Ego! Ego! Ego!: Fibromyalgia Archives
September 22, 2009
Invisible Illness MemeLast week was Invisible Illness Week! I had no idea. Better late than never, though, so I'll post this now:
30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know
- The illness I live with is: Fibromyalgia
- I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2005
- But I had symptoms since: as long as I can remember, really. They got really noticeable around 2003 or so, I think.
- The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Getting enough sleep every night.
- Most people assume: That I feel fine, because I maintain so well.
- The hardest part about mornings are: I am really friggin' groggy. And during a flareup, mornings are my worst time. I'm lounging on the couch to write this and even the super-soft cushions hurt like I'm leaning on boards.
- My favorite medical TV show is: House! I'm a sucker for asshole geniuses.
- A gadget I couldn’t live without is: My laptop, so I can sack out on the couch instead of in a computer chair for interwebs-reading/blogging/writing/etc. Or my pill caddies, which help me make sure I don't forget my various meds.
- The hardest part about nights are: During a flareup, it's hard to get to sleep because I'm in pain. But fibro pain doesn't respond to any painkillers. Oh, and not getting enough sleep makes the pain worse, which makes sleeping harder. Fail.
- Each day I take 14 pills & vitamins. More if my non-fibro issues act up. (No comments, please)
- Regarding alternative treatments I: get chiropractic every week and am considering trying acupuncture.
- If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: Invisible, because then I decide who knows. There's a definite psychological benefit to that. I don't want people I don't even know feeling sorry for me or coddling me or whatever.
- Regarding working and career: During a flareup it's hard to focus on work, but I feel better if I'm not sitting at home thinking about how much I hurt.
- People would be surprised to know: That I am in pain every single day. I haven't had a truly painfree day since I was a kid. If I say I'm not really sore on a given day, it means my body is around a 2 on the 0-10 pain scale.
- The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: That I can't just power through everything anymore.
- Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: I've actually never thought about my illness that way. If I want to do something, I do it -- the only concession I'll make to my illness is to figure out a way to do whatever it is without destroying myself. Sometimes that means going slow or taking lots of breaks or whatever.
- The commercials about my illness: Don't really exist. I've seen maybe one?
- Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Yoga. I can't hold poses without excruciating pain, even on a good day, and I haven't gotten around to finding a yoga class that's motion-oriented. I'm too busy anyway. :)
- It was really hard to have to give up: The idea that I'm indestructible.
- A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: Don't think there is one, really.
- If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Not. It would be too hard to go back to feeling like I do every day.
- My illness has taught me: That it's not weak to take care of my body when it needs it.
- Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: I actually don't have an answer for this. I don't tell people about my fibro unless I'm pretty sure they're not going to be jerks about it.
- But I love it when people: Ask how I'm feeling and really want to know.
- My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: "There ain't no such thing as normal life... there's just life."
- When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: Sitting around feeling sorry for yourself really will make the pain worse. No, really. Don't let the pain stop you from doing stuff or it will get a lot worse. Trust me on this.
- Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: I am really good at pretending I'm not in pain.
- The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: Support me in making choices to take care of myself.
- I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: I think it's an awesome idea to raise awareness!
- The fact that you read this list makes me feel: Good! Thanks for listening.
BTW, anybody who wants to learn more about what it's like to live with a chronic illness needs to read The Spoon Theory (pdf) from But You Don't Look Sick?
August 30, 2009
Hey, Ealasaid, where ya been?In short: my chondromalacia finally got bad enough that I started physical therapy (as a last-ditch effort before getting surgery). The PT made my knees hurt worse for several weeks (as expected) -- enough so that I was hardly able to do any cardio exercise. Even walking for too long made me gimpy.
But there's this evil catch-22 we fibromyalgia patients get to deal with: if we don't exercise, it makes our fibro worse. And when our fibro is flaring, it is really, really hard to exercise. So we don't, and the fibro gets worse.
My knees are finally getting better (to the point I may just keep up the PT and not get surgery, yay!), but I'm in the midst of the worst fibro flare I've had in a long time. It hurts to flex my hands (and yes, typing hurts). It hurts to stretch. It hurts to walk. It hurts to sit still. Everything hurts.
