Shades of Fibromyalgia

Welcome

My name is Christine Witherwax. I am a wife and mother of two grown children and grandmother of three beautiful girls. Also, I am a former teacher and daycare provider. I was diagnosed with having a chronic disease called Fibromyalgia. to describe this disease, It?’s a combination between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Arthritis.

It?’s similar to CFS in the same sense that you always feel tired, weak, lack energy, suffer from bouts of depression and serious mood swings. It?’s similar to Arthritis in the way that Fibromyalgia sufferers are always in pain, but the Fibromyalgia pain is considered ten times more acute (or painful) than arthritic pain. As you can tell, if you have Fibromyalgia, you don?’t have much of a life. There are some people with this disease that need the help of someone to get them out of bed, into a bath tub full of warm water, and physically move their arms and legs for them so that they can get the blood flowing, to be able to move on their own later.


Needless to say, this is a paralyzing disease. What makes it more difficult is that most doctors (until recently) didn?’t even believe that this disease existed! They just told you that all the pain and tiredness was in your head! This disease is becoming quite common now, more and more doctors are starting to believe that his is an actual disease. But still they have no cure. They just put you on different medications like anti-depressants, painkillers, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, etc.

They told me that I just had to accept the fact that I would always have this disease and I must learn to deal with it. What kind of life is that?! It wasn?’t the kind of life I wanted, that?’s for sure!