Fibromyalgia = bullshit?

I''ve known a couple of people who were "diagnosed" with fibromyalgia, and in both cases it seemed like they were very selectively painful. They could play Wii, go bowling, and stand outside in extreme warm or cold sucking down countless cigarettes, but when it came to making dinner, doing the dishes, or going to their place of employment, the pain was just unbearable and they had to lay down and sleep a while.\ \ In my book, that''s called "bullshit", not a medical condition. Maybe I just don''t understand the "disease", I guess, but from everything I''ve read, fibromyalgia is both debilitating and not reliably treated, making it an ideal crutch for the selectively disabled. Anyone disagree?

• Research is showing that fibromyalgia may be caused by antibiotic toxicity. Do some reading on quinolones.

• Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion.\ \ It is the name that is used to describe a complex of pains and disturbances that cannot be otherwise ascribed to a virus, bacteria, etc. \ \ My guess is that there will turn out to be various causes for the various symptoms, but as of now, they have not been named/identified. \ \ Just because you don''t believe does not make it false, and just because doctors have yet to nail the etiology does not mean there isn''t one.

• There are people who have latched onto fibromyalgia as an excuse, just as some people are quick to label energetic kids with ADHD. No doubt about it.\ \ But that doesn''t mean fibromyalgia (or ADHD) doesn''t exist. Both are very real conditions that can mean real suffering to the people who have them.

• One of the women in my office died a coupe of years ago. I never actually met her, she had went on medical leave just as I started. But when she died, everyone in the office was saying she died of fibromyalgia.\ \ Sent from my iPhone.

• [quote]It is the name that is used to describe a complex of pains and disturbances that cannot be otherwise ascribed to a virus, bacteria, etc. My guess is that there will turn out to be various causes for the various symptoms, but as of now, they have not been named/identified.\ \ In other words, R2, what they call "fibromyalgia" is what the rest of us call "crazy".

• Do dudes get fibromyalgia?

• Certainly the moronic, un-empathetic, unimaginative, know-it-all, sons-of-bitches, R5. \ \ Right on the money!\ \ How''s that flat earth thing going, by the way?

  R2

• [quote]They could play Wii,\ \ Well, of course they could. They''re tender to the touch, not to the [italic]virtual[/italic] touch.

• Ok, R2/R7. Just checking.

  OP/R5

• It''s all the food allergy trolls coming over from the special school thread.

• Fibromyalgia: Miracle diagnosis of hypochondriacs everywhere.

  Anomynous

• r5, read the patient comments at the link below for side effects caused by the antibiotic Cipro, a member of the quinolone family, and then google: Quinolone + tendinitis \ \ The symptoms of quinolone poisoning are pretty much identical to those of fibromyalgia, but because there can be delayed onset and because so many doctors are so ignorant of the potential side effects of the medications they''re prescribing, the cause and effect are often not tied together.

  http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=19537

• My mother is a hypochondriac. Fibromyalgia is one of her "illnesses".

• So if I confabulate fibro could I score RX''s for narcotics?

• It is more common in women, R6. \ \ This fits if it is stress related, since there seems to be a link between estrogen levels and poorer resistance to the effects of stress.

• r14 For good measure make it a combo-affliction: Fibromyalgia/Restless Legs.

  Anomynous

• I know two men with it, but I am a woman with it. It used to be much more severe, and VERY affected by weather (mostly cold and/or windy days), but I had some wonderfully effective alternative medicine treatment that helped. I used to think it was made up, until I could not raise my arm enough to talk on the phone. It is different with each person, in severity and combination of symptoms, but not bullshit.

• [quote]My mother is a hypochondriac. Fibromyalgia is one of her "illnesses".\ \ Which means...?\ \ I know you can''t be saying that because your mother is a hypochondriac, and since she claims to suffer fibromyalgia, that, therefore, fibromyalgia does not exist. You could not be that silly.\ \ "My mother was tone deaf. Therefore, all people are tone deaf."

• There are several websites devoted to men with fibromyalgia.

• I call it fibromyass

• [quote]I call it fibromyass\ \ I am sure you are considered the wit of your homeroom.

• LOL. What a great retort, R21. WW.

• I have parts of my body that are tender to being poked. Do I have fibromyalgia?

  Anomynous

• Fibro sufferers,\ \ how old are you?\ \ How tall are you, and how much do you weigh?\ \ How much exercise do you get in a week?

• Elaine Showalter wrote a book called "Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media: Alien abduction, Chronic fatigue syndrome, Satanic ritual abuse, Recovered memory, Gulf War syndrome, Multiple Personality Syndrome". They are all linked by craziness.

• I thought Gulf War Syndrome was proved to be caused by chemical agents used during the war.

• Several years ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I figured that if I was going to hurt anyway, I might as well hurt from something tangible, and took up first, walking, then running, then karate, then kickboxing. I also volunteered with very ill or dying children . . . nothing else will so dramatically bring you back down to the realities of what real illness and pain is. Okay, if someone asks me, yes, certain areas of my body hurt. However, I refuse to focus on it. When I hurt or ache I kick myself in the butt, make myself GET OUT AND MOVE, and stop thinking about myself.

  Anon

• Well smell you, R27.

• When you really hurt, r27, might I suggest you kick yourself in the cunt!

• I suffer from a disease that you cannot see; a disease that there is no cure for and that keeps the medical community baffled at how to treat and battle this demon, who%E2%80%99s attacks are relentless. \ \ My pain works silently, stealing my joy and replacing it with tears. On the outside we look alike you and I; you wont see my scars as you would a person who, say, had suffered a car accident. \ \ You wont see my pain in the way you would a person undergoing chemo for cancer; however, my pain is just as real and just as debilitating. And in many ways my pain may be more destructive because people can%E2%80%99t see it and do not understand...

  http://dailylivingwithfibromyalgia.blogspot.com/

• More from the link at r30:\ \ I wanna know what fricken doctor decided that people who have chronic pain should exercise, how the Sam hell are you supposed to exercise when you are in constant pain? How are you supposed to exercise when you are so tired you can barely keep your eyes open. How are you supposed to exercise when you have restless leg syndrome and you hurt so bad you can''t get out of bed?\ \ All people with Fibro need to get out that this is real, it''s not in our heads, we arent trolling for pain meds, we just want to be able to deal day to day, and if you don''t have it then you really cant understand!

• [quote]You wont see my pain in the way you would a person undergoing chemo for cancer; however, my pain is just as real and just as debilitating. And in many ways my pain may be more destructive because people can''t see it and do not understand...\ \ How exactly is this pain any different than that felt by someone putting up with bullshit fibrohypochondria?

• My aunt claims to have fibro. She is also obese. The pain is because her body is carrying more weight than it can handle. She also had to have both knees replaced. Again, because she is obese. \ \ I''d bet if you subtracted fat people from the list of fibro sufferers, the remaining list would be pretty fucking small.

• It''s not bullshit. It is a catchall (docs diagnose this when they can''t determine what is causing the problems), however, but so is bipolar, which also isn''t bullshit. My mother has it, she doesn''t have any other health problems and is NOT a hypochondriac, didn''t know what it was beforehand and does NOT like taking medicine or going to the doctor but does what she should *most* of the time to help herself.

• I don''t know why I gave a serious response. This is just to bash women, because you identify it with women. There are also diseases which hurt boys and men, more so than women. I''ll remember to laugh my ass next time the discussion comes up.

  grow up, sooner rather than later

• My pussy......so tender to the touch.

  Cheryl

• [quote]There are also diseases which hurt boys and men, more so than women. I''ll remember to laugh my ass next time the discussion comes up. by: grow up, sooner rather than later\ \ Yeah, you really sound like one in a good position to tell other people to grow up.\\t\ \ You really showed us.

• R35: Please put down your protest sign and allow yourself to be fucked into a good mood for once. We''d all appreciate it. Thanks.

  OP

• In 1990 a friend was diagnosed with MS by a reknowned doctor in the specialty. After treating her for ten years he decided she had fibromyalgia.

• R35 Pretty much.

• So with "Fibromyalgia," do you have spasms?

• Formerly known as "aches and pains".\ \ We have people who "suffer" from fibromyalgia in our corporation but since they are always and I mean always able to take their vacations and enjoy active lives on weekends most of their co workers look on them as scammers.\ \ Certainly one of them has been trying to get herself declared unemployable for years and thus go on disability.\ \ She used to have Epstein-Barr as well but has since forgotten about it.

• Aren''t you not allowed to eaten gluten with fibromalasia - hehe. Gluten is such BS too.

• Antibiotic poisoning. If any of you were actually interested, you''d look into it. OP is clearly suffering from something much more debilitating than chronic pain.

• [quote]I know you can''t be saying that because your mother is a hypochondriac, and since she claims to suffer fibromyalgia, that, therefore, fibromyalgia does not exist. You could not be that silly.\ \ You just don''t get it. Of course that isn''t what I meant. Ugh. Stupid troll.

• Yes.

• I believe the pain is real, but I also see a lot of unhealthy people w/the affliction. Every person I know w/fibro is overweight, inactive & eats a lot of processed food.\ \ I suppose they argue they are in too much pain to work out, but I can''t believe being in the pool, or riding a stationery bike to loose up muscles and improve circulation, would be bad for them.\ \ Or losing weight.\ \ As someone who has battled depression my whole life, I know what it''s like having doctors who want to solve your symptoms with pills. Fortunately, my doctors believe me when I tell them that exercise is the best thing for me so we just work on keeping mood normal enough so I can get out of bed and work out. That is what truly fixes my mood/thinking.

• Is this a condition that is seen in other cultures, such as sub-Saharan Africa? If not, why not? I wonder how many fibromyalgics reside in Chad?

• I have a chronic pain and it''s name is the Meathead.

  Archie Bunker.

• [quote]Is this a condition that is seen in other cultures, such as sub-Saharan Africa? If not, why not? I wonder how many fibromyalgics reside in Chad?\ \ In fairness, while I think a lot of the fibro stuff is bunk, there is a lot of evidence that the reason developed countries have higher rates of autoimmune disorders and allergies is because we''re raised in much more antiseptic conditions and aren''t exposed to as many pathogens.\ \ Which means that all of the helicopter moms in the special school thread are probably actually making things worse for their kids, not better.

  The Voice of the Night

• r48, how many people in Chad are given quinolones for minor infections?

• I agree VOTN. We are way too sterile here. Now schoolteachers keep that antibacterial lotion on hand constantly. When I was a kid they were lucky if they could get us to wash our hands after the bathroom. Now that I think of it all of us kids were pretty damn dirty but healthy as horses except for the usual childhood illnesses.

• R12 - Thanks for that.\ \ I was given Cipro for pretty much everything for years.\ \ By the time 2007 came around, I was pretty much a cripple from the back, leg, hip and knee pain. When I suggested the Cipro/pain link, the Drs. poo-poo''d it.\ \ One Dr. suggested that I had fibro, and I just about went nuts. \ \ I read the link,. but there doesn''t seem to be anything that I can find regarding treatment of the cipro-caused injuries.

• r53, unfortunately, there isn''t much information and even less research on treating it because of the FDA roadblocks. Quinolones deplete the body''s magnesium supply which, in turn, erodes tendons causing serious damage. The first thing to do would be to start taking a magnesium supplement to rebuild the tendons and tumeric mixed with honey for inflammation. If the tendon pain is long standing, it''s no longer tendinitis and is now tendinosis and needs to be treated as such. I'' not sure how effective traditional tendon physical therapy techniques are with this since the damage wasn''t caused by repetitive use.

• I had a many lazy doctors who just slapped the fibro label on me when I started having joint pain at 22. \ \ Thankfully, after seven years I was referred to a rheumy doctor who ran a couple fairly simple blood tests which showed that I have rheumathoid arthritis.\ \ I think many doctors are lazy and dx people with fibro instead of searching further for the true cause.\ \ *I am hesitant to add this observation, but it''s been my truth, so I will.\ \ Like I said, I started feeling pain when I was in my early 20s. When the pain persisted, I was told by the male doctors I saw that I was hormonal, crazy, stressed, or even just flat out lying. \ \ The rheumy who ran the bloodwork was female. \ \ \ 20 some odd years later, it still amazes me that all they neded to do was run some bloodwork and we could have all been saved alot of time, money and permanent joint damage.

  Do no harm, my ass

• r53, There may be some more information here:

  http://www.fqresearch.org/index.htm

• r53, this looks like it may be helpful, too:

  http://antibiotics.org/

• There was a great thread a year or so ago casting the daytime movie ''Tender TO the Touch'',

• Theories abound, but there''s not a smidgeon of replicated evidence to show fibromyalgia is due to quinolone-induced hypomagnesemia, an autoimmune process, or allergies.

  R48

• I thought the research corelated fibromyalgia to a build up of enzymes in the muscle and tendon joints where they constrict and cause pain at a deep tissue level. The respondent who said he began walking, running, etc. was right on the money because it was a lack of muscle movement that brings on the pain, much in the way bedsores or deep vein thrombosis are triggered by lack of movement and circulation.%0D\ %0D\ So, yes, it is real and yes it is very treatable by embarking on moderate physical activity.%0D\ %0D\ Move, you bastards. Walk or something.

• R54 - There were multiple doses given to me over the years, for everything from sinus infections to just about anything else.\ \ I have had multiple rounds of PT, with no real success.\ \ I live in constant pain. I can''t walk very far, can make it up one small flight of stairs, and have had to install one of those stair-chairs in my house.\ \ I''m thin, and used to be a gym rat until the back, leg, hip and knee pain took over my life.

  r53

• Lots of people diagnosed with fibromyalgia are one positive test away from being diagnosed with what they really have, like Lupis or MS, both which can be deadly.

• today i learned about Fibromyalgia = bullshit in a meeting all i had to do was voice my opion about a law suit. then i asked why are they sueing because she didnt get hurt really bad. she was on a train and the train bumped into a another train and she got hit in the head by a passangers elbow and now she claims to have Fibromyalgia. i asked if she could still function like cook, take shower. go to bathroom, walk up stairs. she could do all and go on facebook. thats bullshit i bitched for an hour. then they asked me if how much money she should get for her injury!!! how about zero she needs mental help and that it!

  Anonymous

• I have had fibromyalgia for 15 years, believe me, it is very real, like somebody said it is different for everybody, in my case, is totally debilitating I live alone, so I do not look for sympathy or anything. The pain, the fatigue, the problems sleeping and all related symptoms are annoying. Most doctors that I know will not give narcotics for the pain, I tried liryca, cimbalta, and a new one call Savella, non of them work, or the side effects are worse than fibro itself.... so no, it is not BS, it is real :(

  Angel58

• Repetitively the contestants are fat, female, and sedentary with vague descriptions of muscle pain and fatigue. That's LIFE. Once they latch onto the fibro label and ALL of the god damned "support groups" out there, the ultimate payoff is the pills and a disability check. Your insurance dollars are paying for these slobs. You taxes are paying for their medicare claims. They feel great going out to the buffets, but they can't sit in a chair and answers phones at a job all day. Fraud. Perpetuated by an entire industry. How do you get "fibromyalgia?" Just claim you have it. No diagnostic repeatable confirming tests. ALL subjective. Pathetic.

  drunkenpastor

• r63 I hope you get fucking ill one day. Really ill to the point that it is difficult to live.

• Fibromyalgia must be vaginally acquired. It only affects hypochondriacal women.

• r67, I know a guy who has it. He's been damn near bed ridden with pain for over a decade now and can barely use his hands and has tested negative for all traditional diseases which have similar symptoms. He's tried hundreds of different treatments, Western, Eastern and Other and nothing has worked for any decent period of time.

• Can someone link to the special school thread, or did it get deleted? Thanks.

• There are many men who claim to have fibro and/or have been diagnosed with it. You can google their websites.

• Enjoy.

  http%3A//www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html%23page%3AshowThread%2C10335796%2C1

  The Voice of the Night

• Fibromyalgia may very well be real but most of its sufferers are not. While I do believe that there are a few (very few) people who truly suffer from fibromyalgia there are many, many more who will jump on anything that will make them a special victim. Just like: migraines, gluten intolerance, allergy to smoke, peanut allergies, endometriosis, bi-polar disorder, borderline personality disorder, PTSD, OCD, anxiety, depression, and so on.

• I don't find it hard to believe that anxiety and depression are very common. And migraines? I've had them since I was a child, and I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. I didn't realize that was supposed to be a "bandwagon" condition.

• There's a movie that came out a couple years ago called "Smother", starring Diane Keaton as a mother-in-law who moves in with her son & wife and hilarity ensues. There was a scene that I swear was a shout-out to Datalounge. After the mom moves in, she has a group of middle aged women over, and their group is called "Pain Pals"; it's a support group for women who suffer from "pain".

• Depression, why who isn't depressed these days? We gotta a pill for that!

  From the makers of Zoloft, Paxil, Wellbutrin, and so on and so forth.

• Diagnosed by their chiropractors, I'm sure.

• 58, that was a great thread. I loved the reconciliation scene: "It's Fibro-OUR-algyia now." Elaine Showalter's point was not that these people weren't sick but that their diseases were caused by an infectious hysteria that would change as time went on. I actually had Restless Leg syndrome one night. Freaky.

