How Sick Am I?

I get asked a lot what is actually wrong with me, and so believe it or not this is a condensed version explaining what the truth about my health conditions are this:

In 2007 I found my energy and my strength declining and even though I was actively working out in the gym with a trainer, my ability to do anything except sleeping was greatly diminished. No matter how much I slept it was never enough. In 2008 I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.

In 2008 I was operating a pet boarding facility that I had owned for several years, which I loved, and I began to find that I was not able to handle the big dogs any longer. Normally if one would come running to me and jump up wanting to play or whatever, I could brace myself for it and do just fine even though I am only 5 foot tall. It came to point where I couldn't do that any longer and twice I was knocked down to the concrete and cracked my pelvis. That combined with my constant exhaustion made me realize that I unfortunately had to close my business. I can't tell you how much I cried the last day I closed the door.

Early 2009 I took my daughter's shopping and as I was walking through the mall I developed a softball sized pain in the middle of my back off to the left side. I tried to continue but the pain became burning pain in the neck area went down. Then when walking on the golf course at one of our sons golf meets I began to have the feeling that I was walking on glass and that I also had little shards of glass on the tops of my feet. Putting on shoes was absolute torture. I began to see one doctor who would send me to a different doctor, who would say something like you must've stepped on something wrong. I knew that wasn't the case but how can you prove it when x-rays show there's nothing wrong?

Little by little pain began to develop and before long it was from my shoulders to the bottom of my feet. We went to the emergency room a couple of different times, and I would be crying out in pain. It was a pain I had never felt before… Including during childbirth. Doctors would scratch their head as x-rays, ultrasounds, CAT scans, MRIs, and any other type of test that they could do all showed negative. It became a never ending cycle of one doctors sending me to another, that Dr. sending me to another, and so on. Each time the doctor would just send me on my way saying there was nothing wrong. We were even referred to one of the top pain specialist in the country. His comment was that I had metal amalgams in my teeth from childhood and if I pulled all my teeth my pain would go away. No thank you.

I went back to my family doctor who at this time was flustered and frustrated for me as I was, but he didn't know what else to do. At that point he referred me to a new family doctor. It was now the fall of 2009. In October my new doctor said she felt I may have something called Fibromyalgia Syndrome, and that was completely foreign to me. She was going to refer me to a rheumatologist to see what they felt. In November 2009 I was officially diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and the rheumatologist told me that I was in the top 10% of people who haven it so severe they are no longer to live life the way they used to. That meant I was likely not going to be able to hold a job anymore, and there was a lot of things that I did I would no longer be able to do. I would have to learn to adapt my life to my new disability.

Since that time I have also been diagnosed with a  myriad of other illnesses, and as I have come to learn that tends to happen when you have a chronic illness.  I have short-term memory loss, also commonly known as Fibro fog. I have migraines,  irritable bowel syndrome, restless leg syndrome, severe insomnia, and anxiety.The only thing that is not contributed to the fibromyalgia is the fact that I do now have also arthritis, but that is just because I'm getting old. LOL

Summertime is my best time. I call July and August my honeymoon months,  because those are the sweetest months I have in regards to how low my pain is. It's as close to normal as I will ever be. My pain levels range from 2 to 5 during those months, which is excellent for me. During fall and spring they ramp up to about 5 to 7 on the pain scale, higher during a flare. During winter, my pain levels are never below an 8 on the pain scale.  Ever. Actually during the winter, an 8 is almost considered a good day.

There is a blessing in all of this however, which I will go into in more length in future posts. But if I did not have my faith, especially during those very dark extremely painful days, I don't know that I would still be here today. My faith has been made stronger through all of this, and I do feel blessed.