I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2003 after experiencing symptoms for over a year and in the years since then I sometimes believe that maybe, just maybe, I am slowly curing myself, if that’s even possible.
Or I think that maybe it is not possible to totally repair whatever has caused this condition, but maybe I am managing the symptoms so well by now that sometime I will get to the point where I am mostly in a remission of sorts (again, if that’s possible). The improvements have been so gradual over the years that sometimes I only notice them when I realize that something that was an issue or a difficulty for me a year ago is no longer an issue.
“Is fibromyalgia real?” some ask.
What I know IS real is that something certainly changed in my body back in 2002 and I’ve been fighting to change it back ever since.
I think maybe I’ve always had a unique approach to fighting fibromyalgia, right from the start. I was able to do this because I have fought another ongoing life-affecting condition earlier in my life, and I immediately went into this same “combat mode” (as I think of it) again, even before I knew the diagnosis of what disease or condition I was actually dealing with.
Many times over the years I have wondered if I should share my experiences and approach, that maybe I could help others by writing about my life with fibromyalgia. However, I realize any condition or disease like this is very unique to each individual. My experiences and responses with managing fibromyalgia are based on how and why I developed fibromyalgia and who I am and how I deal with life.
BUT……the nagging thought keeps coming back to me….to share all I have learned and know about managing fibromyalgia through well over a decade of living with it and experiencing it firsthand without ongoing medications. Without medications to help me feel better I have learned how to make myself feel better on my own.
Other than an initial diagnosis, I have not had a doctor’s help with fibromyalgia. I have a great doctor; I have just not felt I needed to ask for help yet. I keep finding my own strategies which leads me to think that perhaps my experiences could be used by others to supplement their own current strategies, just as, over the years, I have constantly sought information from others that I could use in my battle.
I do not have any of my years of experience with fibromyalgia recorded anywhere, other than a couple emails I sent to my siblings a few years ago to, for the first time, let them in on details of my experiences living with fibromyalgia. For most of the time, I have not wanted to think too much about it, as that has been a very key element of my fibromyalgia experience….for the most part I have “minimized” it in my mind, so as not to give fibromyalgia that much power over me. In fact, most people I know (even some family members until recently) don’t know I have fibromyalgia. Because I have not recorded almost all of my life with fibromyalgia, as I continue to write this blog, it will likely jump from one time period or experience to another, as I get ideas or prompted by others.
Finally, the approach I have taken is not rocket science, lots is just living healthy, as we should be striving for anyways….I guess I’ve just had to do it.
Again, I definitely don’t think I am an expert…..but I don’t hear of others with fibromyalgia feeling like they are improving in the way that I am.
So maybe I have something to offer, even if it’s just reinforcing ideas other fibromyalgia sufferers are wondering about or helping to inform those that still ask “Is fibromyalgia real?”….maybe what I know is real can shed some light for someone else.