• [quote][R63] I hope you get fucking ill one day. Really ill to the point that it is difficult to live. R65, I also hope that he/she learns how to use the English language before writing in public again.

• I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 17 yrs ago. I was in my early 40's, single, great career, enjoying life. My doctor looked at my medical history and noticed I had mono in my early 20'3. He did a blood test which was positive for the Epstein Barr virus which is what causes mono. Epstein Barr can be present but in a dormant state, and all it takes is a flu or cold to make you feel like you are going to die. I have also had pneumonia 4 times. When a strong virus hits, the Epstein Barr virus ratchets the flu up about 20 times. When I get sick, I GET FUCKING SICK. 17 yrs later, in my late 50's, I am still single, have a great career, and am enjoying my life. I still hurt to the point of tears somedays, mostly on rainy and cold days, like we are starting to see now. I travel a lot for my work, and that's starting to take a toll on me. Yes I am 17 yrs older and don't do a lot of the things I did in my 40's. But my point is, I still keep going because I am single with no help in taking care of my house, taking the trash out, cleaning, laundry, etc. Yes there are lots of people faking to get on SSD, but there are those of us that just keep going because we have to. Don't lump us all together in the same pile. Most people I know have no idea what my health issues are because those are private. That's how you can tell the difference between the real sufferers and those who are looking for diability and medicaid.

• The meds that are prescribe for fibromyalsia are essentially antidepressives. So you figure it out. Bipolar disorder is NOT a rule out diagnosis. It also has a step care approach of psychiatric pharmacology and analysis recommendations as well. It also is consistantly treated with success. Not fibromylasia. Restless leg syndrome is real, if not a particularly awful problem, probably related to circulatory irregularities in the legs. I have seen it in people, usually at night. Fibromyalsia is very real in those who claim to have it. However it is proabably related to depression and stresses repsonses. Pain tolerance as well is notoriously different in people. So people literally cannot abide a sore throat or a pulled muscle or feelin almost anything. This quotation: "My pain works silently, stealing my joy and replacing it with tears." sort of loses me... people in real pain don't even think about crying.

  charlie

• [quote] I still hurt to the point of tears somedays, mostly on rainy and cold days, like we are starting to see now Sounds like arthritis

• The thing is, you usually can't get disability for it and you feel like shit on most days. It's kind of miserable because you feel like you are 90 even when you are only 40. All the things you used to have fun doing, you are too tired to do.

• Thanks, VOTN.

• They will not give disability for fibromyalgia. So you don't have to worry about SS money going to those patients.

• I have to admit that I don't know if it is a real disease but you know when you were feeling fine and all of a sudden you get sick and you never get it back. Never feel really good again. What is it? What happened?

• The latest research on Epotein Barr virus has refuted it as a cause of mono R79, although it was believed (far from confirmed as in HIV and AIDs) even 5 years ago.

  charlie

• [quote]I have to admit that I don't know if it is a real disease but you know when you were feeling fine and all of a sudden you get sick and you never get it back. Never feel really good again. What is it? What happened? Life.

  The Voice of the Night

• charlie, what is the link between mono and hodgkin's? I thought that had to with epstein-barr.

• I am not sure. I know they were associated in the past, but I don't know the up to date view. A Pub Med search or the medical science literature would probably answer your question if you are up to it.

  charlie

• Always active, athletic, happy and thin, my mom never smoked or drank, and always kept up with the latest medical literature on nutrition for things like fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, etc.. (I can claim NONE of the above). She lived with arthritis for years, and never complained. She was the anti-cubefrau, but worked among them until retirement. Her way of complaining was to joke about some of her fat, lazy coworkers who did nothing other than mind other peoples' business and eat crap all day long. But by her late 70's she had multiple cardiovascular issues and her muscles seemed to be degenerating, then she started loosing her beloved mobility and independence. Her doctor diagnosed her with fibromyalgia, which she joked was just a fancy name for being "old as dinosaur turds". In her last year, she enjoyed riding in one of those little red cars around the grocery store while wearing my dad's old motorcycle helmet and scaring small children. She died peacefully in her sleep a few years later from a massive stroke. I miss her.

• I have degenerative joint disease. It's probably the same thing as fibromyalgia. Just get a diagnosis of DJD. Nobody will fight with you or tell you you don't have a real disease. But you have to get MRIs that show arthritic and degenerative changes.

• No R91, it is not the same thing.

  charlie

• Seem to be a lot of generalizations here from people who like me really have no idea what this condition is. I live with constant pain from DJD, osteoarthritis, screwed up spine - you name it. It just kind of crept up on me even though I was thin, active, walking 5 to 6 miles a day and as far from a hypochondriac as you can be. Not the crying type or the self-pitying type but have definitely found myself hurting so much I had a few tears. Surprised at you Charlie. I usually find you to be pretty aware. I have one acquaintance who was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. She gradually became so uncomfortable that it was difficult for her hold a job. She was an executive in a big company who had always been fit and outdoorsy. She tried everything, medication, exercise, massage, physical therapy. Everyone has theories but no real answers. It's an awful way to live. Hope more is understood soon. There are lots of phonies, crazies and bad doctors. Doesn't mean some people are not really suffering. Genuine Celiac Disease is also no joke.

  Getting off my soapbox

• Your problems have nothing to do with fibromyalsia R93. I also never said he suffering of those with fibromyalsia is not real. Rather it is perhaps primarily a psychiatric disorder or syndrome which features "pain", or a scewed perception of pain, just as people can have screwed perceptions of diet, body size and shape, or connection to any reality. Certainly the pharmacologic approach to treating it has been pychiatric. In addition women may be more prone to it as they handle stress differently than men-

  charlie

• I've posted this before but most of the people I've met who claim to have fibro are middle-aged women who have bad relationships, are depressed and, as OP said, selectively ill and self-medicate. One had no problem going to parties with her friends but when it came to going to functions with her husband's family (who she didn't like) or cooking and cleaning suddenly she was tired and "my fibromyalgia is flaring up". Her husband worked a full-time job and had to come home and cook and clean and wait on her hand and foot. She seemed to have enough energy at home while he was gone. Maybe it's real but it is really being used by a lot of people as an excuse for shirking responsibility.

• R12, CIPRO is EVIL!! I realize many people take it without a problem. I am not one of them. CIPRO made me sicker than I've ever been in my entire life. I was one of the 1% that can have severe reactions that could even lead to death! Since then I have researched this vicious antibiotic, and found cases where people just go into the doctor with a sinus infection, take CIPRO and start seeing hallucinations, become psychotic, etc. I have on all my records "Do not feed this hunky animal CIPRO or any antibiotic from the same family of poisons".

• I asked my doctor about fibromyalgia, and he said it was like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). The physical effects are extremely REAL, but the source may be emotional.

• Reactions to antibiotics can be acute and severe and have nothing to do with fibromyalsia to my knowledge.

  charlie

• R98 you are right, but R12 mentioned CIPRO, so I wanted to tell my horrendous story.

• Charlie, R93 here. I'm well aware that my problems are not related to fibromyalgia. I was merely making the point, with all due respect, that people who experience chronic pain can and do often have tears. Perhaps that has not been your experience but you sound a little patronizing about something you might not have experienced. It's true that some people don't have a very high threshold for pain or perceive pain differently. I have a very high pain threshold, work around my problems very well, but I know not to assume about others. Sorry, if I attacked you a bit. You always have interesting commments.

  Anonymous

• I thought the reference to pain from fibromyalsia on the website was sort of poetic and silly- my opinion. Pain to a certain degree is subjective, but nothing is subjective about the pain of metastatic bone disease and a number of other types of pain- like burn or that of a heart attack. I am in the health care professions, and faculty at a major medical school. I am a PhD not an MD, but I know quite a bit about general medicine and critical care medicine. My salient point is that fibromyalsia is treated with a psychoactive med, NOT a pain med. That suggests the pain, while real to the patient, is not the same as the pain related to identified pathology like metastatic cancer or joint disease etc.

  charlie

• Fibromyalgia probably can be real, and it's not anyone's fault if their doctor doesn't know what's really going on with their body. I don't know, OP...people are cynical about the unemployed but everyone knows jobs should be better.

• It's only psychiatric in the sense that the brain is sending pain signals to body where there has been no actual trauma; it would be more fitting to term it a neurologic disorder. This is the reason things like Cymbalta and Gabapentin are prescribed as they've proven helpful in breaking up "neurologic storms" basically which can, in some people, help the brain start firing more normally again. In people with Fluoroquinolone Toxicity, the cause is obvious; what sets a similar misdirection of pain signals to firing in those with Fibromyalgia, it doesn't seem anyone knows yet.

• To all the fools, (especially R 63!) who say fibromyalgia is a "made up" disease, two links. Fibromyalgia.com MayoClinic.com

  anonymous

• I'm arguing with the comment that people in real pain do not even think about crying. Just watched my aunt die from lung cancer with metastasis to the bones and everywhere else. That's pretty real. Thank goodness for pain meds and hospice. Btw, what is the difference between fibromylagia and fibrmylasia? I know, look it up.

  Anonymous

• charlie, develop a chronic pain disease and get back to us all in a year, you pompous moron.

• s/b difference between fibromyalgia and fibromylasia. Not typing well today.

  R105

• That's kind of why I call bs R105. Having aches and pains is called being alive especially as you get older. This misery and crying over some mild "tender to the touch" shit is a product of a bunch of pussies. Cancer patients have pain, this fibro stuff is nothing compared to what some cancer patients stoically suffer.

• My male friend was diagnosed with it and prescribed one of the drugs advertised on TV a lot. My friend has diabetes and a stent was installed due to heart disease. But he also fakes a lot of sickness. For example, his diabetes is so bad he can't work, but he can do anything else he wants to do. Including drink vodka to the point of being slobbery drunk two or three nights a week. And he definitely has heart disease, but at some point he started claiming that he has "had a heart attack." Um, no, he went to the ER with chest pains and they told him it was not a heart attack, but they did a series of tests and found a blockage and installed the stent. He has always been the kind of person who tries to get out of work at every opportunity and has quit jobs just because he didn't feel like going in. Now he's trying to get on SSI disability, claiming he can't work. So I can't say he doesn't have fibromyalgia, but he has lied and faked illness so much throughout the 40 years I've known him, I think any true illness he has is more related to alcohol consumption, overeating, and failure to exercise than to an organic condition that came upon him spontaneously, as he's trying to claim.

• chronic fatigue syndrome is rare, but real. I never really witnessed it's effects until I saw Michelle Akers collapse after regulation time during the 99 women's world cup. She had talked about the condition before, but until then I do not recall seeing it manifest itself during a game. Knowing the woman's passion and drive for the game, there is just no way in hell she would have missed Penalty kicks unless she had no choice. If I recall the condition is a physical manifestation of what appears to be chemical imbalance issue. I believe the most common treatment is CBT, antidepressants, and antianxiety medication. It is easy to see how it could easily be mis/over-diagnosed.

• r108, how would you know what Fibro patients are suffering? Have you visited their messageboards and read about their daily symptoms? Do they have nerve pain? I, honestly, don't know because I haven't studied the condition and I suspect you haven't either.

• To the OP and all those who say fibromyalgia is a made up desease and leads to nothing, I wish you with all my heart that you get it, fucking brainless idiots! My mother had fibromyalgia, a VERY painful desease, she was always tired, felt pain everywhere, couldn't sleep, was anxious, couldn't rest, etc... and from that it has developed into Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) which, in case you don't know, is an autoimmune disease that leads to inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues, and is now taking Enbrel, a biologic new type of drug. Now she is feeling better because of the drug and, fingers crossed, it will stay that way but I still remember how bad she was and through how much pain she had to go. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

• The people bitching about cipro need to get a clue. That is an antibiotic of last resort. You should not be taking it everytime you have a cold or minor infection. Who the fuck is prescribing this stuff And we wonder why we have some much drug resistant bacteria? Cipro should be limited to serious infections aka flesh eating bacteria, dysentery, etc. When that whole anthrax scare came about I couldn't believe the number of people taking cipro when the most effective antibiotic for anthrax is the commonly prescribed and relatively minor antibiotic doxycycline. If you are taking Cipro on a regular basis you are a moron and deserve all that you get. It is not supposed to be used regularly.

• R 79 here. I don't have arthritis, because my pain is not in any joint. The soft tissue from my neck, shoulders, lower back, my thighs and calves stay sore, as if I had worked out the day before. We don't have pain in our bones, its in the muscles and nerves. As I said before, I don't doubt that people fake this for whatever reasons. But those of us that really suffer from this know what it feels like to be in constant state of achiness and immobility. And, no, I don't tell people about it and especially not people at work.

• R106, I have worked with metastatic cancer patients for the last 30 years. I know from human pain. Trust me, the pain management team in the medical center where I work does not spend its time treating fibromyalsia on an inpatient or outpatient basis. I respect the the distress of those with fibromyalsia, and I acknowledge the legitimacy of their situation. But thus far the treatment is psychiatric pharmacology, not analgesic. You decide the rest.

  charlie

• Charlie obviously has no clue about the role of serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, dopamine, among others, in pain modulation. Just because these are the components of psychoactive meds, his conclusion is that these drugs are prescribed for psychiatric modulation; therefore, fibromyalgia is a psychological disorder. He thinks that only pain meds or analgesics should be used for pain control. He has no clue about the principles of preventive pain modulation (his so-called psychoactive drugs) as opposed to acute pain control (analgesics). These drugs he refers to - Cymbalta, tricyclic antidepressants, gaba derivatives - are indeed psychoactive drugs, but have been proven to be effective in chronic pain management. We use these meds for migraines, nerve disease, neuropathy, and spine pain caused by herniaed discs. Does this mean all these disorders are psychological as well? One reason analgesics or narcotics are avoided as much as possible in chronic pain is to prevent development of drug tolerance, dependence and addiction, to which Charlie, who calls himself a PhD working in the health care field, is idiotically ignorant.

• And Charlie has no clue that the mechanism of pain from metastatic disease is not the same as pain from other neurologic and musculoskeletal disorders. Cancer pain is best treated with narcotics/analgesics. Chronic musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain is not. One size does not fit all. What a fucktard.

• Charlie is a scientist who does not completely respect the field of Punctuation, but he's still a scientist who bases his statements on facts, not feelings. You, r112, are no scientist. I've spent most of my career working on autoimmune diseases. I can assure you that for the vast majority of autoimmune diseases -- including RA -- no known cause of origin has been proven. The statement: "...from that (fibromyalgia) it has developed into Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)..." has no basis in fact.

• I knew a middle aged lady that said she was taking vicodin for her fibromyalgia. She would chain-smoke and talk about emotional pain she had been through decades ago.

• Oh, the pain. The unrelenting, soul crushing pain. The only things that help are my daily reikki treatments and burning sage.

  Brooke

• Munchausen groupies.

• I've never met anyone with this condition, but would an anti-inflammatory like fish oil or cod liver oil help?

• No, only the palm oil from deep-fried ring dings.

  Brooke

• Over the last few years, fibromyalgia has been accepted as a diagnosis for Social Security Disability. For the record, I do not get Medicaid, SSI, "welfare", etc. I draw SSD and I paid into this during years of work until I was forced to retire. I also pay Medicare & Humana premiums & deductibles, co-pays, etc. You are not supporting me. I am also not taking narcotic pain meds.

  anon

• {{As someone who has battled depression my whole life, I know what it's like having doctors who want to solve your symptoms with pills. Fortunately, my doctors believe me when I tell them that exercise is the best thing for me so we just work on keeping mood normal enough so I can get out of bed and work out. That is what truly fixes my mood/thinking.}} I have also battled depression my whole life and you know what altered my mood/thinking? Pills. The regular meds and then xanax (one) if I start feeling "funny" which usually occurs during some type of transition. My therapist helped me with ideas to fix my thinking and - most importantly, separate the thinking from the depression. It wouldn't work without the pills although the fixing my thinking piece was very important. I'm not hypochondriac, have only heard of one person with fybromyalgia, but I'm a pill fan. I've never known a doctor who wants to solve your problems with pills. Most know it's a mind/body connect, most know you need to change your thinking along with it, and they all think exercise is important. What doctor wants to solve it with pills? Where are they? I don't think that's very common. I know of two doctors who don't ever want to prescribe for depression - they have a hang-up in the other direction.

• My mother and 2 sisters have all been diagnosed with fibro. My mother and one sister are totally normal mentally and they have various pains (1 sister has bad migraines for 20+ years), but the other sister who had it the worst has always been very emotional and extreme in everything. She was in bed all day for a few years without a job and would say it was the fibro, but now she is functioning a lot better and she says it wasn't the fibro, it was depression and more so all the medications she was on for the depression and various fibro symptoms. When she could no longer afford the fibro and depression pills because she was so far in debt from not working she started to come out of the fog a bit and then something traumatic happened to her that flipped her world upside down and now she works 12+ hour days and is back to her old self. I definitely think a lot of women (and men) have these pains that can't be explained and cured, but like my sister, people might be in a rut from medications and depression.

• I think Charlie's posts are very illuminating, i didn't know the meds they prescribed were of that type.

