was happening with my body. I started having horrible IBS and acid reflux. My doctor sent me to a gastroenteroligist who sent me in for a gastroscopy to make sure I didn't have an ulcer (I didn't), later sent me in for a gallbladder ultrasound after having a lot of pain in that region, then a gallbladder scan, and eventually sent me away with just some meds for the acid reflux and a "hope it goes away" and some slight diet restrictions. After months of avoiding tomatoes, orange juice, and other highly acidic foods/drinks, I slowly tried them again and seemed just fine.

But I still kept experiencing strange things, weird sensations, tingling, numbness, sleep disturbances, groggy feeling, lessing in my alertness, utter fatigue; sensitivity to light, smells, and spices; and various other odd things.

After 7 months of this, my husband and I ran across some chronic illness information. We decided to go to the library to look at some books to learn more about my symptoms and what was going on.

I don't remember all the details of why/how we got there, but I remember vividly picking up a book that Saturday afternoon (that now I don't recall the title of), sitting on a chair in the library, opening up to a particular section, and literally sobbing right there (thankfully no one was nearby and telling me to shhhhh!).

I had just read the story of someone almost exactly like me. Same symptoms. Same problems. Same attempts with doctors. Caused by a car accident.

I had just read about someone with Fibromyalgia. And a turning point in my life happened right in that library. In February of 2007. With my beloved husband beside me... both of us happy that it finally had a name... probably.

To be continued...