And it will continue to hurt until I go back to exercising.
I've started doing a very, very gentle stretching routine. Not quite every day, but more days than not. It's helping. Once I can do the stretching routine without making "ow ow ow" faces, I'm going to start walking laps again. And work back up to going to Aikido and working out and everything.
It's hard to be patient with this stuff. I resent that at age 31 I have trouble making myself do a stretching routine designed for, as far as I can tell, women in their fifties. I resent that the things I need to do to make myself feel better hurt like crazy. I resent that this illness is keeping me from the things I love -- Aikido, swimming, not being in constant pain.
The one good thing that has come out of this is that it has really forced me to understand the women I remember looking down on when I first was diagnosed with fibro. There were women on my email lists who could hardly leave the house because they hurt so bad, gals who some days couldn't get dressed because the weight of their clothes hurt their skin. Women who said they couldn't exercise because it hurt too much and they had no energy. This whole experience has made me really sympathize -- and made those women even more of a cautionary tale. I do not want to end up like that, and now I know I will if I don't make myself stick to my exercise program, as simple as it is.
I have to exercise or I will keep getting worse. It gives the expression "no pain, no gain" a whole new meaning.
I'm going to go do my stretches now.
August 23, 2007
More medical crapMy health as been sufficiently lousy lately (I have had the same damn headache since mid-June, and that's just the start of it) that my health team is running oodles of tests on me, including an MRI. One of the tests finally came up with something: H. Pylori, a nasty little critter that actually thrives in the stomach. Since it can handle stomach acid, you might imagine that it's hard to kill off, and you'd be right. I'm taking a course of antibiotics (three different kinds!) which is actually making me feel really lousy. 'course, that might just be the cold I've picked up - it's that coughing crap that's going around here. I feel like a dog with kennel cough. And of course, doesn't it just figure that I'd catch a cold while on these antibiotics - colds, of course, aren't vulnerable to antibiotics.
What's awesome is that I'm also taking Pepto-Bismol - it has high doses of bismuth in it, which H. Pylori apparently hates. I also just read that the little bastards hate green tea, too. Fortunately, I love the stuff. I'm adding that to the regimen. The antibiotics I'm taking are 85% effective alone and 95% when taken with Pepto-Bismol, but I'm happy to up the odds. I am not at all fond of this crap. Plus, maybe if we get rid of the little bastards, my body will be happier and the headache will go away. See, all stresses on my body aggravate my fibro, and I'd imagine that ulcer-causing bacteria count as stress. Since fibro can cause headaches, it kind of makes sense that the infestation might be the cause of the headache.
At any rate, that's what's up with me.
Well, that and Guitar Hero. Our party has re-invigorated me to work on my various GH goals. Between the two, I think it's likely that I will be somewhat incommunicado for a while.
July 16, 2007
Ow.There's an odd correlation for me between physical pain and mental or emotional pain. It seems like enough of one always results in the other cropping up too. I've had a nasty headache for a month now, without a single day of respite, and it's stressing me out and making me depressed. Conversely, when I'm very stressed or very depressed, it nearly always leads to a flare-up of my fibromyalgia.
I'm not sure if this is reassuring -- connectivity between mind and body is a big part of my martial arts and my spiritual studies, after all -- or frustrating.
Maybe both.
Likewise, I have an MRI scan scheduled for Wednesday to see if they can find a cause for the pain (which doesnt respond to anything short of Vicodin). I'm not sure if I should be nervous or not - after all, things that show up on an MRI are usually not things you are happy to have, and if nothing shows up at all, we'll be practically back at square one. On the other hand, if nothing shows up on the MRI, at least we'll know what it's not. Plus, I've never had an MRI before, so it's kind of exciting.
July 02, 2007
WheeI've had a headache since Wednesday, June 20.
Normally, headaches aren't a big deal for me, but this one is different. It doesn't respond to any of the over-the-counter painkillers I have (and I have a lot - aspirin, ibuprofen, acetomeniphen, naproxin sodium, and various combinations thereof), or to my prescription migraine medication, Midrin. My chiropractor found that my top vertebra and my occiput (back-of-the-head bone) were grossly out of alignment, but even a series of adjustments for that didn't help for more than ten minutes or so at a time.
