I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia 3 days ago.
I've had fibro since I was 11 and yeah, it sucks. There's no way of getting around that. I agree it's genetic as there is a well established chain of people in my family who have been positively diagnosed, including my great grandmother, who got diagnosed with "polymyalgia rhumatica", the old school name for fibro.
Do you find that Advil actually helps or are you taking it for the lack of something better? Traditional pain killers are well known to be minimally effective for fibro people, and there's no point in throwing your money away if they're not genuinely helping. Plus, popping pills like tic tacs isn't the best for your liver. Trust me. Been there, done that, have the scars on my liver to show for it.
I can commiserate about useless doctors. I waited 8 months to see a top rhumatologist and he said, and I quote "Wow, your life must really suck, but there's nothing I can do so go home and get over it." Let's just bask in the great magnificence of doctors... not.
You know there IS an upside to getting fibro early, believe it or not. You can plan your life. Imagine the hell of spending years training to be something like a violinist and then getting sick and being completely screwed. At least I was able to abandon my violin career before sinking thousands of dollars of time and effort into it only to lose my ability to control my fingers and to drop the bow every once and a while. You are at an age where there is the maximum amount of flexibility in your life to work around this. Ok, so it's not the best upside, but at least it's something.
Modern life really doesn't help at all when it comes to the mental confusion and memory loss. Multi-tasking and fibro don't mix well so learn to focus on one thing at a time, despite all the distractions of ipods, texts, cells, and what have you, that are out there. It's hard, especially when you've grown up with all these distractions, but it pays off in the end.
Last... get lots of sleep every night. 8 hours minimum. Without it you will get run down quickly and send your fibro into flare.
Do you find that Advil actually helps or are you taking it for the lack of something better? Traditional pain killers are well known to be minimally effective for fibro people, and there's no point in throwing your money away if they're not genuinely helping. Plus, popping pills like tic tacs isn't the best for your liver. Trust me. Been there, done that, have the scars on my liver to show for it.
I can commiserate about useless doctors. I waited 8 months to see a top rhumatologist and he said, and I quote "Wow, your life must really suck, but there's nothing I can do so go home and get over it." Let's just bask in the great magnificence of doctors... not.
You know there IS an upside to getting fibro early, believe it or not. You can plan your life. Imagine the hell of spending years training to be something like a violinist and then getting sick and being completely screwed. At least I was able to abandon my violin career before sinking thousands of dollars of time and effort into it only to lose my ability to control my fingers and to drop the bow every once and a while. You are at an age where there is the maximum amount of flexibility in your life to work around this. Ok, so it's not the best upside, but at least it's something.
Modern life really doesn't help at all when it comes to the mental confusion and memory loss. Multi-tasking and fibro don't mix well so learn to focus on one thing at a time, despite all the distractions of ipods, texts, cells, and what have you, that are out there. It's hard, especially when you've grown up with all these distractions, but it pays off in the end.
Last... get lots of sleep every night. 8 hours minimum. Without it you will get run down quickly and send your fibro into flare.
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