Here is another story that was emailed to me yesterday from Sharon.  She is a bit younger than most of us, but she's sure been through a lot already with fibromyalgia.

Thank you Tracy for helping out.  My name is Sharon, and I am 38 years old.  I think that one of the hardest things to get used to is telling my 6 year old son that I cannot play with him the way he wants.  Sure, the pain can be unbearable, but nothing bothers me more than to see the hurt in my little one's eyes yet again.  My husband has had a few back surgeries, so he is not able to play around much either.  This is the one of the main reasons I try to keep my condition under control so that I can be the hands-on mom that my son deserves.  It hurts, but some exercise is one of the things that I think helps me do what I can.

I actually started with severe pain in my back when I was a teenager but the doctors just chocked it up to too much activity or growing pains and shrugged it off.   Unfortunately, the pain didn’t go away and it seemed to travel throughout my body at times, hitting me in different areas.  Generally, the pains I endured throughout my life were mainly migraines and back pains.  It seems that the older I got, the more severe the pain got.  There are days that my legs hurt so bad that I can barely get out of bed.

I was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia when I was 22.  While there is no known real cause for this illness, I have learned to do a few things to deal it so that it doesn’t completely incapacitate me.  One thing that I figured out on my own was that I needed to lose weight.  When I first started with my fibromyalgia symptoms, I didn’t know what to do or what was causing this pain.  I found quickly that I couldn’t be as active as I normally was so I started to pack on the pounds. 

I found that once I got some of the pain I was having under control, I was able to get up and move around a bit more.  My doctor treated my migraines and chronic pain with analgesics, muscles relaxers and antidepressants.  Once they got the right combination down, I felt some of the fog lifting and I wasn’t so down all the time.  Granted, the meds didn’t take away all of the pains but it took the edge off and I was able to better cope with things.

I found that things lessened quite a bit when I dropped some weight and changed the foods I ate.  I try to stick with leaner meats such as white meat (chicken, turkey) and fish.  I try to stay away from processed foods and stick with fresh fruits and veggies as they aren’t packed full of sugar.  I keep a positive attitude and take things one day at a time.  Just because I am down one day with pain doesn’t mean that I will be down for good.  I just got to get back up and see what tomorrow has in store for me.  I see my doctor regularly so that my meds are adjusted accordingly.  The important thing is to not get discouraged and keep a good support system in place.