My Name is Fibromyalgia

Again, I stole this from the same poster as the last post. It explains my condition very well.

My name is Fibromyalgia, and I'm an Invisible, Chronic Illness. I am now velcroed to you for life. Others around you can't see me or hear me, but YOUR body feels me. I can attack you anywhere and anyhow I please. I can cause severe pain or, if I'm in a good mood, I can just cause you to ache all over. Remember when you and Energy ran around together and had fun? I took Energy from you, and gave you Exhaustion. Try to have fun now I also took good sleep from you and in its place gave you Brain Fog. I can make you tremble internally or make you feel cold or hot when everyone else feels normal. Oh, yeah, I can make you feel anixious or depressed, too. If you have something planned, or are looking forward to a great day, I can take that away, too. You didn't ask for me. I chose you for various reasons. Maybe it was that bad fall or the virus you never recovered from. Anyway I'm here to stay I hear you're going to see a doctor who can't get rid of me. I'm rolling on the floor laughing, tell him to keep trying. You will have to go to many, many doctors until you find one who can help you effectively. You will be put on pain pills, sleeping pills, energy pills, told you are suffering from anxiety or depression, given a tens unit, get massaged, told if you just sleep and exercise properly I will go away, told to think positively, poked, prodded, and MOST OF ALL not taken as seriously as you feel when you cry to the doctor how depressing life is everyday. Your family, friends and children will all listen to you until they just get tired of hearing about how I make you feel, and that I'm a debilitating disease. Some of them will say things like Oh you are just having a bad day or Well, remember, you can't do the things you used to do 2 years ago . Some will just start talking behind your back, while you slowly feel that you are losing your dignity trying to make them understand, especially when you are in the middle of a conversation with a ………..Normal…………person, and can't remember what you were going to say next In closing (I hoped to keep this part a secret) I guess you already found out...the only place you can get any support and understanding in dealing with me is with other people with Fibromyalgia.

TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY:

I stole this from a group post but it's my thoughts to a tee so I had to post it. I hope it helps everyone I know understand how I feel.

I look normal. Don't let my outward appearance fool you; I am in pain. I am not the same person I was a year ago, or two years ago, or 4, depending on when it was you last saw me. I look healthy; I am not. My condition changes from day to day, sometimes even hour to hour. Today I might be able to walk with you a few miles; tomorrow I may not even be able to get up off the couch. A week ago I felt almost human; next week I may feel like something less than what the cat drags in. I may want to do all the same things I used to: to work out, take long walks, socialize, keep some semblance of household order, but I may not be capable of it.If I say, maybe later , please understand and accept this for what it is, which not an excuse is. It is a reason. I don't enjoy my new limitations. I might even be physically able to do today what you wish for me to do, but if I know without a shadow of a doubt that pleasing you will mean for me later an incredible amount of pain, I must say no. I'm not lazy. I just hurt.I absolutely do not want pity. This is no reason to feel sorry for me--life is not perfect, and life happens to us all. This is the hand I have been dealt, and I intend to play it out. I don't blame the world for what I suffer, I don't rally against God. This is no one's fault. Not even my own. I do not crave attention, just space to find myself.