Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Fibromyalgia & Face-to-Face Friendship

Saturday night I had dinner with a friend who also has Fibromyalgia.

It's great to have someone to talk to about it face-to-face. Jenni totally gets me and what I'm going through. We can help support each other, laugh together, vent about our issues, share ideas, and so on. Jenni is the only person I know in real life who has Fibro, and it's been such a blessing. She is one of Tim's classmates from high school, and I'm so thankful for the chance I've had in getting to know her. 

I loveeee getting to know all of you Fibro-mites out there. You've been so wonderful, supportive, encouraging, and a huge blessing in my life. But you know as well as I do it's different to talk to people face-to-face.

I was really looking forward to an evening of unleashing about the stresses of Fibro, and I'm so glad I was able to go. Being able to be so real with someone is exactly what I needed this weekend.


How do you all cope? Do you have friends like this in your lives? If you don't know someone in real life with Fibromyalgia, I'd encourage you to try to seek some out in whatever way works best for you... maybe that's a support group, or talking to your friends and seeing if they know anyone with it. I'm amazed at how often anymore I run across someone who knows someone with it!!

I know doing this isn't easy, but trust me it's rewarding! I was a little hesitant with Jenni at first because she was Tim's h.s. friend, but once we got to know each other, I was so glad we did!

I'm still considering the whole support group thing for myself... a bit unsure about it despite the rewards I'm positive would come from it. I just don't feel like I can squeeze one more thing on my to-do list right now. What do you think? How do you handle this?

1 comment:

Dogmom Diva said...

Rochelle, I can't believe no one has commented yet! Ooh I am first!

I have a neighbor a couple house down with fibro..she is a graphic design artist and works out of her home..they are gone for the summer to their home in the mountains (we are in the desert) but she is a good one to bounce things off of..we aren't real close as we have only known them about a year and other than that don't have a lot in common with her being so talented and artsy..and me..NOT. lol but I like Brenda very much. Other than her, I don't have anyone to really talk to about it in real life and person other than my hubs and my psychologist. My long time girlfriends are sympathetic to a point, but I feel like I sound like a broken record and I dont live very closeby to them any more and its hard for me to get in the car and drive 120 miles round trip for a visit. I feel like I don't have much to contribute anymore..and unless someone HAS it, they really don't understand as much as they may want to.

hugs
Barb

PS so glad you have a real life friend to share with now..