• [quote]My mother had fibromyalgia, a VERY painful desease, she was always tired, felt pain everywhere, couldn't sleep, was anxious, couldn't rest, etc... and from that it has developed into Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) which, in case you don't know, is an autoimmune disease that leads to inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues, and is now taking Enbrel, a biologic new type of drug. Now she is feeling better because of the drug and, fingers crossed, it will stay that way but I still remember how bad she was and through how much pain she had to go. Hell, I'm going to get into trouble for saying this, but it's almost 4AM, I have to get up in an hour and a half, and I've been awake since 2:30, so I'm going to just say this: Your mom didn't have fibromyalgia, she had RA. Every symptom that you've described sounds like RA. I was first diagnosed when I was a twenty-five year old man, which is about fifteen years and one X-chromosome short of the normal initial diagnosis. It started with my ankles being sore one morning, and that kept happening and then it went into my wrists and my knuckles. And I saw a TV commercial for Enbrel (I know, I know), and what was being described sounded really familiar, so I did some reading, and thought my symptoms sounded consistent with most of what I'd read. So I went to my doctor and told him about it, and he said it was really unlikely, but did a test (sedimentation rate of your red blood cells; it measures inflammation). The nurse called me either that afternoon or the next day, and told me the test had come back absolutely consistent with RA and that she'd gotten me into see the man who is now my rheumatologist by the end of the week, even though I had only been able to get an appointment with him at first for four months in advance. I know that my love of being right is one of my worst traits, but I hated being right then. So, now I also take Enbrel (and because of it have to pay $300/month for not-great private insurance since I can't get covered through my husband, but am grateful to have that). I've had a surgery to have the tendons in my right hand (which is my dominant hand) resected because my fingers had started to drift away from being straight, from which I've never really healed. I lost some range of motion, and I don't think it hurts any less, but I guess it looks better. And I hurt. All the time. I've honestly forgotten what it feels like not to hurt all the time, which I know sounds a little tender to the touch, but it's true. But here's the thing: At a certain point, I just decided to suck it up and get on living my life. I know someone will say that it's not much of a life if I spend time posting on the DL, but I would probably be doing that anyway. What accepting the reality of my situation did was force me to be brave enough to go back to school, and even though it's been hard, and I have no idea if the end result will be what I want, and especially because I'm not sure that if my body can take it. But if I make it to and through med school, and I find myself in a residency where I have to do 36 hours on call, I will find a way to do it. Because the alternative just sucks.

  The Voice of the Night

• You have my sympathy VOTN. My mom has rheumatoid arthritis. She is 79 years old and has suffered with it for 50 years. Her fingers run sideways and look claw-like. She has had both knees replaced and a hip. She is in pain every day. Yet she keeps on going and still walks and does an astonishing number of chores around the house. So don't give up. One of my male cousins was originally diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Then he had a CAT scan done and it was discovered the lesions on his brain indicated Parkinson's disease. So I'm thinking that what is loosely termed fibromyalgia could be a manifestation of a lot of different painful conditions. And probably some scammers, too.

• good luck to you, VOTN. very brave and inspiring :)

• I'm not inspiring. I'm just ornery. And I can't say that I don't have my own pity-party moments, although those do seem to occur less frequently now. And since someone will bring it up, I did try to commit suicide five years ago, but I like to think that I've made a concerted effort to get better, and that had nothing to do with my physical health anyway. I also have very little sympathy for people who seem to want to wallow in physical pain. I frankly don't know if fibromyalgia is bullshit or not, but I do know that spending your waking hours doing nothing but complaining about it won't cure much. The RA support forums are just as bad. There was a woman in the lab course I took this summer who I think was a fibro. She would always talk about her many health problems, and how hard it was for her to spend four hours a day three days a week on her feet hunched over a lab bench. And she was late turning in a lab report, but argued (I hope not successfully) to the TA that she had to take "a pain pill" (I assume Vicodin) and it left her too fuzzy to function. Although I never said anything, I think she sensed my contempt for her. Whenever I see her on campus, she quickly looks somewhere else.

  The Voice of the Night

• My mother is certifiably nuts... she also has "fibromyalgia". She has always been OCD and was even mentioned on the Oprah Show for her ridiculous need to save dryer lint!!! FM is a psycho disease and a joke!

  Pete

• So much bravery, in the face of adversity. Staying strong while fighting back the tears. This thread inspires me.

• My ex worked for a time as a social worker on a fairly basic level - people would come in and he'd figure out what they needed most and then find the right way to get them help. It was a wide spectrum: electricity bill paid, an artificial leg, job placement counseling, cat food, etc. Several of his clients presented with fibromyalgia. He said he had no idea if it was real or not, but he never had a fibro client who didn't have an accompanying mental health disorder. Of course, the fibro might have caused it, or the two went hand-in-hand ... but he said that fibro always, always came with some sort of mental health problem attached.

• How pathetic must someone's life be to bump a months-old typical Datalounge trolling thread about fibromyalgia? What next, a bump for a thread about autism? Or how about tipping? I know --- a thread about smoking!

• Just curious - does DL think that the men who claim to have it are also crazy liars, or just the women?

• Yes, it's BS. That's why it's mostly treated with antidepressants. A bonanza for the SSRI pharm. companies.

• Many doctors, such as myself, believe that fibromyalgia is nothing more than rheumatoid arthritis re-labeled. The drugs for RA are not under patent and work fine, but you can develop new drugs, not under patent, that you can charge more for is they are for a new disease. This doesn't mean that some fibromyalgia patients aren't sick and their symptoms aren't real. But it means the tail is wagging the dog - and diagnosis is being made to serve big pharma and not patients. I'm a GP, and I don't believe that such an illness as fibromyalgia exists. I believe that it's a convenient label for a set of symptoms that probably have multiple causes. But patients want a label, so big pharma will give them one as well as drugs to treat it. In fact, most people presenting these symptoms (unless the cases are severe) can be treated with diet, exercise and over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs. Patients with the most severe symptoms probably have RA. However, all of these "fibromyalgia is real" websites are underwritten by big pharma, and it's not generally effective to tell someone who has diagnosed themselves over the internet that the slick website that is telling them they are not crazy is a sales pitch. Most of these patients are not crazy and are really sick. But they have been sold a bill of goods by pharma and the doctors who work for pharma. My advice is to be compassionate and assume that people you know really do have symptoms.

• Wow, I can't believe all the ignorance on this thread. Just because something doesn't show up on a test doesn't mean it's not real! It just means there's not currently a test for it! And I'd like to add that I too am a victim of Cipro poisoning. And I do mean POISONING. I am now completely disabled and unable to walk thanks to just a few Ciprofloxacin pills I took YEARS ago now. I've lost absolutely everything I ever had because of that fucking poison. The hell it has caused me (and continues to cause every minute of every day) is beyond anything I can even begin to describe. My body rapidly transformed into that of a 100+ year-old nearly overnight. And yet nearly all of my medical tests come back normal! Bayer has truly manufactured the perfect poison with this shit--a drug that destroys its victims stealthily, allowing it to stay on the market to claim more and more unsuspecting victims each year. Many people who are poisoned by quinolone antibiotics never make the connection because the symptoms are often delayed (coming on weeks, months or even YEARS after you've stopped taking the drug) and are incredibly wide-ranging and totally bizarre, effecting absolutely every part of the body. And again, many if not most of these ADR's do NOT show up on testing, so many quinolone victims end up getting slapped with a "fibro" diagnosis. It's BULLSHIT. But 90% of doctors deny that Cipro (or any of the other drugs in its class) could possibly harm you, despite a plethora of research and disabled victims proving otherwise. Not to mention, more drugs in the quinolone class have been pulled from the market than remain available thanks to their horrific safety profiles! And I'm here to tell you that the ones still on the market are NO SAFER!!! The reason more women get "fibro" (aka CIPRO/AVELOX/LEVAQUIN poisoning) is because more females get UTI's, and therefore are prescribed these horrific antibiotics much more frequently than men. R113 You are an asshole. Quinolone antibiotics are indeed drugs of last resort. However it's DOCTORS handing them out like Halloween candy that is causing them to be overprescribed. Why would you blame the patient for what their doctor prescribes them?? You know why docs reach right for Cipro without trying anything safer first? Because they're LAZY so they just reach for the widest-spectrum drug available instead of pin-pointing the actual strain of bacteria causing the patient's infection. If you have a problem with Cipro being over-prescribed then take it up with the medical community! I agree with you that it should NOT be being used for things like UTI's (talk about the cure being worse than the disease!), but to blame the patient and say they deserve to get permanently crippled because their doctor is lazy is an ASSHOLIC thing to say.

  CIPRO%20IS%20POISON%21%21%21%20%20

• Fibromyalgia is a made-up disease for lazy, morbidly obese slobs. Just watch an episode of "Hoarders"...most of those leeches have that disease. Faking it so they can get SSI. Disgusting fat slobs. Get off your butts. How 'bout that for a "cure"?

  Kristen

• Oh, the neverending agony. Where's my sage and healing crystal? If only I could muster the strength to get off the couch ...

  Brooke

• I was watching a show the other night about hoarders. A rather large woman, with her house FILLED with trash and roaches, was sitting in a recliner claiming she couldn't do anything about it because it was a "bad fibromyalgia day". I reckon the vast majority of fibromyalgia "sufferers" are like that; using it as an excuse because they are fat, lazy, emotionally retarded human beings.

• "You might have a disease that may or may not exist. We're just not sure. Luckily, there is a cure! The best part is, we benefit from it!" -U.S. Government

• P.S. If you suffer from depression, go ahead and kill yourself. kthx

• I have fibromyalgia and it is very real. More women than men get it and I am unclear why that is. I am a 46 year old woman and I feel much older. My joints ache, and there are parts of my body so tender you cannot even touch them, such as my hips, backs of my legs, my shoulders and my neck. Even clothing hurts me.

• Chronic fatigue syndrome was discovered to be a fake condition; the evidence that fibro is imaginary can't be far behind.

• Fibro pain is a neurological disorder. The pain signals get amplified in the brain. Things that normally would not cause pain does, such as sitting in a chair, wearing certain clothing.

• I can hear the clattering of a thousand canes rising in self-righteous indignation as the lesbians come to get you OP.

• Why is it different from regular 'pain'?

• [quoteI have fibromyalgia and it is very real. More women than men get it and I am unclear why that is. I am a 46 year old woman and I feel much older. My joints ache, and there are parts of my body so tender you cannot even touch them, such as my hips, backs of my legs, my shoulders and my neck. Even clothing hurts me.] meaningless without some pix , R145. let see some ( unclothed of course we wouldn't want to cause you any "pain".)

• Is Lyme disease bullshit too? I know a family who supposedly all have Lyme disease, for which they blame not being able to be on time for anything, not being able to take care of their kids, not being able to get out of bed some days. I thought Lyme disease was: take the antibiotics and you're done. What the hell?

• No R23 - you have fibromyassis.

• [quote]Is Lyme disease bullshit too? I know a family who supposedly all have Lyme disease, for which they blame not being able to be on time for anything, not being able to take care of their kids, not being able to get out of bed some days. I thought Lyme disease was: take the antibiotics and you're done. What the hell? Lyme disease is treatable if caught early, but the longer a patient goes without treatment, the more difficult it is to treat. The bacterium that causes Lyme makes cells secrete proteins called cytokines, which are part of the normal immune response. The problem arises when the immune system starts attacking your body instead of any foreign infection, so it mimics an autoimmune disorder like RA even though there's an actual infectious agent. There's a chemical in tick-bites that prevents your immune system from just going straight after it right away, and so it often has time to spread throughout your body, including crossing the blood-brain barrier. Thank you, pathophysiology textbook.

  The Voice of the Night

• If lyme disease isn't detected and treated early, it becomes chronic. My sister has lyme disease that was caught very late, and she was actually diagnosed with fibromyalgia at first because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.

• I just heard a radio ad today about a drug trial for kids with Fibrymyalgia.

• "I also have very little sympathy for people who seem to want to wallow in physical pain... Although I never said anything, I think she sensed my contempt for her. Whenever I see her on campus, she quickly looks somewhere else." And your stated goal, VOTN, is to be a DOCTOR?! Oh Jesus, please NO. There are already enough asshole doctors, exactly like you, who have little compassion for people in chronic pain. To have contempt for people who are hurting is pretty fucked up. Do the world a favor and stay FAR away from the medical profession.

• To those who have it, of course it is very real. But the preferred med to treat it, is an anti-depressant. That ought to tell you something about what it really is.

  charlie

• R156 = very tender to the touch R157 = fool

• R116- I work with on and on protocols with psychiatrists who are looking at the pain associated with fibromyalgia. I know what I am talking about and I know what their treatment hypotheses are as well. You bet seritonin and GABA have something to do with pain- and also closely linked to a number of other disorders like depression and anxiety. I never said he pain was not real. I was rather speaking of the cause- tumor invasion, metastatic bone disease etc are pain on another level from anything someone with fibromyalsia experiences.

  charlie

• [quote]I just heard a radio ad today about a drug trial for kids with Fibrymyalgia. I saw an ad on TV for that too. Jeez. [quote]And your stated goal, VOTN, is to be a DOCTOR?! Oh Jesus, please NO. There are already enough asshole doctors, exactly like you, who have little compassion for people in chronic pain. I live in chronic pain. I have compassion for people who suffer from it, but what I don't have patience for is people who use it as an excuse to wallow in misery, or worse, who try to use it as an excuse to get special dispensation from on high.

  The Voice of the Night

• [quote]I have fibromyalgia and it is very real. More women than men get it and I am unclear why that is. I am a 46 year old woman and I feel much older. I can tell you why. More women than men are treated with quinolone antibiotics (Cipro, Avelox, Levaquin) due to their higher rates of UTI's. Cipro, Avelox and Levaquin all conveniently CAUSE a fibromyalgia-like syndrome often referred to as "floxing" or being "floxed." You can Google that. These drugs have horrific safety profiles (half of all drugs in this class have been pulled from the market) and yet are often given out as a first-line of defense by doctors (they were NEVER meant to be used this way--they're supposed to be drugs of last resort!). If you read the victims' stories on askapatient.com you will see that many/most of their symptoms mimic that of fibro. Of course once you're poisoned by an FDA-approved and doctor-precribed drug, no doc is going to admit it was the drug that harmed you. Instead they'll try and slap a fibro diagnosis on you. This happens countless times every single day to more and more unsuspecting victims. R145, check your medical records--chances are you've taken Cipro, Avelox or Levaquin in the weeks or months prior to developing your "fibro" health problems. This is a HUGE epidemic that is going largely unreported because people simply aren't making the connection between these poisonous and highly-destructive drugs and their often delayed and often PERMANENT side effects.

  http%3A//www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp%3Fdrug%3D19537%26name%3DCIPRO

• I have met an older man with fibro--he had enjoyed a very active, successful life which withered to nothing as he suffers with daily, agonizing pain. I didn't think that men got this either, but evidently it shows up in later years for men. So don't make light of this--it could happen to you. The Cipro/antibiotic theory is most interesting.

  feel better dears

• VOTN..so in other words you have no patience for people in daily chronic pain who are GRIEVING. What you call "wallowing" betrays you as a truly narcissistic person who cannot understand that people have different thresholds of tolerance for pain and adversity, particularly when that pain is chronic and will likely never go away. A compassionate person would understand that DEPRESSION...what you call "wallowing"...is commonplace among people who have daily physical suffering. These folks need mental health care, not your judgmental bullshit about them infuriating you because they're not pulling themselves up by their bootstrap. I particularly love that you are rationalizing your judgment by saying that you are in pain too, so apparently that makes your intolerance of others acceptable. Again, this shows how unfit you are to do anything in the medical profession. Instead of empathizing with them, you feel hateful towards them, and that betrays some serious flaws in your own psyche. You may not suffer pain as severe as theirs. You may have a higher tolerance level for pain. Your life's circumstances may compensate you somewhat for the suffering you experience. A poor person who is without a support system is going to have a harder time dealing with a chronic painful illness than a wealthy person who can afford all kinds of pain management treatments. So please stay far away from the medical profession. There are too many people like you in it already. People who are suffering need compassionate care. You'd make a better Republican Party something-or-other.

• I know two people who presented as living with fibromyalgia. One, I got the distinct impression it was real and the person was not interested in martyrdom, it just happened to her. She dealt with it pretty well attitudinally, but it was difficult. And she didn't even entirely believe in "fibro" - she said "they just call it that when they can't figure out what it is." The other, I got the distinct impression it was partially bullshit and partially possibly real. She was an insufferable woe-is-me narcissist and energy-sucker off other people for years, in other areas of her life, before the "fibro" kicked in. So, a case by case situation.

• My fibro tends to flare up around deadlines. Do you think work could be "floxing" me? Sometimes it feels like I've been floxed real hard when I have to turn in reports.

  Brooke

• R165 If you were floxed you likely wouldn't even be able to work. Keep asking your doctor for quinolone antibiotics and it'll happen. Just you wait.

• Could one induce floxing by ingesting multiple antibiotics? I would like to flox hard sometime around my Wednesday staff meeting.

  Brooke

• R167 As long as they're in the fluoroquinolone class of drugs, they'll do the job. Levaquin seems to be the most crippling, closely followed by Avelox and then Ciprofloxacin. All can cause crippling and long-term (if not permanent) side effects with as little as one pill. But you won't learn THAT from the warning label -or- your doctor. And there is no treatment or support once it happens.