So I saw my MD (who had talked with my chiro about it. Gawd, I love the medical center I go to). She gave me vicodin, which succeeds in taking the edge off, and started the paperwork for me to get an MRI.
This whole thing has been sort of peculiar. The headache doesn't feel that severe - it's not even in the same ballpark as my migraines are. But it's bad enough that it made the muscles in my neck cramp, which gave me a touch of tendonitis on the back of my head. I didn't even know that was possible. It's been keeping me from Aikido, because it's worse when I move around and that means that somersaults and sitfalls are a bad idea. Sigh. And the unrelenting nature of gave my morale quite a hit. There's nothing like pain you can't get rid of to send ya into a funk.
At least I'm not one of those unlucky folks who react badly to vicodin. It makes me more prone to motion sickness and makes me a bit tipsy-feeling, but that's about it. I'm so glad to not be in pain that I don't mind.
It's also making me very thoughtful, and I've been pondering pain quite a bit. Pain is an odd thing, isn't it? It's very subjective, yet doctors use it as a diagnostic tool ("where does it hurt?" "on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the most horrific pain imaginable, how much does it hurt?"). Some folks can't feel pain at all, and others feel it too much.
I'm considering writing an essay-type post on pain, and would be interested to hear any questions my readers might have on the subject of pain and fibromyalgia.
January 24, 2007
ARGH!I AM AGGRAVATED!
File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!, Rantings
Posted at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)November 29, 2006
I Am Not A Doctor, But... Issue 1: FibromyalgiaFirst, a disclaimer:
I AM NOT A DOCTOR. IF YOU ARE ILL, SEEK ADVICE FROM YOUR MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, ETC ETC ETC!
That said, I am a person with fibromyalgia, and I recently posted to a list I'm on about the "natural" remedies I use. I thought it might make for interesting reading, and if nothing else, I figured I might as well put it on the web, eh?
File under: Fibromyalgia, I am not a ____, but..., Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)October 30, 2006
RAWKWell! I got good news at HealthNOW today!
It seems I have made it past the most intense phase of treatment into the "finding a regimen that works long-term" phase.
(Edited 10/31)
October 27, 2006
AllergiesSo I got a nifty blood test for allergies done. Those as are interested in my ongoing health saga (hah!), read on!
Bonus section: musings on health blogging.
File under: Fibromyalgia, Musings, Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)September 29, 2006
My body is rebellingApparently going several weeks without a proper sleeping-in-on-the-weekend and then spending about a week getting only 7 hrs a night instead of 8 and then having houseguests has pushed it over the edge.
Yesterday I was so tired I took a personal day and went home and slept, nearly non-stop, from 10am until 8pm. Then I had dinner, watched a little TV, and went back to bed. Where I slept another eight hours.
The sad part?
I'm STILL TIRED!
When I blink my brain thinks maybe I might, yanno, really be lying down and in bed, and it starts shutting everything down in preparation for sleep. Even when I'm walking down the hallway. Sheesh.
So, fine. Body, you win. I won't go to the midnight showing of "Office Space" in Santa Cruz tonight. I won't set an alarm tomorrow OR Sunday. Okay? I'll even refrain from drinking much booze in celebration of Antwon's bday, so as not to mess up your precious sleep cycles.
September 21, 2006
General update, LJ styleA general update for them as are curious. I have a lot on my plate at the moment:
September 11, 2006
Self-centered whiningSometimes it feels like my fibro is taking over my life.
I mean, I try to exercise 4+ times a week because it helps my fibro so much. I go to HealthNOW three times a week (which takes a total of about 1:45 out of my day each time) for treatment. I see my GP every few months for the fibro too. I have to sleep 8+ hours a day (more on weekends) because otherwise I'm really friggin' tired all the time.
It's immensely frustrating.
At the same time, I know my general health is getting better. My migraines are still just the same, but everything else has improved. I try to concentrate on the good stuff, but sometimes it's hard. It's hard to balance the things I have to do (work, treatment, exercise, day-to-day chores, wedding prep) with the stuff I want to do (movie reviews, web design work, hang with friends, watch TV, play videogames, read).
This whole being-a-grownup thing is a pain.
