“Is Fibromyalgia Real?”

At first glance, you may think “Is fibromyalgia real?” is an odd question to be included in the title of a blog written by someone who actually has fibromyalgia.

On second glance, if you look a little deeper and discover that I have struggled with fibromyalgia for many, many years, in fact since 2002, AND I am writing this blog for fellow fibromyalgia sufferers, well now this question just seems downright strange and even baffling!

So let me explain.

Knowing I wanted to write a blog using my own experience with fibromyalgia to help others who were engaged in the same struggle, I searched online to find out what others were searching for under the topic of fibromyalgia; I wondered if I might get some sort of hint of what kinds of help fibromyalgia sufferers were looking for.

Well I was surprised, maybe even somewhat offended, to see that the question “Is fibromyalgia real?” was (and still is!) being searched a lot! After struggling and battling for close to a decade and a half now with this debilitating condition, it was shocking to find out that any people still ask this question, much less lots of people!

As I said in recounting my story of living with fibromyalgia, what I know IS real is that “something certainly changed in my body back in 2002 and I’ve been fighting to change it back ever since.”

When I first had fibromyalgia, I remember being aware of many doctors’ skepticism of it. The specialist who initially diagnosed me offered no more than a diagnosis and a pamphlet. I guess I was lucky that my own family doctor, who I have immense confidence in, even sent me to a specialist for a diagnosis rather than dismissing my symptoms as  being “all in my head” or “just depression” as I have heard has happened to many others. But even with my fibromyalgia diagnosis, my own good doctor took over 10 years to start asking about the fibromyalgia aspect of my health during my annual physical.

Surprising…

I had this debilitating health condition, which overruled everything in my life, every day, and my doctor never even mentioned it when assessing my overall health for over 10 years…I was always aware of that and took notice when he finally started asking how I was managing with it. I took this as a signal that doctors were finally starting to realize the reality of fibromyalgia.

So it’s an understatement to say I was surprised to see the results of my search.  People were still asking “Is fibromyalgia real?”!

I guess my sarcastic streak combined with the desire to chip away at this “Is fibromyalgia real?” question (that really does demean anyone struggling with this extremely life-affecting condition and serves to make it even more difficult to deal with) led me to decide to use this as a framework for my blog. So with the main aim of my blog absolutely being helping others living with fibromyalgia, I decided to frame my blog in this bit of sarcasm.

When I really think about it, I guess this very skepticism is at the heart of why I decided to use a blog as the means through which I would reach others living with fibromyalgia.  I figured if I put my ideas out there in a blog, they will be there to be found by whoever WANTS to seek out some additional ideas, support, confirmation of their thoughts, someone to identify with or simply a boost in spirit or inspiration.

My blog is intended for those that want it.  It’s that simple.

Open-minded skeptics are most welcome too, but in my heart I am writing mainly for other fibromyalgia sufferers who will be able to identify with what I know is real.