• Fibromyalgia is real. Big Pharma says so.

• After I had a hysterectomy, I became more sensitive because I was thrown into instant menopause and changed chemically. I think fibro maybe hormone-related somehow. I bruise easier and pain I could normally tolerate I can't tolerate as easily. I don't think I have fibro and I still work out, ski and remain sexually active(shock I know!)but I can definitely tell a difference in my pain threshold.

• I am here to tell you as a nurse and fibromyalgia pateint that the disease is real. I got sick with it long before Lyrica. I got sick with it when I had never heard the word fibromyalgia and did not know it existed. I missed work for a month and was so ill I thought I had a fatal illness and was telling people what to do with my children should I die. I NEVER had a physical complaint before the age of 40 except for an occasional ache or pain fixed with Tylenol alone. I was a very active person and definately not lazy and not a hypochondriac of any sorts. I did not get on the internet and look up some disease to "get". Furthermore, I would never have chosen the lie to be fibromyalgia with the stigma that surrounds this disease. My life is forever altered. I still have to push and work full time so i don't reap any benefits of disability because I would have nothing to carry my two children and me through until I could EVEN get disability. I am not a damn drug seeker and never required anything stronger than Tylenol before the age of 40. And I personally don't give a rats ass who thinks what about what my body goes through on a daily basis because if you choose to not beleive it due to mounting research, then you are ignorant anyway. I could go on about the neurotransmitters and visualization of the pain signals in the brain with high tech scans. But I won't. It is a waste of my time if you are too ignorant to read about the stuff yourself. I wake up 2 hours before time for work everyday because it takes me that long after sleep to recover from the night. I am in horrid all over pain so bad I can hardly walk or get out of bed. It is a chore to make a cup of coffee. The stiffness is ungodly and I cannot even pick something up off the floor for 2 hours after I wake up. The misery continues through the day but not as bad as morning. I don't always "look sick" but I have to work with the pain because I have no choice really. So I try to function as a well person in a sick person's body. My husband saw what it has done to me over the years and he knows it is real. It is totally outside my character to make anything up and also outside my character to be a drug seeker, attention seeker, lazy ass, hypochondriac etc... And as many years as I had been an RN when I got sick, I never heard a mention back then in the medical field about fibro and never met anyone with it. So if you don't believe me, it does not help to make me well again and bring back life as I once knew it. Your belief or disbelief is your own problem and has no significance to the fact I am really ill and you cannot fix it with your belief or disbelief.

  Debra Van Ness RN

• "Move, you bastards. Walk or something" that's pretty funny because the first three years of being sick, as it was coming on I walked 3 miles to and 3 miles from work every day AND worked 60 hrs a week-on my feet. I'd come home and cry. They've been saying FM for six years now. Well now it has progressed to where I can't do anything, my muscles are wasting away and I feel worse with every passing year. Back to the point-if it was excorsize, why wasn't mine cut off at the start? besides the walking, working, I was always very active.

  sick of being sick

• .

• Fibro is real. The pain and suffering is unimaginable. Only being 15, I've never taken any of the drugs you "experts" believe causes the disease. Doctors did everything to rule out any other possible diseases from cancer to arthritis and all came back negative. The only thing that came back positive was my blood work, which tested every possible condition. The results were a text book case of how a Fibromyalgia patients might look, if their lucky. My doctor even did CAT scans and MRIs of my whole body to prove there was acute sensitivity that was extremely abnormal. Just because doctors can straight up prove the disease is real, patients suffering from it can. Everyday we live with the pain and social stigma that follows. Until you have lived with a chronic pain condition, don't you dare call it bullshit. You and your "experts" are the ones full of bullshit, not the people in crippling pain.

  Fighting%20Fibro%20and%20winning%20

• Hi, I'm 16 years old and was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia recently. You call bullshit? Cool, why don't you try a day with it. Yes, sometimes we do get relief and can do things, but you know what most of the time its called being tough and pushing through. Some people can't make dinner or do dishes because their body is so worn from the day. Also it could just be that they're tired which comes with it. They can't go to work some days because sometimes it's physically impossible to get up out of bed, Or the depression and emotional roller coaster is enough to cripple them for a few hours. Before you call bullshit again why don't you do some research or sit down and talk to some one who has it.

• This entire conversation is making me tender to the touch!

  and%20it%27s%20NOT%20just%20%22all%20in%20my%20head%22%21

• I have crippling fibromyalgia too and I just turn nine. You haters can suck my cock.

• I never believed this fibromyalgia stuff was real but over the last year every single day I wake up it feels like someone beat the everloving sh*t out of me overnight. The ache and pain use to go away, now it doesn't. My muscles and bones and this whole body ache all day long. I haven't been to a doctor for this but I wonder if fibromyalgia is what this is.

  Healthy%20otherwise%20but%2050%20yrs%20old

• I've always been bewildered why this disease is considered BS, and even more stunned that gay men are the loudest proponents of this argument. Strange indeed. Just tell these queens that HIV is not the cause of AIDS and they go hysterical. I also think that the dismissal of the disease has a great deal to do with the narcissitic tendencies in our culture today. I mean, why feel compassionate for others when your problems are just soooooooo much more important. Pathetic.

  ranger

• Oh yeah, well I have DOUBLE Fibromyalgia! I'm literally crying as I type this.

• If a condition evades medical testing, people (including doctors) will often try and stamp it as "ALL IN YOUR HEAD!" People with Lyme also get a lot of abuse from doubters. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's all fun and games until it happens to YOU.

• Ugh, my mother claims to suffer from fibromyalgia, among other things. Hypochondriacs seem to love suffering from fibromyalgia.

• so tender to the touch.

• [quote]Doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Doesn't mean it does, either.

• Yes, I fucking disagree. Let me tell you a story; the story of my life. I am a young girl, almost sixteen years of age. Up until I was aged ten, I was a normal kid. I ran, I played etc. I was full of life. The only thing wrong was how often I got ill; any bug going around, I caught. We thought nothing of it; I was just a kid, right? It all changed on October 4th 2006. I had just recovered from a nasty bout of Mumps. I bent down to pick up a plastic bag, and something clicked in my back. I felt pain. By the next day, my entire body was in absolute agony. Over five and a half years on, that pain has not left; not even for a second. It took months of sleepless nights - at best, I got an hour of rest a day even though I was exhausted - and being thrown from doctor to doctor for me to be diagnosed. It's rare in children, but not impossible. Not at all. I had good days and bad days. Some days I could do normal stuff - the stuff you described in your post. Other days, I couldn't move. I got gradually worse. Just over a year ago, I was hospitalized. My legs had gone pale white, ice cold, and stopped moving. I learnt to walk again, on crutches and was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. A few months later, I was diagnosed with M.E. In September, I worsened again and endured a 5 week stay in hospital, and missed the first two months of my last year at school. I returned in November in a wheelchair, and lost all my friends but one. My only other friends are online, because they don't judge me like everyone else. I have exams coming up soon, and it's going to be more than hard. I will get through it though, I know I will. But, people like you - ignorant people, who don't see the bigger picture - are what makes it worse for us. You have no idea what our lives are like. So next time, actually put yourself in our shoes, before you go mouthing off. It's called Empathy, and I suggest you bloody well use it.

  Pissed%20off%20Fibro%20sufferer

• I am just going to post a quiet message about a colleague who is diagnosed with this. She works full time in an active job, has an active social life and walks the two miles - 4 miles round trip - to and from work each day unless it is raining heavily. However, there are times when she suffers immense pain and discomfort. She still tries to get into work though and most people have no clue she has it. I think there are many who may have hijacked the condition as an excuse but there are definitely people who genuinely suffer.

• PEOPLE WHO HAVE FOUND THIS THREAD VIA GOOGLE SEARCH, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: Before you decide to make your very first post at this board in order to educate us all about fibromyalgia -- specifically YOUR fibromyalgia and how nobody understands you -- consider two things. First, paragraph breaks are your friend. Secondly, NOBODY GIVES A FUCK.

• Funny how all the real life stories describe exactly what the advertisers describe - word for word. The real crime of so-called fibromyalgia is that after making this quack diagnosis, people stop trying to figure out what may really be wrong with a person - whether medical or psychological or other. I do believe there may be some people suffering, but a fibromyalgia is a pharmaceutical that was searching for a use. Lyrica is one of four drugs which a subsidiary of Pfizer in 2009 pleaded guilty to misbranding "with the intent to defraud or mislead". Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion in settlement, and entered a corporate integrity agreement. Pfizer illegally promoted the drugs and caused false claims to be submitted to government healthcare programs for uses that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

• I have been taking Lyrica suppositories for years.

  Brooke, calling in sick

• R187 You DO give a fuck, otherwise you wouldn't bother with this thread. Or...are you only here to be an asshole? Why don't you go kick cancer patients or something?

• Oh, dear. First we had a frau invasion. Now we are being invaded by adolescent firbro sufferers.

• no such thing.... And I include any acid issues, acid reflux, ulcers, bad backs, bad necks.... Unless you are were injured and it can clearly be seen.... I did P90X and after the cycle my lower back killed. I went to my dr. He put me on drugs. Then I went to 4 different chiropractors, bought a neck stretching machine, went to a spinal surgeon for his advice, went to 2 different physical therapists....all for nothing. A friend of mine told me about MIND OVER BODY BY DR. JOHN SARNO. READ THIS BOOK!!!!!! DO WHAT HE ASKS EVEN IF YOU THINK IT IS SILLY. And watch what happens. My pain is practically gone. PSYCHOSOMATIC.

• My mother has it. She went vegan, took up yoga and uses a lot of ice packs. Haven't seen it slow the old lady down much, but there are days that she stays home and "relaxes" with some Naproxen. If it's made up, she doesn't do it for sympathy. If anything, she tries to cover it up and it's rarely if ever a topic of conversation. For years, people said EBS and Chronic Fatigue were just cases of Mommy Flu. Like many other non-lethal, invisible illnesses, some will take advantage while others will refuse to admit they exist.

  Not%20Inclined%20To%20Diagnose%20Others

• Yes, R192, it's all in YOUR head. Other's, not so much.

• Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Celiac Disease are the latest fashionable diagnoses for hypochondriacs.

• The only things that seem to alleviate the agony are my daily reflexology sessions and burning sage in my home. I use a Buddhist mantra while watching Oprah's Lifeclass.

  Brooke, desperate for a cure

• I believe this is real. My heart goes out to anyone who suffers from this. For those that don't believe, there is something called Morgellon's which is devestating people but the medical establishment is refusing to accept. There are immunity issues popping up due to pesticides, bad foods, pollution, chemical, possibly shampoos and lipsticks, etc. I would advise anyone with fibro to only use shampoos without Sodium Laurel Sulfate, and be careful about any kind of makeup. I also recommend investing in Turmeric capsules, especially ones that contain black pepper for better absorbancy. I hope everyone with this finds relief, and I do care about your suffering.

  I care

• OP tired of empathy, had a boundaryless, molestive (to make up two words) mother. Sympathize. But don't need to empathize w/ OP.

• Fibromyalgia = Undiagnosed Lyme Disease and/or other Tick Borne Diseases

  Lyme%20Sufferer

• R199 that's a fascinating idea. Can you elaborate on it? I know that Lyme disease is far more prevalent on the East Coast than on the West or in between. I wonder where fibro is most commonplace.

• Firbromyalgia is a real diagnosis. What some fail to realize is that 1) you can recover from it and 2) although it is real, some people will use it to their advantage. That doesn't make the illness bullshit. It just makes those w/o the illness who use the symptoms for their advantage "bullshitters". Big difference. Fibro isn't the only disease people use like this. I know a woman who said she had MS and didn't. There is a woman in our town who said she had cancer and used it to get charity money and was prosecuted (it was in the news). Lots of illness can be used like this.

• Fibro is not just ONE thing, nor is it caused by just one thing. It is a catch-all diagnosis for pain of unknown origin.

• [quote]I'd bet if you subtracted fat people from the list of fibro sufferers, the remaining list would be pretty fucking small. My sister is obese and another friend is obese. Both cannot work, they claim, because of fibromyalgia. But they can't get Disability for it. One woman (in her 60s) is supported by her mother. My sister is supported by her husband, who is also obese but works his ass off. Both women have been told that a little exercise and weight loss would help ease the pressure on their joints, and probably help them get back to normal. Both are still obese and not working.

• R203 Yep. I know one person who also refuses to change lifestyle and was dx w/fibro. Not obese or even fat. Just will not stop drinking several gallons of cola daily, no exercise, extremely poor diet (no veggies) and watches TV until 4 am every day. Yet I know another person who was dx'd w/fibro who exercised through the pain for months, took the required meds, continued to be employed (it was HELL), changed diet). Broke the change of fibro and overcame it. ME.

• Um, my doctor tried diagnosing me with fibro and I'm 6'2 and 150lbs. I'm also male. I do NOT have fibro, however. I was poisoned by Ciprofloxacin (Cipro), a horrifically poisonous antibiotic manufactured by Bayer. Most doctors will not admit that fluoroquinolone antibiotics are capable of inflicting lifelong disability on people including all sorts of chronic, hellish pain and other odd health problems--most of which do not show up on standard testing. They try and slap you with the "fibro" diagnosis instead. AIN'T HAPPENING!

  Cipro%2C%20Levaquin%20%26%20Avelox%20are%20poison%21

• Sure R200. R199 here. I had a known tick bite around 6 years ago. I within a week or two, I started to get very ill, flu like symptoms. I went to my doctor, telling him I had been bitten by a tick. He did a Lyme disease test, which came back negative. This is where the roller coster ride through hell started. There is no definitive test for Lyme disease. The Lyme spirochete, is a cork screw shaped bacteria, which actually drills itself into the blood cell, as well as various parts of the body. Unless an infected cell is drawn in a blood test, the blood test will be determined to be negative for Lyme. Standard Lyme blood tests are known to have up to an 80% false reading. Not only is it worthless, it gives the unsuspecting patient and the uneducated doctor false knowledge, as the disease gets worse. Most ticks infected with Lyme also carry other co-infections, known as TBD or Tick Borne Diseases. Your doctor will not test you for that. He will probably not know to. My did not, and I had two co-infections in addition to Lyme. Each TBD will need long term, separate, antibiotics. I have been on different regimens for several years. Because of my long term misdiagnoses, my infections got very bad. I just finished 6 months of IV antibiotic therapy which broke my bank. But I finally feel well. Ok, so where does the Fibromyalgia come in? My doctor, along with all of the specialists he had sent me to, gave me this diagnosis when he ran out of tests and possibilities. He had no idea what was wrong with me, so I suppose Fibromyalgia would do. Eventually he just gave me prescriptions for Lexapro or whatever and told me to go see a shrink. TBD's are no longer just in the North East. I am in NY, and yes it is worst in the North East. But you can be infected just about anywhere. I was infected on Fire Island, which I have learned is a very well known place to get TBD's. Because of the mild winter this year, a very big increase in TBD's is expected. This Lyme Disease along with the others is no joke. It can absolutely ruin your life. Thank God I did not stop. I had no help from my doctors. All they did was waste valuable time as the disease got worse.I continued to find answers, I found a Lyme specialist and he is healing me. He is my savior! I am now a 40 year old man, who before this never had any health problems. When I was bitten I was 34. The last 6 years have been Hell.This disease nearly destroyed my life. I thank my surportive partner and my family, and my Lyme specialist. I'd be in a coffin by now if I continued with my former doctor.

  Lucky%20to%20be%20getting%20my%20life%20back

• R206, I am so sorry to hear of your suffering but am glad you have made it back. Sounds absolutely AWFUL. I have heard of Lyme disease specialists and am glad that people are taking this seriously. Stephen Harrod Buhner is an herbalist I admire who has written a book on curing Lyme disease. He has also written a book on male health issues and wonderful works on herbalism and plant spirituality. Love him! His book is called "Healing Lyme" and is highly regarded. Many of his books are in library catalogues so if you cannot order it try to check it out of the library. Again, glad to hear of your success against the horrors of Lyme disease and thanks again for the info on fibro.

  YAY!

• It sounds like one of those black names.

• I don't think Fibromyalgia is fake - but as other have pointed out, I do think it is a catch all diagnosis that doctors make when they can't figure out what is causing the pain in question. What the patient feels is real, but fibro is what its called because they really don't know what is causing the pain. I was diagnosed years ago with irritable bowl syndrome - and when I pressed the doctor for what that meant exactly, he admitted it was a general diagnosis that covers off on all my symptoms when they can't find the specific cause. A year later, they found the specific cause, treated it - and I guess I don't have irritable bowl syndrome anymore. So, issues are real, but the diagnosis basically equals = "Don't know what is causing your pain, so we're going to call it this ..."

• I have been diagnosed with perineural fibrosis as the result of a surgeon damaging my spinal cord covering while removing a crushed disk. it basically is scarring of the nerve root that leads into my left leg - it is agonizing at times, and I am on SSD as a result. But I would like to advise everyone here that suffers from extreme pain and inflammation - the type that makes your whole body ache - that Mobic is a godsend. Please google it - my thoughts are with everyone here that suffers from chronic pain.