However: tomorrow night I leave on an airplane to go visit my friend Annie, who is getting married - and I'm officiating! YAY! So that's something good.
At any rate, if you're wondering why I post irregularly and am often hard to get a hold of, this is why.
August 24, 2006
UpdateI'm not dead, just busy.
Work has taken a turn for the busy, but at least I'm feeling productive. Yay.
On the fibro front, I have been declared amoeba-free (yay!) and tried both alcohol and gluten. I had a glass and a half of white wine over the weekend and half a pizza last night. Both were very, very yummy. Man, I have missed those flavors. Mm.
The alcohol appears to have made my innards slightly unhappy - but it might have been my busybusybusy weekend, so I will likely retest that. It's way too early to tell with the gluten, but I am feeling better today than I have in a while, so I am cautiously optimistic.
I'm also being gently weaned off my cymbalta - which is taking a very real toll on my sleep. Boy howdy. I keep waking up for no apparent reason. Here's hoping that fades away as my interna chemistry settles down.
Not much else to report. I have a ton of things I want to blog about but want to do it properly, which takes time. *shakes fist* Damn you, self-imposed high standards!
August 04, 2006
Reason #193 to love my jobI just paid $40 for my monthly fibro drugs.
$40!
Instead of $160!!!
*hugs her new insurance card*
July 12, 2006
Dear My Body,I have been doing my best to take care of you. I've cut back on work, done that annoying diet to figure out what you're allergic/sensitive to, started seeing a chiropractor, gotten more sleep, and so on. So, what is the deal with all the headaches lately? I am clearly doing something wrong as this is the second time in as many weeks you've dealt me a serious migraine which has interfered with my ability to go to work. And you've given me minor headaches so much lately I've lost count of 'em. And I'm tired all the time. What the heck? Seriously. What is the deal here??
I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong (and so far neither can my nutritionist or chiropractor). I would prefer not to simply pump you full of more chemicals, as you appear not to like that either. Help me out here, eh? Either start reacting promptly to whatever allergen we've missed so we can spot it, or quit with the headaches and general crappiness.
Love,
Ealasaid.June 28, 2006
Doing betterFor the curious, I'm doing better today. Saw my chiropractor and nutritionist yesterday. The chiropractor discovered I had a Hiatal Hernia and promptly pulled my stomach down where it belongs. As I told him, that definitely takes the cake as the weirdest thing he has ever done to me (and this is the guy who routinely goes all Steven Segal on my neck, then twists me into a prezel and jumps on me).
My nutritionist thinks the reason I've felt so lousy is that I'm sensitive to DHEA. See, I'm taking DHEA supplements to help my adrenal system out, but my adrenals are coming back online - so now they're producing DHEA too. My nutritionist thought they'd have to take me off the DHEA in another month or so, but apparently even having a little too much in my system is enough to make me sick. He said that some women react poorly to excess DHEA because their body transforms it too quickly into estrogen, and to stop taking it and see if I get better. Whee.
Also, my nutritionist remains convinced that I'm gluten-sensitive, and doesn't want to let me challenge my body with gluten until I'm way healthier because he's so sure I'll react. Grrrrrr. I remain unconvinced.
June 26, 2006
VentingI miss being in my early twenties.
Back in the day, I could keep going for weeks at a time without my body rebelling. Nowadays, I can't. I have to take weekends as down time, at least one of the two days, or my body informs me I am Not Taking Care Of It (tm) by failing - I get migraines, I get a fibro flare up, whatever. Today I have all the symptoms of a migraine (nausea, wooziness, etc) but no actual head pain (yay). Why? Because it's been two weeks since I took a day to just laze around and do nothing.
WTF?
I suspect that part of the problem is that I'm feeling so much better lately that it's hard to remember I still have to take it easy sometimes.
I would have stayed home from work entirely but I have a meeting I can't postpone, so here I am. Grr.
This is less a whine fest and more a rant. I am pissed at my body. I am sick of having a bod that can't handle having several weeks of activities without a break. And we're not talking crazy activities! I have been getting my sleep, and the days I've been going out it's been to the movies or to a nice dinner out. I haven't been hiking up the Himalayas or rappelling down skyscrapers. I've been having a good time with my cousin from out of town.
