Janet's Blog

Lately, when people ask me what I do all day, I am somewhat embarrassed to give an answer because, some days, it seems like all I do is self care. I often long for those mornings, long ago, when I could hop out of bed, throw on some clothes, eat a leisurely breakfast, brush my teeth, and head out the door for school, all in half an hour. Those days are long gone. Now, I wake up at a reasonable time in the morning, but I often find myself adjusting the bed to a comfortable reading position and turning on the built-in massage feature while I catch up on some reading and play a game or two on my phone. Realistically, I'm just putting off that inevitable morning routine that seems to take forever these days but, in reality, takes me 30-40 minutes in the bathroom before I can even think about sitting down for breakfast. (And, if I take a shower, that adds even more time, because those long, hot showers soothe my aching joints.) Getting dressed is the easy part, although I fumble around ...

It was at least ten years ago when I first received a rheumatologist's diagnosis of fibromyalgia. After several years of fatigue, and too many aches and pains, it was a relief to have a name for my malady. At my doctor's suggestion, I started a couple of prescriptions and some supplements, and found that my symptoms improved quite a bit. I've been able to work and care for my family, and lead a fairly normal life most of the time. Autoimmune diseases are the pits. The symptoms are often vague, but unrelenting. The fatigue can be debilitating. Without a firm diagnosis, people are often thought to be hopeless hypochondriacs. Even doctors sometimes discount symptoms when various tests show nothing conclusive. For me, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia was better than no diagnosis at all. However, fibromyalgia seems to have become the disease du jour--a popular diagnosis when doctors have ruled everything else out. Many people with fibromyalgia experience most of the forty-some of...