  Been%20there

• If you have health insurance, you probably want some name attached to your illness, injury or disease. Otherwise, you will not get any claims paid. Every claim needs a diagnosis to get paid. That's probably why docs are in the habit of labeling your condition and giving it a name. If not, people would be complaining that nothing is getting paid (and I mean nothing, not just an occaisional claim that doesn't get paid - and belive me a lot more get paid than not).

• [quote]For the record, I do not get Medicaid, SSI, "welfare", etc. I draw SSD and I paid into this during years of work until I was forced to retire. I also pay Medicare & Humana premiums & deductibles, co-pays, etc. You are not supporting me. I am also not taking narcotic pain meds. For the record, you didn't 'pay into' anything during years of work. The money you paid went to people who qualified then. If you are on SSD then the taxpayers are supporting you. I'm not condemning or judging you, my intent is to correct the misconception that you 'pay into' social security and then later collect the money you 'paid in'. You don't. It's not a savings account. When you qualify for benefits, you are getting money that other taxpayers are paying.

• R212 Technically correct, but by paying FICA out of each check, you have the right to receive benefits from SSDI, whiich BTW, will be bankrupt in four years. It is funded out of a different trust fund that SS retirement, which will run out in 2024.

• Well op, you aren't paying their bills and they can't get disability for it, so why do you care? And no, they are not all outside sucking on cigarettes.

• So what happens when SSDI is bankrupt? People die?

• R207, Thank You. If I have gained anything from this illness, it has opened my eyes. I appeared to be perfectly healthy, but felt that I was dying. I feared the worst.I ran and got an AIDS test. Then another one.(both were negative). At my worst, before I began treatment, I was thinking of how to get my affairs in order. I really thought I was dying. It has opened my eyes. I used to take things for granted. I took my health for granted. Without your health you have nothing at all. So I am more compassionate to people now. It comes easily now. You don't know what someone may be suffering from on the inside, health wise or other things. I don't assume people are just fine. I always ask my loved ones now, how are you? I don't take for granted that they are just great. When I was ill i was just a shadow of myself. But looked fine, except that I lost some weight. I have definitely been enlightened by this illness. I am more caring towards others. I smile more now, because I can.

• If we hadn't given all of our money to Haliburton and GE...so they could murder babies, we might have enough money for social security. Of course none of those right wing assholes remember anything about THAT.

• [quote]It is funded out of a different trust fund that SS retirement, which will run out in 2024. Social Security funds won't "run out" and it won't happen in 2024. As of 2033, the money coming in will be insufficient to pay the full set of benefits. Instead, it will be able to meet only 75% of the projected needs, which is still more money being paid out than is the case today.

• R218. I know. I hear that "75%" number, too. Nobody ever tells you what that means. Does it mean those receiving benefits will get 75% of what they are entitled to if nothing is done to fix the problem or - only 75% of those entitled to recieive benefits will get them and the other 25% will get nothing (which, in this case, benefits RUN OUT). OR maybe somewhere in between - some get 50%. some get 35% and others get something else? I dunno. But 75% of the projected needs doesn't tell you a lot. And what about SSDI in four years? Has anybody even mentioned that? NOOOOOO.

• @ R24 53 5'11 - 145 I walk a mile four time a week. Sat/Sun am Tue/Thur pm Which is extra-special fun if I'm having a bad day, but it does seem to help in the long-term. And yes, I know I'm old.

  old%20lez

• [quote] but by paying FICA out of each check, you have the right to receive benefits from SSDI, whiich BTW, will be bankrupt in four years My point is that it's all political, and it can change at any time, and if republicans are in power they want to erode it down to nothing. People should shed the misconception that they 'pay into' something other than the current pool of money. The only reason SS looks like it's in trouble is because the government borrows from it so now its assets are mostly IOUs.

  r212

• Have only read the first 40 responses so far, but my ex bf was 28 and had fibro, and no, he was not fat. Once in awhile his legs would just give out suddenly and he'd fall. He really pursued this with various docs and eventually a doc told him he has celiac. So he had to give up gluten and take a lot of vitamins because he became unknowingly malnourished from celiac. We have been broken up for 5 years, but I wonder if he healed himself through diet. Was supposed to make a huge difference.

• I have fibromyalgia and I'm 23 years old. i know people who have been diagnosed with fibro at the age of 15. My mother and my grandmother both suffer from it also. My mother has lost her whole life to the disease as she suffers with it the most. i still manage to do the things in life I've always wanted to do, It makes it much more difficult to do and relationships have been lost through ignorant people like yourself sometimes making my life a very lonely place. Be grateful you don't have to suffer yourself.

• You know when op is old and wearing diapers, unable to take care of himself, he'll say...hummm...maybe those people really were sick?

• The first people who suffered with ALS were said to be faking it or mentally ill.

• Fibromyalgia is completely subjectively diagnosed, its "fake" disease in my opinion. That is not to say that people aren't suffering, but fibromyalgia is a meaningless diagnosis. Its just like the doctor is saying "Ok, I believe you do have pain", without really saying why. There is no real pathology associated with the disease, just generalized pain. If someone tells you have fibromyalgia, they just want to throw pills at you without having to investigate/understand what is actually wrong. And yes, people use this "diagnosis" to get any number of narcotics (usually unnecessarily). And, pharmaceutical companies come up with "fibromyalgia" drugs, that treat a disease which actually doesn't exist in the clinical world. Its just an extremely long list of little pains. I have sympathy for people in pain, but I don't like how doctors invent crap diagnoses like fibromyalgia. Its not doing anyone any good.

• R185, how did you get mumps? Were you not vaccinated? Sounds like your health issues are far more serious than fibro; I hope you haven't been misdiagnosed.

• r226, lots of disorders are actually diagnosed on a subjective basis looking at the 'whole picture' as there is no definitive test. This includes some neurological conditions.

• R222, nothing you say in your post about your X symptomatically has anything to do with celiac disease which is a real diagnosis by the way. Fibro, as I stated earlier is probably really part of a psychiatric condition. The drug most frequently prescribed to treat it, is a psychotropic drug by the way.

  charlie

• PARAGRAPH BREAKS!!!

  My%20eyes...so%20tender%20to%20the%20touch.

• You are an asshole

• I've said it before and I'll say it again: FIBRO = SEVERE DEPRESSION + ARTHRITIS Nothing to sneeze at; these are serious health problems. But also not a separate "disease."

• [quote]Do dudes get fibromyalgia? For some strange reason, only women and gay men seem to get fibro. Drama queens appear to be especially vulnerable.

  John%20Wayne

• Firo is real. I had a two-part episode about it, and then was magically cured.

  Dorothy Zbornak

• Well, I'm surprised my hypochondriac neighbor hasn't discovered this yet. She's nice but she constantly claims migraines while sitting outside and smoking and now has a UTI that has lasted 4 weeks with numerous antibiotics and doctors visits but keeps coming up with clean urine. I think she really just doesn't want to work. Her husband does everything and she takes tons of pills.

• There are clear diagnostic tests to determine fibro. The big piece missing from the puzzle is diagnostic blood tests. And the symptoms mimic other illnesses, and can be present with other illnesses. If you haven't had widespread pain for more than 3 months at a time, your pain is not located in specific points on your body, then the pain is not likely caused by fibro. But, it acts like an autoimmune disease (and will likely be classified as one when they determine the correct blood tests that identify it). What that means is it screws with peoples brains and consequently other body organs, in a way that not only triggers pain responses and, but also creates emotional havoc. Fibro flares CAN be triggered by emotions, but arenot the root cause of it. Anxiety/depression/bipolar are SYMPTOMS (REACTIONS TO ACTIVE FIBRO). I've just been diagnosed. I'm healthy weight (when my current flare hit I gained 40 lbs in 2 months and lost it all after 3 years and the flare getting so bad I couldn't eat for 2 months), eat very healthy, and when I'm well enough, physically active. Its hard to excerise when doing 10 situps makes you sore for 3 days, and after 5 minutes of working out you need a 2 hour nap. I can only do about 3 hours of simple activity (chores, cooking, errands) before I'm stuck laying down. I blackout and have seizures, I have daily headaches with chronic persistent migraine with aura, my brain is is not regulating my hormones or metabolism correctly, my heartbeat skips and flutters,I don't sleep, I can't think clearly (I can't even count money. Sometimes when I'm talking to someone or watching tv, its like they're speaking a foreign language, constant mood swings), and I constantly see starbursts and visual static. Pain migrates all over my body and my feet/wrists/elbow/tmj joints are starting to deform. For years I was told I'm crazy. I went to a shrink. He says I have bi polar symptoms that are a result of a physical health condition. Rheumy who just dignosed me with fibro also says its not in my head. Stress, unfortunately, is what triggers this for me. Drs are suggesting ssdi, which I'm considering. Thing people don't understand is fibro comes in cycles. If a person who has it active, they need it to be treated so they CAN RETURN TO LIFE AND STOP DEPENDING ON EVERYONE ELSE. But this takes time, and sometimes a year or two off work can fix the physical symptoms. Once those are fixed, the mental health corrects too. Imagine how much more pleasant it is to deal with people who don't always have pain would be? Part of the mental crap is KNOWING you're physically and people ignoring or judging you all while you get sicker and sicker and sicker. People do go on ssdi all the time and when become healthier, go off of it. As it should be. I'm now bankrupt, unable to work, still sick, and soon to be homeless. And I'm 100% independent so there's no one, and has been noone I can rely on. Ya...I'm soooo totally getting over on all of you. *rolls eyes* we are not fakers or moochers. We are sick and need treatment

• Ps... those psychiatric drugs often do not work. Not to mention psych drugs are used interchangebly for many other non psychiatric illnesses. Treatments are real hit or miss and only alleviate symptoms. Fibro is diagnosable and documentable despite not knowing the cause. I've got a couple hundred pages in my medical file to back that up, and I'm just one out of many. Pss. I refuse to take the narcotics.

• My mother, whom I love, is nuts and always has been. Everything makes the poor woman a nervous wreck, to the point where she will go completely bald every few years. She thinks everyone is out to get her. I don't know what happened to her in her childhood, but as a small child during the Depression, diagnosing her wasn't a priority. She copes by taking pills. She has done this all my life. In her old age, she complains nonstop about aches and pains - I'm sure some legit - but some not. She doctor shops and I worry someday she'll be caught. She doesn't realize in this day and age that these things are tracked by computer. A typical day involves her taking enough pain narcotics to knock down an elephant. She gets Fentanyl patches for a "sore foot". The last time I saw her she had FOUR of them stuck all over her foot. And she has been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I believe she is a typical fibromyalgia patient, which is a drug seeking attention starved complainer.

• The only people diagnosed with fibroamyalgia are bored frauen, old lesbians, and fat queens.

• Women didn't have it good enough with childbirth, menstrual cramps, and taking more time off from work for childcare, preschool, and screwing their employers with maternity leave, etc. It all became sooooo unbearable for them that they had to come up with a "diagnosis" for their vague, attention seeking symptoms associated with an inability to establish themselves successfully in the workplace. "Fib" romyalgia. And our insurance dollars again are going to pay their way.

• Right OP. you the author? Bull Flatulence. Only one who'd know BS!

• [R238]. jHaaHaHa ..Noh?.way. my (late) mother nuttier than a Nutty Buddy! But, you think your mom would send me the peel off backing from her Fentanyl? [R240] I wasn't Fibby enough to Fib my way out of the most unsuccessful lowliest back breaking job for 30+yrs. Or any time off that wasn't "earned". Hung in long enough for my successful workplace employer to declare Bankrupcy and cancel the medical insurance. ohHo..had to listen frequently for 30+yrs to bored whiney, screwballs constantly hoovering up every molecule of attention. [R238] could you take a look in her medicine cabinet for some Adderall while you're at it? Not sure here since, I lost the job with the BK'd company, no income, no med ins, no shit. Of course I'm a loser woman, the doc or whoever yanked me out during childbirth didn't ask me my personal choice. If I have the attention span of a flea, does it mean I have adult ADD? I'll take your word. Wouldn't mind having a penis next go around. Sounds like a ball.

  Envious%20of%20Penes%2C%20No%20Pain%20%26%20Deafness

• I have fibromyalgia, complicated by restless leg syndrome. And furthermore, I have chronic hypochondria.

  Where%27s%20my%20Hoveround%3F

• Wow, lots of misogyny and "frau" hate here. Here's a radical idea: Not every woman is the same, just as not every gay man is the same! GASP! Yes, I've worked with fat lazy fraus who milk everything and personify Sows At The Trough. I've also worked with women who have had a baby (or even tougher, a miscarriage) and were back at work the next day. I've worked with a realtor who was helping me find a place - we had a meeting on a Saturday and she'd given birth Tuesday. The new Yahoo CEO is pregnant and is already saying she'll work through a lot of it. I've worked with some bad ass bitches who came in for a half day because in the morning they were at fucking CHEMO. Those are some seriously dedicated workers. I know a lot of drunken queens who can't come in at all in a day because of a hang over. Yes, bad lazy workers who make you work harder suck. They sucked when they were hired and they suck, period. But bad workers come in all shapes, sizes, colors and genders.

  Oh%20HELL%20No%20

• If you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and you smoke and drink a bottle of wine a day then that's fine but don't complain to me about how your disease affects you. Stop smoking, eat right, exercise and stop drinking and quoting ghandi on Facebook.

• BOTTOM LINE YOUR BAD HABBITS AND LACK OF CARE FOR YOUR BODY HAS LED TO YOUR PAIN AND SUFFERING.ANY BODY WHO STILL SMOKES AND IS COMPLAINING IS JUST AN IDIOT AND LIVING IN DENIAL.THE POSION IS FILLING YOUR BODY WITH TOXINS AND YOUR BODY IS TELLING YOU SOMTHING STOP!BAD DIET IS THE CAUSE OF MOST PAIN ASSOCIATED WITH INFLAMATION.IF YOU DRINKING SODA EATING FAST FOODS AND CONSUMING MOST OF THE FOODS FOUND IN EVERY DAY LIFE IN AMERICA YOU ARE SICK.IF YOU HAVE GROWN TIRED OF FOOLING YOUR SELF TRY CHANGING YOUR LIFE STYLE GIVE YOUR SELF A CHANCE TO LIVE AGAIN.I RECOMMEND DRINKING LOTS OF WATER WITH WHEAT GRASS MY FAVORITE IS AT WWW.SWEETWHEAT.COM AND START EXERSIZING 4 TIMES A WEEK GIVE IT A MONTH AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED AT HOW MUCH BETTER YOU WILL FEEL IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.THE REASON FYBROMYALGIA HAS NOT BE PROVEN IS ITS A SYMPTOM NOT A DISEASE.YOUR SUFFERING FROM SELF ABUSE POOR DIET AND SELF PITTY.WHY IS IT SO HARD TO ACCEPT THE TRUTH AND CHANGE BEFORE YOU DIE.YOU CAN GET MAD AND POST REDICULOUS COMMENTS TO JUSTIFY YOUR SITUATION BUT YOU KNOW DEEP DOWN YOU STOP CARING FOR YOUR SELF ALONG TIME AGO AND NOW YOUR FACED WITH THE REALITY OF CONSIQUENCE.DID YOU REALLY THINK SMOKING AND EATING LIKE SHIT LED TO A BETTER LIFE IT LEADS TO FYBROMYALGIA DEATH PLEASE WAKE UP AND CHANGE BEFORE ITS TO LATE DO IT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU.IF YOU CAN'T DO IT PRAY THAT GOD WILL HELP YOU SEEK HIM AND HE WILL HELP ITS YOUR CHOICE.

  ROBERT

• robert...i can't hear you--speak up

• My favorite episode of "Hoarding: Buried Alive" (not to be confused with "Hoarders", the original and far better) featured a fat lazy slob who claimed to have fibromyalgia. She just sat in her lazy boy all day sucking down big gulps of Pepsi. The episode is entitled "Little Monsters" referring to the obscene cockroach infestation in the house, swarms of them crawling all over the walls. She is the Queen of Fibromyalgia, look for it to download, the people in this thread would love it.

• Misogyny thread

• I'm not sure what the normal number of brilliant diagnosticians per capita might be, but DL surely has more than its share. It's pretty obvious that any illness that is primarily seen in women is not going to pass muster with our unlicensed medical team.

• Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion. You only are diagnosed with it, if they can't find anything else wrong. Therefore it is a fake illness.

• [quote]Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion. You only are diagnosed with it, if they can't find anything else wrong. Therefore it is a fake illness. Yes, because we all know that there is a definitive test for EVERY illness there is. Doctors are just THAT good.

  Idiot

• Yes, because we all know that hypochondriacs would NEVER claim an "illness" that has no clear diagnosis. Hypochondriacs are just THAT trustworthy.

• My mother in law "has it" as well as her daughter, my 20 year old sister in law. Both are over weight, drink soda pop my the case loads, eat fast food and swap pain pills and patches. Both are walking around in a state of pure inebriation, wasted off their asses at all times. They have no problem doing daily things, going shopping, driving all over the place, well, more like swerving all over the place, nodding out. The pain only seems to be a problem when they're out of pills, or they're asked to do something they'd rather not do, which is mostly anything that doesn't revolve around them. Motrin in law is at the age of retirement, but daughter has never worked a day in her life, dropped out of high school and is now planning a wedding to some poor schmuck who will take care of her until he finally comes out of the closet. Annoying.