Goddammit. I hate being sick.
Oh well. Life's a bitch, eh?
On the bright side, this gives me a good excuse to go home early and laze around with my cousin watching DVDs and eating applesauce.
April 18, 2006
More good news!Firstly, my car is finally repaired after that accident.
"But Ealasaid," I hear you cry, "that was two months ago!"
Yes, yes it was. But the body shop kept ifnding more and more things that were wrong with it, and kept revising their date on when it would be done. Lucky for me they also agreed to cover my rental car after the insurance stopped and waived my deductible. Hooray.
So that's good.
Also in the good category, I met with my nutritionist today and starting Thursday I get to reintroduce foods to my diet! It works like this...
April 11, 2006
Allergy dietWow. So I'm seeing the docs over at HealthNOW to see if they can help my fibro, and they are putting me on a food elimination diet. Basically, you quit eating all the things that are common allergens in food for a week, then gradually add them back in one at a time to see if you react.
The general thinking is that my body is clearly very, very unhappy about something, probably something in my digestive tract (I have a lot of gross symptoms not worth discussing on a blog) and food allergies would definitely explain at least some of my symptoms. Food allergies run in the family (for a good time, ask me about the weirder allergies in my immediate family. My favorites are bubblegum flavoring, wheat, citrus fruit, and oatmeal).
March 29, 2006
More whiningOne of the things that really annoys me about fibromyalgia is that finding the right meds at the right dose is more of an art than a science.
For example, the med I take for my fibro is Cymbalta. I started at 30mg, which helped a little. My doc then upped me to 60mg, which helped even more. So then she upped me to 90mg, and I have been slowly losing all the ground I gained. My sleep is back to being very easily disturbed (I wake up at least 2-3 times a night, I think), I am groggy all day, I'm headachey, etc. Getting in to see her for a follow-up appointment to get my doseage adjusted again has proven to be tricky - I've wound up having to move the appointment (for my reasons or for hers) a couple of times now. In theory, I will be seeing her bright and early on Friday.
At least the Cymbalta doesn't actively make me sick like the previous med I was on did. That's something, right?
March 16, 2006
Good griefMan. I always think of awesome things to blog about when I'm commuting, then forget them when I am actually in a position to blog.
My life continues to be insanely busy even without Cinequest. I am currently dealing with:
- Preparations for my birthday party this weekend (cleaning, figuring out what munchies to get, etc)
- Training in Aikido so I can hopefully test some time in the next decade
- Coping with a change in my fibro meds which is making my sleep weird while I acclimate to the new dose
- Dealing with my knees, which have gotten so bad this week that I'm looking into buying a cane (which, for one thing, will aid my curmudgeonly crazy aunt thing I have going on... or would, if I had any neices/nephews)
- Working full time at my awesome "real" job
- Figuring out when to see a movie this weekend since I didn't have a screening on Tuesday (I instead spent the evening watching the final three eps of this season of Battlestar Galactica and all I can say is you sadistic bastards, why do I have to wait until October for the new season goddammit)
- Wishing the freakin' weather would warm up (SNOW? IN MARCH? IN CALIFONIA? WTF???) so I can go back to gardening properly
- Trying to get everything in order so I can move my web clients to a new hosting service
- Resurrecting The Foresite because there's a Foremen "best of" album coming out this month.
- Trying to get my daily meditation practice going again so I don't lose my mind
- Figuring out when I will have time to do my taxes
I think that's everything. Geez. No wonder I'm so tired all the time. At least this weekend will be fun.
File under: Chondromalacia, Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)January 27, 2006
Important lessonsWell, I learned an important lesson this week: don't cut any prescription drugs cold turkey without double-checking with someone (like, say, your Doctor, or possibly teh intarnets) that you can do so without going into withdrawal. To make a long story short, I stopped taking my Cymbalta last week so I could take part in a clinical trial of a new fibro drug, and got slammed with withdrawal symptoms. What really bites is that I got rejected for the study when I did my in-person lab screening! (I'm not in enough pain, can you believe it?) I know, I know, I should've checked, but nobody at my doctor's office or the clinic where the trial was being run suggested it might be a bad idea when I mentioned it to them. Note to self: next time, ask point blank and get a real answer.
