A Letter to the Newly Diagnosed Fibromyalgia Warrior
Finally, you?Ve got it: an legitimate analysis. After years (or even many years) of coping with unexplained signs like good sized ache and infected joints, your medical doctor sat you down and stated the magic phrases: ?You have fibromyalgia.?
Your first response might be alleviation. Even in case you don?T realize a issue about fibromyalgia, you ultimately have a solution. You?Re now not crazy! Quite regularly, even though, different feelings soon start flooding your head: Fear. Joy. Depression. Uncertainty.
Trust me - as someone diagnosed with fibromyalgia at age 11, I know how much of an emotional roller coaster a chronic illness diagnosis can be. So, while I had some extra time on my hands this winter break, I decided to dedicate some it to reflection. In particular, I asked myself: "What do I want the newest members of the fibromyalgia community to know?" Here's the answer I came up with...
What to Know After a Fibromyalgia Diagnosis:
First off, your pain was - and is - real. I start with this because it’s often exactly what other people (from doctors to family members to significant others) refuse to believe.In fact, maybe you spent years trying to get your doctor to find something -something that made leaving your bed each morning a nearly impossible challenge and turned your joints into timebombs waiting to implode - wrong with you. You might have even started to question yourself. Maybe everyone woke up with aches that got steadily worse as the day went along? Maybe you were the crazy one after all.
On the opposite hand, perhaps your fibromyalgia prognosis came as a complete surprise. You ought to?Ve had an entirely healthy and ache-free existence until your body commenced hurting in the future...And never stopped.
Either way, receiving a fibromyalgia analysis can also to start with feel like an confirmation. You had been telling the reality to all of those medical doctors, loved ones and friends. You definitely were in pain. You had been right!
Unlike other medical diagnoses, though, being told you have fibromyalgia is a little different. Why?
There?S no magic pill or 10-step method you may comply with to experience a hundred% pain free.
Yes, you can receive medication to help your symptoms. This is a definite blessing and I don’t want to minimize it. One of my biggest fibromyalgia symptoms is insomnia, and when I do forget to take the sleeping pills I’ve been using for the last ten years, I realize just how - to put it plainly - screwed I’d be without them. And when my fibromyalgia flare ups were at their worst, my official fibromyalgia diagnosis let me receive referrals to physical therapy. So, once you do receive an official fibromyalgia diagnosis, I definitely recommend talking to your doctor aboutJoint fitness supplements (like GOPO) or medications like gabapentin that are often used in fibromyalgia treatment.Yet, a fibromyalgia prognosis once in a while feels useless. Before the doctor wrote those phrases on your medical chart, you hurt...And being recognized won't mechanically make your ache depart. So in case you feel frustrated or hopeless after your analysis, recognize that you aren?T on my own.
However, you must additionally recognize this: you would possibly have even greater electricity over your persistent contamination than your health practitioner does.
Some doctors might offer a referral to a nutritionist or talk about the benefits of a gluten free diet for , Which has recently turn out to be more typically connected to reduced persistent pain. But you are the only one who can 100% decide to experiment with changes in your diet. You’re the one who can keep a food journal tracking your meals and symptoms. You’re the one who can explore if a gluten free diet or a low fodnap diet improves your daily pain (adore it did/does for my mom and me).Like this post? Then clickhere to tweet me some love: "This #fibrowarrior gets real about what she wants everyone nearly diagnosed with #fibromyalgia to know...and how you can kick life's booty, even with a #chronicillness! http://bit.ly/2yUMJOC"
You?Re additionally the simplest person who can discover what exercise plan works for you. I?M lucky that, regardless of my fibromyalgia, I can revel in lots of exclusive varieties of physical interest. Believe me, I recognise and am grateful for this. However, I do accept as true with (notice: I say ?Believe? Due to the fact I?M now not a scientific professional; I?M only a fibromyalgia veteran with several near friends with fibromyalgia) that everybody can discover some form of movement that works for their frame.
Depending on in which your ache stage is proper now, simply getting off the bed and going to paintings every day may be your every day physical accomplishment. Maybe you may try including brief walks that extend into longer ones or gentle stretching routines that start morphing into novices yoga sessions. You may even communicate on your physician about running with a physical therapist to examine what strengthening sports or stretches could help you.
My main point? Even though a fibromyalgia diagnosis isn’t a panacea - and you may even hate your diagnosis for not being the real “answer” you’ve been looking for - it can be a jumping off point for your own medical empowerment. You can use the resources that your fibromyalgia diagnosis gives you - ranging from medications to referrals to other experts - as fuel for the lifestyle changes that could make living with fibromyalgia easier.
The remaining thing I want any newly identified fibromyalgia warrior to know?
Whatever you feel, you?Re allowed to experience it.
You’re allowed to have good days where you think, “This is awesome - is this what ‘normal’ people feel like?!?" and have a blast doing whatever you want. You?Re allowed to have pity parties when your gradual but constant progress starts to opposite, or when you just really hate how hard living with fibromyalgia can be. And you’re allowed to not know how to feel when your doctor tells you that you have fibromyalgia in the first place. 
You recognise why? Well, besides the reality that you?Re one heck of a badass no matter in case you?Re having a ?Top? Or ?Bad? Pain level day, someone else might be feeling precisely like you. On days once I?M hurting greater than regular or hating how a great deal harder fibromyalgia makes grad school, I consider that I?M not on my own. There?S a large fibromyalgia and chronic pain community on and offline, and that means that there?S continually at the least one man or woman who can absolutely relate.
And while you?Re used to speaking a language of continual pain that very few family contributors and friends can surely apprehend, knowing which you?Re not on my own or loopy or overly emotion is frequently the exact consolation you want.
Like this post? Then click here to tweet me some love: "This #fibrowarrior gets real about what she wants everyone nearly diagnosed with #fibromyalgia to know...and how you can kick life's booty, even with a #chronicillness! http://bit.ly/2yUMJOC"
I’d be lying if I told every person recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia that life automatically gets easier. Even eleven years after I was diagnosed, I still have my share of fibromyalgia flare ups. However, discovering what you can do to improve your life with fibromyalgia does get easier. New research is published. You hear about different tricks and tips - ranging from dietary changes to supplements to stretches - that others with chronic pain have found helpful. You learn to feel grateful for the good days and have a solid support system for the bad days.
And, most importantly, you discover that, as many challenges and negatives that come with fibromyalgia, there are some hidden blessings as properly.
Some of them? Discovering that you are so much stronger than you ever imagined - and that, no matter how much you can’t control your fibromyalgia, Your angle on residing with continual contamination is up to you.Much like to my fellow fibromyalgia warriors and spoonies, as constantly - in particular at some point of the push of vacation season!
No questions today. Just tell me your mind!
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