• I can completely vouch for restless leg syndrome. When I was pregnant and it was time for bed, my legs would start, they just wanted to MOVE. I couldn't help it. Constant kicking and stretching and rubbing. All night long, couldn't sleep, often times I'd get up and just walk around the house for hours as that was the only thing that calmed the feeling. Nothing painful, just a serious nagging and odd discomfort.

• Sorry R255, according to the people on this thread you're full of SHIT. You must be a drug seeker/attention whore/drama queen/fatty/hypochondriac. Don't argue! There isn't a test for it, therefore it does not exist. It's all in your head. Now go die in a grease fire.

• I DIDN'T SAY THESE PEOPLE DIDN'T SUFFER JUST SAID IT WASN'T FROM FYBROMYALGIA AS IT IS NOT A DISEASE AND THEY DON'T HAVE TESTS BECAUSE ITS BOGUS.THESE PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING FROM POOR LIFE STYLES AND NO PILL IN THE WORLD IS GONNA FIX IT YOU HAVE TO CHANGE WHAT YOU PUT INTO THE BODY AND DON'T HAVE TO BE A PHD TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT.OF COURSE NO ONE WILL TAKE THE GREAT ADVICE AND TRY A STRICT DIET FOR A MONTH, MIGHT GET CURED AND HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ELSE WITH YOUR LIFE.IM NOT LOOKING TO CHANGE THE MINDS OF OBLIVIOUS THINKERS JUST TRYING HELP DESPERATE PEOPLE WILLING TO CHANGE AND GET BETTER.AS FOR THE LADY WITH THE LEG SYNDROME WALKING IS EXERCISE AND SEEMED TO HELP YOUR PROBLEM MIGHT SAY YOUR BODY WAS TELLING YOU SOMTHING FOOD FOR THOUGHT?

• IN REPONCE TO REPLY 247 YOU CAN'T HEAR ME CAUSE YOU HAVE FYBROMYALGIA BETTER GET TESTED!

  ROBERT

• Oh, you are sooooo correct R257. Yes, my body was telling me at 7, 8 and 9 months pregnant that it really needed to spend hours walking around my house all night long. Because at that stage in the game, what a woman needs is the least amount of rest possible. I wasnt doing much, just working part time, taking care of 2 twin 2 year old boys and buying and moving into our new home and selling the old. So yeah. I DID have a spare 8 hours a night that was mapped out for sleep, but most nights it was cut down to 4. Youre probably correct that THATS what my body needed. More hours on my feet. Idiot.

• Well I for one like Robert. Hes very stupid and I find that charming. You go girl!

• IM SURE IT WAS THE LACK OF EXERSIZE WORKING AND DAILY ROUTINES IS NOT THE SAME AND ARE STRESSFULL ON THE BODY WHILE EXERSIZE HEALS AND TONES IMPROVES IMUNE FUNCTION.LAY OFF THE ANGER PILLS NO ONE SAID YOU DIDNT WORK OR HAVE A LIFE BUT WORK AND CHORES DO NOT IMPROVE A PERSONS HEALTH.TRY NOT TO BE SMALL MINDED AND USE INSULTS AS A DEFENSE AS IM ONLY SUGGESTING IT HELPED NOT SAYING YOUR LAZY!

  ROBERT

• ROBERT, CALM DOWN MATE YOU ARE FULL OF BULLSHIT

• I think fibro is real and related to hormonal imbalances, although a previous poster has made a compelling case for antibiotic harm. I would never knock someone who suffers constant pain, for whatever reason.

• ROBERT I LIKED YOU BETTER WHEN YOU ENDED EVERY POST WITH "BUT IT'S ALL GOOD'

• I keep flagging the all-caps troll for Flames and Freaks.

• AS IT TURNS OUT ROBERT IS DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS. REPEAT: DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS. BUT ITS ALL GOOD.

• MY MOTHER WAS TOLD SHE HAD FYBRO AND SLOWLY WAS DYIN SHE SMOKED AND NEVER CARED FOR HER SELF AND WHEN SHE STOPED AND CHANGED HER DIET AND EXERSIZED SHE GOT BETTER.ONCE SHE RECOVERED SHE DECIDED SHE WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO START SMOKING AND LIVING OFF SODAS AGAIN AND SHE DIED.SO MY STUPID CHARMING SELF KNOWS WHAT YOU REFUSE TO ACCEPT AND WOULD APPRECIATE IMPUT THAT WOULD BENIFIT SOMEONE SUFFERING BESIDES INSULTS AND CIRCULAR LOGIC!

• LISTEN YOU GUYS I DONT MEAN ANY DISRESPECT BUT I REALLY DONT THINK YOU GUYS EVEN UNDERSTAND PEOPLE THAT COME UP WITH THESE PROBLEMS. IF THEY WERE REAL MORE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE THEM. IF YOU JUST KEEP HEALTHY YOU WOULD NOT FEEL ANY NEED TO MOVE YOUR LEGS OR YOUR JOINTS WOULDNT HURT. START WORKING OUT. YES EVERY DAY THAT IS HOW YOU BECOME HEALTHY. STOP EATING SO MUCH JOUN FOODS AND DRINKING BAD SUGAR FILLED DRINKS. TRY PYING ATTENTION TO YOUR BODY. MOST OF YOU ARE JUST LAZY!! I AM NOT SAYING IT ISNT POSSIBLE IT IS IF YOU JUST TRY! ACE IN THE HOLE IF YOU JUST TRY.

  ROBERT

• The antibiotic link suggests mycotoxin build which could cause candita and other fungal infections that are the very same symtoms fybro patients suffer from.My mother was told she had fybro and later was found she had candita,she change her diet and habbits and did get better only to later decide she was well enough to smoke eat junk again and died from it.While Robert your comments do affend some closed mined people they do have some merit good luck convincing this crowd!

  Tina

• Let's say the Doodlebops perform at your local performance center, and you're an attendee. The crowd and audience is rather violent, plagued by fights, bypassed weapons, drinking, and drugs. The Doodlebops play their opening song "We're the Doodlebops" and while the two Doodlebops ask where their fellow Doodlebop, Moe, is, Moe bolts back on the stage. A man throws a broken bottle at Moe, which angers him. Moe then produces what appears to be a .45-caliber semi-automatic Glock handgun, as the beat of the rythmn progresses, and unloads all 10 of the bullets in its magazine. You get hit by four of the 10 rounds, two of them hitting your head. Six other people are injured, three by gunshot wounds, and the other three by the panicing stampede. All three gunshot victims and a stampede victim are treated, and are released sometime by the next week, but you are in the hospital for weeks. How would you deal with the situation knowing your life has been threatened with bullets? How do you want to get back at Moe, who is now imprisoned and awaiting trail on attempted murder, assault and weapon charges?

• You make him read this thread that'll killm!

  joker

• This is officially my favorite new DL response to anything/everything: [quote]IN REPONCE TO REPLY 247 YOU CAN'T HEAR ME CAUSE YOU HAVE FYBROMYALGIA BETTER GET TESTED!

• I have Morgellons actual fibers grow out of my skin.

• Do people in tribal societies and the like suffer from bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety etc? I'm not trying to suggest they're only first world problems- I have severe bouts of depression myself- I'm just curious about how other societies deal with these conditions. Do Masai warriors tell each other to "just get the fuck over it", for example?

• The Fibromyalgists of Canada have a facebook! It confirms a link between being fat, stupid, and religious, and having fibro.

  http%3A//www.facebook.com/FibromyalgiaNationalCoalitionCanada%3Ffilter%3D1

• After two major car accidents, that nearly killed me, and a broken collar bone, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Prior to the accidents, I was diagnosed with two herniated disks in my neck, degenerative disk disease, and osteoarthritis. Since the two car accidents, people can look at me, and think there is nothing wrong. But if they were to follow me around for a week of the no to little sleep daily,,the chronic pain daily, the chronic fatigue and all the other recent daignosises that have come thus far. It is far from BS and unless you walk in someone elses shoes, don't judge/ Everyone handles there pain differently and what works for one may not work for someone else. Everyone is different and pleasse whatever you do please have compassion for those of us who have an invisible debiliting condition;s. Sometimes disabilities are not always visible. It is very hurtful to those of us who do suffer from the conditions

  Debbie Timpson

• How many Olympic Athlete suffer from Fibro?

  Enquiring%20Minds

• I think I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

• It's the official illness of straight women and gay men.

  Drama%20Queens

• i am a person with fibromyalgia. i worked 20 years i cleaned i moved heavy furniture i painted i took care of my mother , my dad i raised 3 children alone, i would come home from work every night and cry i was so tired and i hurt so much. they didnt diagnose me till i retired i thought it was all arthritus, my mom used to go to bed with it for a week at a time.and no im not overweight or on disability. but thank gad now i can rest if i hurt, but no its not bulshit.i have lived it for many years.

• What I've learned about fibromyalgia from this thread: a lack of grammar skills and poor typing are under-reported symptoms of the disease.

• My sis has fibromyalgia. She is morbidly obese, eats junk and refuses to exercise, eat fruit or vegetables, and for years refused to make any efffort to lose weight. She even told me there was no proof that being obese was bad for your health. She was about 140 lbs overweight at the time, had arthritis and a lot of immune system disorders. Still, she insisted all her health problems were caused by immune systems disorders, as if they had come from nowhere, not that she had a high rate of inflammation in her bloodstream from her lifestyle, and she had beaten up her immune system until it was screaming. She's had 6 immune systems related operations in the last 10 years. She has finaly lost about 50 pounds, and finds it easier to walk. Still, she believes that has no relation to losing 50 lbs, it's just a coincidence. My guess is fibromyalgia is an immune system disorder, people get them for different reasons, but obesity will really damage your immune system so that is one of them.

• I admit I skipped to the end to post. I just couldn't bear to read anymore cruel posts denying the existence of Fibromyalgia. I don't have it myself, but I do have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is similar to Fibromyalgia, and to the cluster of neurological autoimmune diseases including MS, Gulf War Syndrome, ALS. Lupus, etc. For official "proof" of any of these illnesses-but particularly, CFS (which is what I am most familiar with because I have suffered with it AND fough back against it for almost a decade)-just go to the Centers For Disease Control's website or even the Mayo Clinic website, a resource that is particularly conservative in its' descriptions of all medical issues. NEWS I do have some information that might be NEWS to the people reading this thread. Doctors at Georgetown University and at Beth Isreal Hospital in New York City are pursuing promising research which is indicating that people-like me-have a level of cerebralspinal fluid pressure that is elevated to the extent it literally "squeezes" the brain and spinal column. Imagine the feeling of having a skull too small for your brain and you will get some idea, then consider that each and every nerve in your body has to send and receive impulses to that highly pressurized brain by way of a spinal column that is itself under dangerously high pressure. As you can imagine, it sort of makes the person feeling it like their body has gone haywire. I doubt you need my personal story; and I assume doubters would be reluctant to be convinced by it. But, suffice to say I didn't go to college for ten years (I was half-way finished with my Ph.d when I had rapid-onset CFS) so that I could suspend-likely, end-my career at age 34 and spend the rest of my life unable to work, feeling like I have the flu each day, suffering from joint an muscle pain, unable to fall asleep without drugs and going into periods of "brain fog" so bad that they have been diagnosed as periods of "dementia." And the fatigue! Have you ever had to wake up especially early in the morning, like say 4:30 AM, so that you could catch a plane? Have you ever worked all day long outside the home, then come home to make dinner, clean the house, help the kids with their homework while doing laundry, put them to bed, then just collapsed into bed yourself? That is my "baseline." I wake up that tired. I live that tired. Everyday, day after day after day. It doesn't make any sense at all, no one knows better than I do. I was a very focused, hard-working, energetic, self-starting, go-getter...then one evening I got very, very sick. I estimate it took about two hours to change me from that to how I am now. I am still the same person inside. I am just now starting a new protocol nd about to let doctors stick another needle in my spine and pull fluid out. I do everything right, but I have a sickness, that, like every other sickness known to man, is mysterious, suspicious, the subject of scorn and derision by those whose "sickness" is cruelty and lack of empathy. Soon there will be ways to medically prove that these illnesses are "real"; until then they will be just as "real" only made worse by people who are just pain mean. Are you wondering how I was able to write this? I'll tell you. Twice a day I take 15 mg. of doctor prescribed amphetamines. If I am lucky, for a vanishingly small window of time I am able to do something. The "me" who is writing this will be going back to bed as soon as it is finished. It's a beautiful August day, I live in the country, I have a garden, dogs, family next door. I want to go for a walk with my nephews and our dogs, I want to tie up the sweet peas so they climb the fence. I want to mow the lawn. I want to walk to the mailbox. I want to get a job. I've watched too much life pass me by and I hate it. I you met me when I first started writing this, you would never imagine anything was wrong with me. I would look healthy, fit, strong. If you could see me five minutes from now, in bed, sweating, unable to focus, too weak to hold this iPad and type; you'd know-it's real.

  http%3A//www.twitter.com/RonKlopfanstein

  Ron%20Klopfanstein

• Professional victim alert

• Most annoying afflications of early 2010's: 1) People suffering from Fibromyalgia, 2) "Aspie's" and 3) people are "gluten intolerant).

• R284 Do you really believe that I am a "professional" victim? I would really like to know why? I hate having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I put myself on the line and write and talk about it publicly because I'm willing to share my personal, medical struggle in order to use the talent and education I have to try and communicate the truth for myself, for everyone who's too sick and weakened to do so for themselves and for everyone who doesn't understand, or is reluctant to believe the truth about how CFS and other illnesses destroy the lives of people afflicted. If I'm not getting that across effectively I would like to know how I could do it better. But, trust me, I'd rather be healthy. Indeed, some of the hardest things I've endured are the times I've dreamed I was cured, some so vivid and real that it takes me a few minutes after waking up to remember that it was only a dream and I still have an incurable illness. I like to believe "victimization" is a state of mind. Often, I manage to. But, not always. I look at guys the same age as me sometimes and wonder what it feels like to not be tired, not be in pain, what it's like to have a day where they're not sick. It's been so long I've forgotten. It's hard. A lot of people have it hard. Anyone who would start a thread entitled "Fibromyalgia=bullshit?", and anyone replying with attacks on sick people are expressing so much hostility and hatred it can only come from deep reservoirs of pain and hurt. I wish everyone could be healthy; physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually...but until then, be generous, have empathy and always remember you don't know how anyone else feels on the inside.

  http%3A//www.twitter.com/RonKlopfanstein

  Ron%20Klopfanstein

• [quote]Do you really believe that I am a "professional" victim? I would really like to know why? ... I put myself on the line and write and talk about it publicly That's why. You're a mouthpiece for being the victim of a disease. Ergo, professional victim. Here's the thing: you wandered into a board you are not familiar with, said you didn't even bother to read the thread, then posted some long speech. Don't act surprised if people sling names, given the interloping, long-winded method you took. Shouldn't you be conserving your limited energy for something that earns an income? Well, at least you used correct spelling and grammar, unlike most of the other wilting violets who followed a google search. (P.S. to those people -- stop googling for reasons to be upset. It isn't healthy.) Final note: I work in health care and know there are people who genuinely have CFS or fibro, although there are many misdiagnoses or questionable self-diagnoses.

• Funny how fibro was only "discovered" after a pharma company determined that an anti-depressant drug they were testing had "miraculous" off label curative powers. Also, R284/286 your "brave" act of putting yourself on the line...I'm sure you get absolutely no gratification from the outpouring of support, empathy, and pity. I do believe that there are very real illnesses out there which need treatment and empathy. Fibro is just not one of them. While some of those women are truly ill and in pain, it does them a disservice not o search or the real causes and merely give them an easy answer.

• Well, I tried. I told the truth. I didn't understand it until it happened to me. So, I suppose I am no better than the haters here, although I would like to think that the traumatic and humbling experience of having my life stolen from me by this illness has given me greater empathy into the suffering of others. It's still a lousy way to learn. In a few weeks I may be taking part in another study having a lumbar puncture and 20 ml. of cerebrospinal fluid drained from the membrane encasing my brain and spinal column. If this results in a total cessation of symptoms; no one will be happier than I. If, like the last time I had this done, those symptoms cruelly trickle back as the pressure from that fluid slowly builds up to the dangerous level at which it is now, I won't be able to take the devastation of having experienced what it is to be well-only to lose it within a week or two. I will look into having a shunt permanently inserted into my body to allow that pressure to drain. The thought terrifies me. But, if it will help even a little, I will do it. That's the ugly, horrifying truth. CFS and Fibro are real. You don't have to believe me, I don't want your pity. But, you don't have to be an asshole either. It could happen to you, like it happened to me. And if you believe anything I have to say, believe this: the worst way to find out how wrong you are is to have an illness rob you of everything from your job, your future, your life, even the condescension you use to insulate yourself from the frightening knowledge that life is maddeningly, sometimes heartbreakingly, unpredictable.

  http%3A//www.twitter.com/RonKlopfanstein

  Ron%20Klopfanstein

• [quote]Well, I tried. If you have CFS, you have limited energy, so stop wasting your limited energy googling reasons to be upset and typing huge blocks of texts at strangers who are at a humor and gossip site and don't want to read your long speeches. Ain't nobody got time for that. So how do you have time/energy for that, if you really have CFS?