So that's where I've been. Work was taking 100% of my focus so I had no mental energy to blog.
January 15, 2006
Fibro FogOne of the aspects of fibromyalgia that's nastiest and hardest to pin down is fibro fog. It's a sort of mental fog that descends at times over we fibro patients and makes everything a little strange. When it hits me, it's hard to remember things, to think, to speak, to make decisions. Admittedly, I have some experience with this sort of thing -- my allergic reaction to milk and chocolate is very similar -- but it's still unsettling.
January 05, 2006
You know your health is bad when...So I was grousing to my wonderful roommate about my latest health issue when she said that living with me has made her appreciate her own relatively good health more.
This doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize that she's 74. A healthy 74, mind you, but still. She's nearly three times my age and I make her feel healthy.
Yeesh.
In other news: the thing I miss most about my pre-fibro days is probably my ability to go without sleep. I got about five hours last night and now feel like crap. Fortunately, the reason I was up so late is that my bestest internet friend, Annie, landed at SFO at 11:35pm. It's always easier to deal with feeling not-so-hot when you have fun stuff on your plate! After my half-day of work, we're going to go see The Mystery Spot and one of the State Parks with lots of redwoods. Should be a blast. Woo hoo! Take that, fibro. I refuse to not have a good time just because you are making me achy and tired. So there!
December 20, 2005
Fibro definedLast night, the following exchange occurred at Aikido, where I had been explaining my health problems to a teenaged girl who trains with us (she wanted to know why I left early last week when my knee went out).
Her: Wow. If I had all your health conditions, I would stay home and, I dunno, cry or something.
Me: Well, yeah, but if I did that, they would get worse.My knees are doing better now, but the fibro achyness is now flaring up a bit again, probably because I haven't been exercising. I need to find a place to swim laps and see if I can do that without hurting myself, since the elliptical machine is so hard on my knees.
December 15, 2005
An open letter to my kneesDear Knees,
I know the rest of my body has been getting most of the attention lately, what with the fibro and all. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten about you and your Chondromalacia! You are still very important to me. I thought you knew that, but the temper tantrums you have been throwing lately suggest that maybe you think you need more attention.
That's okay, but today needs to be the last day you pitch a fit, okay? Waking up with my leg muscles cramping because you hurt so much is not my idea of a good time. I'm going to work from home and ice you at regular intervals, take my ibuprofen, and stretch you a bit. See? Loads and loads of attention and affection. Can this please be the end? All that work on the elliptical machine has really helped my fibro (or at least, it seems better... possibly because you two are hurting more than the rest of my body combined). But if the elliptical really bothers you that much I'll try to find another exercise. Okay? Do we have a deal? Truce?
Love,
EalasaidFile under: Chondromalacia, Fibromyalgia
Posted at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)December 02, 2005
Beat, but thankful.I am exhausted.
November 23, 2005
Another Fibro postThis is a followup to Fibro 101. So, now that you know what Fibro is like in general, are you wondering what it's like for me?
November 10, 2005
Fibromyalgia 101Well, Cathryn had a good point in a comment below that she knows next to nothing about fibro and is always interested in learning more, so I figured, what the hey, why not post about it a bit?
Firstly, some useful links:
- But You Don't Look Sick? - Not technically about fibro, but definitely about similar conditions that are "invisible."
- National Fibromyalgia Association - Website for a US organization for fibro education and support.
- UKFibromyalgia.com - Great UK site.
- Fibromyalgia - long, in-depth look at fibro on About.com.
For them as are too lazy to click and read all of that, here's a super-short FAQ, by moi:
August 03, 2005
Well, damn.As some of my friends know, I have been having some trouble with joint pain lately (beyond the usual Chondromalacia and Carpal Tunnel pain, I mean).
Today, the rhumatologist told me I have fibromyalgia.
Now, I went through too much crap with my knees to take any doctor's word as OMG TEH TRUTH, so I am going to get a second opinion (hopefully from Kerlan-Jobe, who are awesome).
But it's still depressing. Fibro sucks. I mean, at least she doesn't think it's Lupus, which sucks more, but still.
Feh.
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