May is both Fibromyalgia Awareness Month and National Stroke Awareness Month. While these two conditions are different in many ways, they are alike in that both can be debilitating. And I am well-acquainted with both. Fibromyalgia is not a disease, but a syndrome. There is no known cause and no specific test for diagnosis. There … Read more
Nearly four decades ago, when I was in my early thirties, I complained repeatedly to my doctor about widespread pain throughout my body, but he couldn’t find anything to explain the pain. Then one day, I read an article in a women’s magazine describing the symptoms of fibromyalgia. I took the article to my doctor … Read more
May 12 is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. Fibromyalgia has a variety of symptoms, and not everyone with the disorder exhibits the same symptoms. Also, the symptoms come and go and vary in intensity, so a person with fibromyalgia can go quickly from feeling okay to having extreme pain, excessive fatigue, and a variety of other symptoms. Now … Read more
May 12th is International Awareness Day for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases (CIND), including fibromyalgia. You can find more information about the diseases in this category on the May 12th website. I described my personal experience with one of these diseases–fibromyalgia–in an earlier blog post. I hope you have no personal experience with any of … Read more
Fibromyalgia is called an “invisible disease” because individuals with fibromyalgia look healthy, yet they go through life with chronic pain and a host of other symptoms. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in my mid-thirties. Although I had been to several doctors describing my pain, none of them believed there was anything wrong with me. I … Read more
About 30 years ago, when I was in my mid-30s, I was experiencing fatigue and pain throughout my body. My old-time doctor attributed it to overwork and stress. One day I picked up a women’s magazine and read a cover story about fibromyalgia. The article, which showed an outline of a body with specific tender … Read more