• Because there's no "humor" in the phrase "Fibromyalgia=bullshit?" Perhaps, "gossip," but only of the cruelest most ignorant, vicious sort. I face more prejudice, misinformation and backwards thinking for having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome than I do for being openly gay. I hope my life eradicates a bit of hate-shouldn't we all-instead we, as a society just seem to shift it from one population to another. Bigotry can be stamped out R284, R285, R287, R286, R290. It need not be a blob of slime that oppressed people shake off themselves and fling at those they perceive as weaker? To do so is shameful; whether you're Anita Bryant, Chick-Fil-A, Pat Robertson or just an ignorant DataLounge poster. Congratulate yourself, you've achieved a position where you can do harm to people who are usually so exhausted staying alive they don't have the energy to expose your lies and the abyss in your soul from which they bubble up. My last comment. If you really think sick people are such a threat (in an election year, no less?!?) then carry on. But, I won't read anymore.

  http%3A//www.twitter.com/RonKlopfanstein

  Ron%20Klopfanstein%20

• I have had lifelong chronic pain. At one time it was thought to be fibromyaligia, because like many of those sufferers, I have been rear-ended several times in car accidents. I too have good days, when I can and do exercise, and bad days when I can barely get out of bed. Sress, viruses, and allergies make it all worse. Sure there are hypochondriacs and those that exaggerate their condition. But we still need to develop stronger pain meds.

• I think you are a "BULLSHIT"! You said you guess you don;t understand the disorder and you hit the nail on the head! I wish for you to suffer from this one day and i hope that no one is there to feel sympathy for your pain. Go f*** yourself Mr. Bullshit!!!

• R255 Just a thought for you. I believe in your problems, as I have my own. I also had weird bouts with restless leg syndrome, along with other problems. I eventually realised the restless leg syndrome came along with sinus infections and allergies. I made the connection to the Nasonex that I had been using. I tested it out. Sure enough, the Nasonex was giving me the Restless Legs. This may be your problem. Some medicine that you are taking could very well be causing it for you as well. I spoke to my doctor about it, he thought for a few seconds, and told me yes, this could very well be the cause, and gave me a different one to use. Which luckly i don't have to use often. Some medicines could contain steroids or other things, that may or may not take time to affect your body in weird ways. Good luck to you.

  No Nasonex For Me!

• cigarettes: the answer is in your question. They are probably the cause of the pain. Tobacco is a nightshade, which contains solanine, a deadly chemical that causes nerve damage.

  Liz%20G

• Wow I never knew there were so many ignorant people Yes, fibromyalgia real!! chronic fatigue chronic fatigue syndrome irritable bowe irritable bowel syndrome difficulty in swallowin loss of sleep due to loss of sleep due to pain and just plain and just plain old insomnia. numbness and tinglin migraines and that's just to name and that's just to name a few I I know I'm 1 of those people and yes I am first believed it was b******* too till I got 3 other diagnosis it is real and I have been living with it for over 30 years study up before you open your yap!!! No there are no obvious outward signs of the disease and that's why people like you don't get it get a medical degree before you start flapping your mouth. Yes some days are good and some days are absolute hell. That doesn't mean you can't I can usually go bowling or have a good time in fact exercise is part of the treatment. Maybe next time you should try researching it first. You might also find out that affects cognitive and memory issues as well. So study up so you don't look like such a fool!!

  Tina%20E.

• Maybe the posts are due to the lack of intelligence in a smartphone. Maybe somebody just didn't check their post first. I know I didn't. And while you are so busy bashing people maybe you could spend a little time studying up. You're a coward with nothing better to do then beat up on people with a real disease. Sounds like you need to get a life!!! If you have any balls at all, try using your real name.

  Tina%20E.

• R33, I am 5'5 and 124 lbs. I have always been in a healthy BMI range for my height and I have had fibromyalgia since I was 18. I am 24 now. I do not use it as an excuse to get out of anything, most days I try to have a "mind over matter" mentality but let me tell you from someone who eats "clean" and exercises (and has never been obese a day in their life) that fibro is a real disease.

• Fibromyalgae is real, there are some days or part of day we look fine, to you haters out there get educated. Some people are bed ridden . I belong to a group for fibro and 90% can not work because it also effects your brain function as well. It is said that is a virus that did not go away, so therefore it is chronic condition. We are not lazy and highly intelligent, nurturing group of people, putting up with other peoples judgement because you have good health. People have been know to die. What you see is'nt what you get. Most of us suffer from arthritis, IBS and chronic fatigue, and because of all these problems add depression to the mix. So add that to the health list of problems. Sometimes if we are lucky some days or some hours we do feel better, when we feel better we crash because we had to get things done. Here a tip if you are going to judge someone pick up a book surf the net then speak. Or maybe get a heart, stop being demanding and give more. Our diets are excellent and we are more informed about health then the average Joe on the streets.

• OMG - I saw a TV commercial and now I suffer from restless leg syndrome - I need a prescription as soon as possible! Legs stop twitching please!

• Is it the pain of Fibromyalgia that makes people who suffer from it so boring?

• Alabama researchers have announced that they're launching a study on two antivirals as possible fibromyalgia treatments, based on their hypothesis that the condition may be linked to herpes simplex 1. This particular herpes virus causes cold sores. Researcher William Pridgen, MD, says he began suspecting viral involvement because of the way symptoms wax and wane, which is typical of certain viruses. Once he began prescribing drugs known to be effective against herpes simplex 1, he says 90% of his patients got better. Pridgen says, in his practice, he's seen improvements in gastrointestinal problems, fatigue, anxiety, energy levels, depression and other fibromyalgia symptoms. My Perspective I've gotten cold sores my whole life, and they're worse in times of stress. When I was still having regular flares, I did occasionally get cold sores along with them. Before I had fibromyalgia, I'd start taking the supplement L-lysine at the first sign of a cold sore. It has anti-viral properties and also helps with tissue repair. A few years ago, I started taking it to help with fibromyalgia symptoms such as slow healing and weak fingernails. Now I'm wondering if L-lysine has been more beneficial than I knew. It's definitely an interesting hypothesis. It would also help explain why fibromyalgia is so similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, which may be linked to HHV-6, a different member of the herpes virus family.

• I fibroed my lagia and that seems to reduce my suffering.

• Why do fibro sufferers have no energy but have the time to form cults online where they can revel in how bad their lives are?

• if you had it you cant do the things you describe and yes i do have it and i am a man. I was a very active outdoor oriented person and an airline pilot for thirty years and i assure you discriminating know it all's that i am far from crazy and have no desire to be disabled.

• OK I joined the U S Army at 17. I've done 10 mile marches with a 40 lb rucksack being the lightest load I've carried. I've had mortar lobbed in the trailer where I slept. We had trails and not tents at LSA Anaconda. I ran every day. I started to get aches in Iraq. I shrugged it off because that what soldiers are trained to do. It continued to grow worse. I thought maybe old arthritis had finally caught up with me. Yes I was only 23 at the time but I have a family history of early arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It got so bad I couldn't get out of bed. I had gone to doctor after doctor. Each saying I don't know go see him or her. It get so nobody believed me but my dad. I was miserable. I'm luck in that while on my deployments, yes two in Iraq, I saved and bought rental property. So I do have to work but I would love to. However the Army saw it as enough of an illness to discharge me medically. I actually fought to stay in for a year but fighting made it worse. So for idiots who think I'm faking after losing the only job I'd ever had. Jump in a lake and drown yourself a$$hole.

  Todd%20US%20Army%20Vet%20OIF

• I meant do not have to work.

• Why do unstable professional victims always sign their posts and reveal too much info about themselves?

  RC%20in%20Austin%20Texas

• It can be very hard to deal with something that a test can't say yes you have it. Its not fun knowing somethings wrong with you but you can prove it and they don't know. At times I seriously wished I'd died in Iraq. Then saw a guy at the VA with no legs. I realized if he hasn't given up then would I.

  Todd%20US%20Army%20Vet%20OIF%20

• Yes, perspective is a wonderful thing.

  The%20Girl%20with%20No%20Feet

• RC in Austin was that directed at me. A victim I have never been. I don't hold a pity party for myself or let others do so. I've never gone down without fighting because that who the hell I am. I fight. A victim fuck no. Not me. Yeah I'm still a little pissed they kicked me out of the Army but such is life. I came here merely to say Fibromyalgia is real. Now you though on e being a victim are bullshit. You're bark up the wrong fucking tree with that shit. I could careless about people knowing who I am. I say what I mean and mean what I say so if you RC in Austin weren't in fact speaking to me please be specific. One more little fact I had moment where I was sad and depressed but not a victim.

  Todd%20US%20Army%20Vet%20OIF

• Todd are you new to Datalounge? What brought you here?

• In 2006 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I'd gone to doctor after doctor. Then one finally said yeah you got fibromyalgia read this pamphlet. It was like 2 paragraphs. Anyway when ever I find myself unable to sleep I Google fibromyalgia and see if they've any whys, hows, or whats about the condition. I read a few post that got deep under my skin :-) So I thought I'd give my 2¢

  Todd%20

• I'm sure potty language is a no no but I kinda write what but I'll keep it to hell and damn

  Todd

• Check out some of the other threads on here ;)

• I know a guy who has had it for about 15 years. He spent the first 7 of those years in bed. He still had bad days where he's really crawling out of his skin miserable, but he tries to exercise as often as he can and gets out and does what he's able to. It's real. He doesn't even care what caused it anymore; he's just trying to live as normally and non-painfully as possible.

• I learned a very valuable lesson many years ago. Never make fun of someone elses pain...you might just be the one in the pain next year..or tomorrow. I once talked behind a friend's back saying I didn't believe she really had "chronic back pain." One year later, I was diagnosed with systemic lupus and later fibromyalgia. My pain is real you morons. You can't see it and I can't show it to you, but it is real. It is a neurologic disorder in that the brain is telling itself that the body is feeling pain. I feel bruised all over and the slightest touch, such as my cat walking across my belly, hurts! I'm a registered nurse and work a full time job. Never again will I make fun of someone elses pain. To all you morons that are making fun...shame on you...karma is a bitch.

  Dee

• FIBRO is REAL. It's caused by a buildup of Phospahte matter and many women (some men) are unable to flush the excess from their kidneys. Dr. St. Amand uses Guaifenesin to treat it. I've been on this for 3 years now, as well as Caprylic Acid (a supplement for yeast overgrowth due due to antibiotic poisoning) and feel a million times better. It's REAL. So stop calling people "hypochondriacs" and give them the info on how to treat this disease.

  http%3A//celiac-scoop.blogspot.com

  Christie%20

• My my the support group has arrived.

• Yes, the pain is very real. I suffered excruciating pain for 10 years and went to many doctors with no help. After a decade of searching I finally found a specialist who took me seriously. I had 8 tubes of blood taken for a variety of tests and within 6 weeks had results that were positive for many autoimmune diseases. I'm now on a high dose of thyroid medication and take large doses of supplements plus do physical therapy all for the rest of my life. The pain is managed although I still have bad days where I can't move but it's not as often as it used to be. When medical results show clear proof that ailments exist and excruciating pain is being experience for a reason then the nonbelievers are showing complete ignorant and should not be given any attention.

• Todd Dear are you cut or uncut?

• I can do alot of things for awhile and then need to rest. I keep a good house, go to school, and exersice as I'm able. It appears I am normal but people who live with me know different. I have days I cannot get out of bed but people don't see that. I'm sure people may use it just like they use alot of other things. I pace myself and keep going and when u see me, u would say I'm fit, work out, and seem fine. I do those things so I can get out of bed and try to have a better quality of life. Rotting in bed ddin't work and people who judge don't help.

  kwind

• Thank you for the link to celiac scoop...

• I saw a video about a girl who they nicknamed "mannequin" because she can't even move her limbs and some of them have been stuck that way for years. She said she refuses to let it stop her from doing what she wants to do, if she can get outside, so can the people with fibro.

• An older woman I know has Fibromyalgia. She walks with a cane most of the time. She has never stopped working as a therapist in private practice. I had always thought Fibromyalgia was total bullshit but she's convinced me otherwise. She is scrupulously honest and would never exaggerate her symptoms or try to get out of her work and personal responsibilities. There are probably quite a few people faking it but I do know one real case of Fibromyalgia. Or at least it's a real case of *something* because she is not making it up and she's not cray cray.

• i got diagnosed with fibromyalgia. i don't believe it for a second. how can they just slap a label on my pain and pretty much tell me "there is nothing we can do." ??? screw that. i'm going on 6 year with no diagnosis, but i will get one that can be medically proven, i promise you that. i watched one of my coworkers say "oh. i got diagnosed with fibro. i can't handle anymore pain." she's a wimp. it's an excuse and a way out. she's lazy and she doesn't want to do anything if she doesn't have to. "fibromyalgia? oh. fmla for that. check. fibromyalgia? oh. pain medicine i don't need for that. check." i don't like it. i'm still in pain and there is a real reason and i'm not going to let this syndrome cripple me while i'm left waiting even if i am spending half my life in and out of different doctors to find out what is happening to me.

• R326 what's your symptoms?

• I was diagnosed with "fibromyalgia" by a neurologist due to terrible pain in the arms and chest. Turned out it was Hodgkin's disease and I needed 18 months of intense chemo b/c by then it was stage IV.

  don%27t%20trust%20doctors

• I have fibromyalgia and it is not bullshit. To call your mother a hypecondriac is just plain mean. The more stress she has the more pain. When people in her life don't try and understand that this is real can't possibly love her. I feel sorry for her having a son like yourself. This disease is hereditary. Maybe one day you will feel what she does. God has his ways of bringing the truth to light and I hope you wise up and treat your mother with love and respect before YOU need it.

• r329, that's always the tack stupid fundies take: "Since you don't believe me, a vengeful God (who is Love, by the way) will now punish you." Forgive us for not heeding your (meant to be terrifying) words.

• There's talk on this thread about antibiotic toxicity but a lot of people with Chronic Lyme, also controversial, take antibiotic treatments until the ends of their lives. Lyme is often misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia but the symptoms do sound similar.

• [quote]i don't like it. i'm still in pain and there is a real reason and i'm not going to let this syndrome cripple me while i'm left waiting even if i am spending half my life in and out of different doctors to find out what is happening to me. Good luck with your approach, I hope you can find a solution. I have Meniere's. I've spent a ton of sick leave from work and out of pocket expenses going to various specialists for over 12 years. I've decided that they can't fix me and that they've purposely put me through a butt load of tests to line their own pockets when they know they can't fucking fix me.

• The strong opinions of the uneducated and misinformed are worthless. LISTEN and LEARN! There are individuals with severe, crippling, and disabling pain, stiffness, and deathly exhaustion (I am one), and there are those with much milder, less full-blown cases. Then there are the idiots, malingerers, and hypochondriacs who THINK they have fibro but don't. So for you folks who are intellectually challenged and dismiss the disease out of ignorance or because of someone you know, this should clarify the discrepancies in what you observe. I am a well educated 50 yrs old woman, a former athlete, and have lived a healthy lifestyle (no smoking, drugs, drinking, junk food). What I did have was many years of physical and emotional abuse resulting in PTSD, as well as some fairly serious accidents and illnesses. My complex physiology was was fundamentally altered, and I developed fibro in my late 20's. It was mild and localized at first, but gradually progressed into the severe, full-blown syndrome. I wake up every morning feeling like I had been in a serious car accident the day before - literally. The pain, stiffness, and skin tenderness are off the charts. The exhaustion is comparable to those having leukemia or post chemotherapy. I have had to quit my teaching job and so much of what I love. My life is reduced to a living hell. How dare some ignorant, opinionated punk or uninformed doctor presume to tell me about my condition or lack thereof. My misery is a obvious fact, not an opinion. There are plenty of smart, dedicated doctors and researchers who are making breakthrough's into this potentially life-altering disease. Listen to the experts and educate yourself on the facts. Eschew the idiots who have neither a brain nor compassion.

  http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html?t=10336868#page:postReply,10336868,undefined

  Bonnie Matthews

• If I posted that AIDS is bullshit would you believe me? This thread is such nonsense. The disease exists. Only idios deny it. Honestly, there should be a way to monitor people like the OP.

• During my brief time in North Carolina where I dwelt among the Hill People, Fibromyalgia was the number one disease of choice amongst those seeking disability payments. They rely on food stamps, ssi, social security disability, medicaid/ medicare and bitch and piss and moan about the Colored Boy turning all into socialist. I kind of wish Romney could be president of North Carolina

• I have many, many medical conditions and disabilities. When one of my doctors diagnosed Fibro I read up on it. Came back and told him of all the things I don't have, and there are very few things I don't have, Fibromyalgia is one of them. I showed him how only very few of my symptoms matched that diagnoses and I was not about to take a medication like Lyrica which has enough side effects to destroy what little health a person has left. He reevaluated my symptoms and said, "You know I don't think you do have it." I know some are looking forward to that diagnosis but check out the meds for it. They are not something you want to mess with unless you are damn sure you have the condition.

