There are only a few people in my life who know of the struggle I have had with Fibromyalgia. It is a painful sometimes debilitating autoimmune disease. I was diagnosed over 10 years ago after I had weeks of unexplained symptoms. Clothing was almost unbearable as my nerve endings felt like knives. When my doctor diagnosed me, I was uneducated in regards to what it entailed. I wasn’t expecting the lack of concern when I shared this with people. The usual response was that doctors label patients with Fibromyalgia when they can’t find anything wrong with them. So, I started to just suffer in silence. The medication I started to take gave me some relief, but it was a struggle and still is on some days, to get out of bed.
Today, I am confident that this was not just a label, but an illness that has become a part of who I am. It doesn’t define me, but it forces me to really focus on my self-care. I am gentle with myself in every capacity. When I have a flare up, it is usually manifested from stress. Fibromyalgia is like my own built in radar. Grateful, too that I can embrace this small dose of inconvenience and still live my life with a willingness to not give in to the pain. Fibromyalgia doesn’t own me. I am a firm believer that our own thoughts create our outcome, so if I am positive and proactive, then my disease doesn’t take over my life. It is all a process that I am still navigating.
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