If You Were Able to Come Face to Face with Fibromyalgia, What Would You Say?
I am now 56 years old. I realize I lived with chronic pain and fatigue for over 15 years. In 2008 I finally found a new physician that worked with me to get a diagnosis and treatment. I was living with such pain and fatigue I could barely manage to get out of bed. I had two teenagers and was watching them through my bedroom...
View MoreGo ahead. Vent your frustrations. Share how you persevere in the face of the everyday struggles of having fibromyalgia
Dear fibromyalgia, You will not win. I am a warrior fighting for my strength and endurance every day. You are just a word that describes the pain I experience throughout my whole body. You are the burning sensations that bring throbbing deep pain trigger spots shifting from any part of my body wherever and whenever you choose. But I am the warrior that will slap a menthol patch on you and take a Flexeril and do what I intended anyway. Even as I lay on the heating pad with aching back and hips, Fibromyalgia, you are not winning.
I am resting and allowing my body a chance to reset as well, I am coping. Yes, fibromyalgia, when my mind searches relentlessly for a word or thought, I am still trying. When you attack my body as I sleep and wake up like I have moved bricks all night, you may slow me, but you are not defining me. Remember, that I am at battle every minute of every day. I too can be unstoppable. I will persevere because I still have the belief that tomorrow can be a better day. What you stop me from doing today I will work on tomorrow.
Fibromyalgia, you bring me fatigue and frustration, isolation, and pain. Yet, you also bring me courage. I now, reach out to others who suffer in hopes to help someone else cope. The courage helps to fuel my passion to create awareness for all of the millions who struggle to live with you and chronic fatigue every day. You, such an insidious disease continues to push me to advocate at a local level and even at the United States capital. Because of you, I have found my voice, and every voice matters. I am going to keep believing, have faith and hope because that is how I will win. I am like a rising phoenix that will leave you and all my pain in ashes. I will overcome and carry the message of hope to fellow warriors as we join voices to fuel funding for more research. Then you, fibromyalgia, will reign no more.
