MOMENTS AND STUFF

                     Copyright © Vickie Thayer | Year Posted 2019

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PROLOGUE: A direct, informational, candid and sometimes scary look at the daily life struggles while dealing with the disorder known as  (Fibromyalgia). I was diagnosed in 2015. I have since read much and researched much on the subject of this beastly disorder. Universally, it is one of the most mysterious illnesses ever ! To put it bluntly, it really sucks to be at the receiving end of a diagnosis, yet really relieving to finally find out why (after many years of baffling doctor's appointments) it is, that you often feel, the way that you do.

     I was a very motivated person. I constantly worked around my house, in my yard and full time at my very stressful career.  I had loads of energy and looked forward to my days off to shop and travel with my husband. Then, one day out of the blue, I woke up unable to barely get out of bed. I had no fever, no virus, no anything (that I was aware of). I just couldn't move because the pain was unbearable. So I started back tracking...I weeded the garden yesterday...I thought...and I moved heavy furniture around in the living room or maybe it was that jog that I ran the night before. Irregardless, I had done all those things many times before and never felt this level of (all over) pain.

     I just laid there and waited, because their was stuff to do (always) stuff to do, you know? Hopefully it would disapate, I thought...so I could do all my stuff. Several days later I felt a little better and just chalked it up to over doing all my stuff. 

      But then there was another day that I got a migraine headache while at work, it affected my vision. It came on during an arrest I had just made, while processing the person in my office, with an interview and paperwork, I lost my train of thought completely...I must be overly stressed like the doctor said...was my immediate thought.

     I had to leave the room and have someone else take over for me. Then I started having stomach upset...yep, it must be stress...I thought.

     It started weighing on my thoughts that there was something else going on and it was not until many years later and many symptoms later, like the ones I just mentioned, that I would grasp at the notion it was fibromyalgia. That and the fact that I had a sister who was diagnosed as well.

1.                                            ____FIRST THINGS FIRST_____

      About ten years prior, yes, I said ten years, I started having subtle aches and pains, what my grandmother called (rheumatism). The dictionaries definition of rheumatism is: any of various conditions characterized by inflammation or pain in muscles, joints, or fibrous tissue. The definition for (fibromyalgia) is: Fibromyalgia affects the muscles and soft tissue. Symptoms include chronic muscle pain, fatigue, sleep problems, and painful tender points. Both conditions seem similar Grandmother, but Fibromyalgia is a totally different beast. My theory is that back in my grandmother's day it was probably fibromyalgia that caused the rheumatism some subcumbed to, it flared on really wet or cold days, just like fibro.

     It takes several years for most people with the condition of fibromyalgia to be diagnosed with the disorder. I was no different. Fibro (the short name for a long illness) mimics so many other conditions in seperate catagories and many patients have several tests to rule out other (serious) conditions before being diagnosed. A diagnosis brings the sufferer relief in finally finding out what is wrong with them, but devastating news it is.

     I was back and forth to the doctor for backaches...("lose weight" ... the doctor said). I have never had many problems with headaches in my entire life, but now I was getting migraines with disturbances in my vision...("manage your stress...the doctor said). "Have you had an eye check-up lately?"...he asked. "Uh yeah"...see these glasses on my face? I thought to myself... they set me back six hundred clams, so yeah, I have had my peepers checked. Sometimes I think doctors believe that we are as stupid as the paper they willingly write our prescriptions on, and sometimes they write them like they are the (only) cure for what ails you.

to be cont...soon.

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