• Great Post! Yeah, way too many excuses for what the rest of us just deal with and still go to work, pay the bills, raise the kids, etc. Loved it!

  colorblindwhitey

• For crying out loud, what a crowd of emotional wrecks in this thread.

• ...ignorance. fibro's real and people are idiots

• What a sad group of people here who lack compassion. The first time I heard about fibromyalgia I was skeptical but didn't just jump to the conclusion it was bs. Then I injured my back, then all kinds of other symptoms appeared that I kept thinking were because of the back injury. I go to a spine injury specialist who watched how things went for the next couple of years. He finally had to break the news that he was certain I had fibromyalgia as well as the pain from the back injury. I get some relief from medications but I have good days, bad days, and some horrible days. I work full time. I try to keep up with housework and taking care of my family but luckily they help take care of me when I need it. People who suffer from fibromyalgia would love nothing more if it wasn't real. Just because it doesn't fit into a nice, neat little box you can define does not make it any less real. Fibromyalgia is sadly very real. Besides the chronic pain, there's the constant fatigue, brain fog, senses that are so ultra sensitive that a smell or a sound can cause great discomfort. On top of everything else, our systems start to become overly sensitive to many medications so it's quite the challenge to find something we can tolerate. I have chosen to stay working and at least have that much that I can be in control of but not everyone is in the same situation. We certainly don't deserve this total lack of respect and consideration you spew out in a clearly and grossly uninformed post.

  Steph

• Well said, R340.

• I call fibromyalgia Fibrofantasy. The lazy bitches that can't latch on to that get diagnosed with myofascial pain, aka myofantasy pain. I work in the insurance disability biz, and fibromyalgia and myofacial pain are the biggest scams going. Usually, its fat, lazy menopausal women who are "diagnosed" and when their two years of disability benefits run out, they are "cured" and go back to work. Makes me sick.

• Plenty of nasty comments on here today. If you were suffering with Fibromyalgia, which is painful and does not go away, you would not be so insensitive and vile. Let's hope you don't get struck down with it or another illness. If it happens to you then you'll know it. Don't knock what you know nothing about. Fibromyalgia is dysfunction of the nervous system, you get pain when you shouldn't you have constant flu. Try living with constant flu and see how you like it.

• There's a reason why cowards like you who do NO research on fibromyalga tend to stay anonymous and hide behind the internet; and people like me, who actually DO research because we have to live with the condition have no problem saying who we are. Hey I got an idea...wy don't YOU just "suck it up"?

  http://www.facebook.com/voicesoffibromyalgia

  Haullie Free

• There may be no cure for my fibromyalgia, but there is a cure for your stupidity. It's called an education. Get one.

  Kathi

• Jesus fucking Christ! Where the hell did all these FREAKS come from?? This is a gay forum, ladies. Take your business elsewhere.

• apparently an uneducated gay forum. explains a lot. staggering ignorance here.

• This just makes me mad. People really have ZERO clue how we feel. The day starts the same way every day. I wake up, cry, take a pain pill, pray - then get out of bed and limp off to work where I sit and cry at my desk most of the day. Then go home and crawl up the stairs and go to bed. Don't tell me I feel good enough to do ANYTHING! I feel like shit 100% of the time - but I'm a grown-up, own a business with 14 employees with families to take care of, I have children and a husband, and like to sleep in a house not a shelter. Fucking assholes.... Mine was triggered by a car accident in 1995. Social Security doctors diagnosed me. So don't tell me I'm faking shit! I can't do most of the things I love to do because of pain, or if I try to do them, I suffer afterwords. You have NO idea what you're talking about.

  Lisa

• When you get Fibromyalgia and have to deal with the real pain of everyday life then let us know. Until then don't talk about something that you have no clue or understanding about!

  Unknown

• I'm sure there are people out there that "fake" all sorts of different illnesses. I work in Human Resources and the number of employees who claim to have migraines is questionable. I have Fibromyalgia and yes, some days I can hike trails and be out in the sun, but on others, the pain and fatigue is completely debilitating. Sometimes I'm fine after a nice walk, some days I'm down for several days afterward. I have always had a very active and healthly lifestyle and living with Fibro was not something I had ever anticipated. It really sucks and I hope that we are able to get more information and education for people who believe that this is a bullshit illness. I hope that neither you or the people you love ever get this. I wouldn't wish it upon another human being, even a criminal or someone so ignorant or cruel who thinks this is not a real illness.

• I hesitate in responding to your post since it originated back in April, you may have moved on to a different cause. Just because someone is diagnosed with fibromyalgia/FM does not mean that they were not lazy before nor after their diagnosis. Certainly smoking and other unhealthy behaviors do not help their disease, just as it would not anyone else. Lazy people are lazy people. There are different degrees of the illness. Some such as myself, are still able to work a 40+ hour work week, come home and take care of the home and family. But having the ability is not a guarantee. I watch to avoid people with common illnesses, such as a cold or flu, because if I do get it, I will have to also recover from the "flare" it will throw me into. This can take twice as long to recover. Fibromyalgia/FM is not a "given" on anything. One good day doesn't promise another. I am over 60 yrs. old, in the mental health field, a wife, mother, step-mother (to an 9 yr old), and grandmother. I can still work circles around most of my co-workers who do not have FM. To group "FMers" in the same group as "Lazy", to me is the same as calling you "stupid" simply because you are ignorant on this topic. Thank you for bringing this topic into the light, and giving those FMers the opportunity to speak up against prejudice.

  Mac

• I'm not a doctor myself, but I've worked a number of different jobs in the medical field. And yes, fibromyalgia is complete, psychosomatic bullshit. I've known a number of these pathetic, self-pitying fibromyalgic pussies and it's just a big, hypochondria game with upper middle-class, spoiled white people who can't think of anything better to worry about. It's a way of getting extra ego-stroking from one's Dr. There really is no physiological basis for this ridiculous non-illness and every form of physical tests done on fibromyalgic-pussies come back normal. Ergo, this "pain syndrome" is all in their sick, stupid minds. As a many-years medical man myself, I assure you that fibromyalgia is the most make-believe illness I've personally ever heard of. When was the last person who DIED of fibromyalgia? Never. I rest my case.

• What's the deal with all these posts from fraus? Are they serious or parodies?

• Thank you, R344. A Facebook group is indeed the authoritative, non-biased source that shall change the minds of the queens here. Stupid cunt.

• I was diagnosed with FM about 25 yrs. ago. Also, like you,I was ignorant on the subject. I research at the library, talked to a number of drs., to no avail. I was to "new". Research had just begun.. I guess my point is, just because you know nothing about this subject doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is quite a bit of info here on the WWW. Fibro affects me every single day in one way or another. I hate it..so does my family. I pray you nor a loved one ever have to live this way. Please use your brains instead of your mouth...research.

  Sharon

• Please check out www.mayoclinic.com for inf concerning fibromyalgia...then tell those people at the research dept. that they are crazy.

• [quote]Usually, its fat, lazy menopausal women who are "diagnosed" and when their two years of disability benefits run out, they are "cured" and go back to work. Makes me sick. My sister is currently trying for the third time to get full disability for Fibromyalgia in Florida. This time she's using a lawyer. She said she should know by Christmas. I don't think she got it because she didn't phone me. She is overweight, menopausal and I've always wondered if she could take off a little weight maybe it wouldn't be so hard on her. It seems like a whole set of factors in her case. Low self-esteem, obesity, and she's a bit socially-inept. She's my sister and I love her, but sometimes I wonder how much is real and how much is from a sedentary lifestyle.

• I'm not a frau, R353, I'm a butch, bisexual jock-aged male who has worked in various medicinal jobs for enough years to know that fibromyalgia is the most make-believe, psychologically-self-induced form of medical pussification there is. It's a vague pain syndrome with absolutely no physiological basis in fact. How many people have actually DIED from this laughable, fibromyalgia pussification, you ask? ZERO!!! Proof that it's a make-believe condition among wealthier white people and nobody else. Because no starving, brown, 3rd-world shithole countries seem to have this massive, sudden, phantom "fibromyalgia" epidemic that has swept across the wealthier segments of America in the past 20 years. Fuck you fibromyalgic, spoiled, paranoid pussies; your so-called illness is about as real as a flat-earth theory.

• I'd type a response, by the fibro is making my fingers hurt.

• Wow... Sounds like you people have never seen a cancer patient go to Disneyland; or a person with Parkinson's disease do movies; or someone who was shot in the head walk again, speak again, function again. Never seen a person who lost their limbs and learn to walk again, or win a marathon???? It's so easy to sit back and judge others when you feel just fine. I can't see an ear infection, but I certainly can feel it!!! So if I have an ear infection, I'm just a hypochondriac? Or my Doctor is an idiot because I told him my ear hurt and he decided from some test's that I had an ear infection. Maybe those people you have seen were people that used a real disease to get away with not doing things they didn't want to. If you spent one day in the shoes of others you may not be so quick to judge. It's misinformed people that make diseases like fibro so hard to fight. Most of you could not stand the pain for 5 minutes let alone fight the daily pain that people go thru. One last note, our ancestor's died of a lot of diseases that are recognized today; however, Doctors did not have tests or knowledge to diagnose them back then. It takes time to research everything, new diseases show up in our world everyday. Just a thought the next time you don't feel good, don't expect others to sympathize.

  R.%20E.%20Gray

• [quote]psychologically-self-induced form of medical pussification god, i love you. I wish these whiny fraus would gtfo of DL.

• So as a person that has been suffering from chronic pain since I was a teenager and just finally diagnosed with fibro when I am now 39 years of age. All of the years of complaining about pain is suppose to be false...hahaha. I guess that the joke must be on me. All of the physical muscle spasms that the doctor actually can feel for themselves don't exist even though I feel the pain. I try to clean my own house and get active to only have pain and stiffness. These are the things I can experience but cannot share with someone else. It is my experience that you are lucky enough not to have to deal with. You should be grateful that you are healthy enough to do the little things that are taken for granted by so many. I am not lazy. I worked ever since I got my drivers license at 17 years old. I even became a hairstylist and worked more then 40 hours a week in the early years. As the years went on more and more pain developed. If I could get my life and freedom back I would trade with anyone that wanted this. You walk in my shoes for a few days you would beg for your old life back. The pain is real. I don't get a choice on if I want to do something or plan things anymore. My pain dictates what I can do and cannot do on a day to day basis. All the while I am to try to work through my pain and get some sort of activity to keep my muscles from going into atrophy. So if you think this is Bullshit you should think about the pains that are only subjective to you. If I don't feel your pain it isn't really there right? Thank God people with that type of intellegence don't deserve becoming a Medical Doctor because you would want someone that doesn't feel your pain to empathize with you to try to help you relieve your pain. In my situation the medications are not strong enough to fix my problem. It is only a small bandage to help me get out of bed and move a bit to get some slow paced excercise. I vote Dumbass= don't no shit about what you are talking about so shut the fuck up

• I sure hope you never develop a condition that completely alters your life. Yes, Fibromyalgia is a name given to a group of symptoms, but so is Asthma,multiple Sclerosis stomache flu (gastritis)and most of the medical conditions there are. The names are used to simplify things for the patients and the physicians. No matter what you call it, the pain, fatigue,& cognition changes are real. I had a job I loved and was very active prior to becoming ill. I would never CHOOSE the symptoms or the life changes that Fibromyalgia has brought to me. I also had breast cancer. I was lucky to diagnosed early, but I still had surgery and weeks of radiation. Then it was gone. My Fibromyalgia likely will NEVER be gone. You are the lazy one. It is easier to deny something exists than it is to take the time to talk to those who have Fibro (or any other illness) and learn more about it. By the way - as of July 2012 - the Social Security Administration has deemed Fibromyalgia as a disabilty. I think I will amend my earlier comment. I hope you do have to experience a chronic illness - maybe then you will get it!

  lorelij

• Get off the crosses, Marys! Others need the wood!

• Get off your butts and move those muscles. Your muscles are crying from neglect; that is the pain you feel.

• This is a place for pointless bitchery... get over it straight women. Don't you have your own websites?

• I don't doubt that these people experience actual pain, though some of them might take the diagnosis of "fibromyalgia" too seriously. Even the most intelligent and advanced medical professionals use guesswork and random labels that group random things together as syndromes. I also wouldn't discredit the female experience of pain (e.g. "pussification")...no matter what the source. Most women have higher pain and illness tolerances than most men.

• Please excuse the ignorance on this site. We're not all this ignorant. BTW, I'm very curious to know how many of you ladies took a fluoroquinolone antibiotic (Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, etc) prior to developing your pain syndromes? Check your medical records, and many of you may find your answer. These drugs do TREMENDOUS harm, flies under the radar of traditional medical testing, and affects women more than men (since they are prescribed for UTI's which of course affect women more than men). You can learn more by Googling "quinolone toxicity" or "floxing."

  http%3A//www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june11/antibiotics_06-16.html

• Here's the cure ... A nice stiff one deep inside ya. Nothing eases the pain like some good dick.

• I call u lot a bunch of Jerk stains. Fibromyalgia is real, recent research proves that it is a brain condition. Just shows how Not educated you are with this real medical conditions. Not all people with this condition suffer the same. Some have it worse than others. There are also many other over lapping real medical conditions involved with this real medical condition. U lot of jerk stains need to check out more on this condition before throwing around your fucked up out dated opinions. May be u all need to take a jerk break.

  KRUMINS%20

• Again, 3 things you have to remember about this psychosomatic, make-believe Fibromyalgia crap: 1. It's a series of phantom, psychologically-induced back spasms that has absolutely no physiological or biochemical basis whatsoever; all their spine examinations and medical tests come back perfectly normal. 2. It's only suffered by upper-middle-class, bourgeois white people. In poor whites or minorities or third world people, fibromyalgia doesn't exist at all. 3. Not one person has ever died from this hypochondriac-hysteria! No lethal complications, no nothing. It's simply an imagined back problem among privileged, entitled, upper class people who want extra attention.

• ...apparently it causes poor punctuation.

• Yes, you are all a bunch of OW! OW! Honey! Bring me a cool drink. And a sandwich. And that issue of Take a Break magazine. OW! Don't hug me!

  Frau%20Blucher

• [quote]Fibromyalgia is real, recent research proves that it is a brain condition

• I'll drink to that, R374, because I've dealt with enough fibromyalgic pussies it really is a psychosomatic brain condition. On the biochemical basis, this is NOT a real disease!

• Incidentally, you hypochondriac, insane fibromygalgia bored-coward-vermin are the biggest, most medically paranoid pussies on the face of this earth. FUCK YOU AND YOUR HYPOCHONDRIAC IMAGINARY SPINAL PROBLEMS, FUCKING, YOU BORED SPOILED BABIES. You fibromyalgics are the scum of the medical community.

• Take Jarrow's B12 and also magnesium malate. Look it up.

• Fibro is not just ONE condition caused by ONE thing. It is an umbrella term for pain of unknown origin. Docs diagnose someone as having fibro when they can't figure out anything else. Sure some peoples' pain may be psychosomatic or brought on by weight/inactivity/lifestyle factors, but certainly not ALL. Fuck off.

• My pain is real, and so is the disease. It leaves me tender to the touch!

• How do all these fräulein suffering from fibromyalgia able to type so much? Doesn't their "disease" leave their fingertips too raw and tender to push down on the keyboard?

• We use DragonSpeak, you evil queen! Morty--bring me another compress!

• If fybromyalgia isn't real, then how would doctors be able to charge for treating it? Doctors have yacht payments too.

• I am a certified hypnotherapist. I trained to treat fibromyalgia using hypnotherapy. I have worked with several FMS clients who have had great success. Here are a few things I have discovered about FMS "sufferers" 1. Hypnotherapy works to alleviate almost all FMS symptoms. 2. Most FMS sufferers will stop attending hypnotherapy when their symptoms start to go away. 3. Even if offered for free, FMS sufferers will discontinue treatment that works. 4. Most FMS sufferers believe that if the person trying to treat them does not also suffer from FMS...then the treatment is "no good." 5. I can offer free sessions over the phone right now to FMS sufferers and almost to a person no one will accept it. 6. CBT is a proven primary effective therapy for FMS sufferers which means that the it is primarily a cognitive syndrome, not a medical syndrome. 7. FMS sufferers will become enraged that I have said any of this despite the fact that I have done nothing but seek to help people. 8. The evidence I have seen shows that FMS sufferers don't really want to get rid of their symptoms and secondary gain issues are prevalent with this disorder. 9. Because I have been able to help people overcome all of their symptoms using just hypnotherapy...I have to say yes...FMS is primarily in the heads of FMS sufferers. 10. Again....instead of asking "How does hypnosis work" or "How can I get a session or two for free"...FMS sufferers will respond to my comments here with rage instead of curiosity. That has been my experience. "I've never written a testimonial before but here goes. Since 2001, after surgery to c-3;c-4 fusion with Ti plates my pain levels ran about 5 on 10 on GOOD days... recently my pain levels went thru the roof due to another injury,good days were now 10 on 10...bad days were markedly worse. after one visit to Chris my pain was gone...zero. Feeling returned to both arms and fine sensory perception came back as well...after eleven years...thank you." Nate Shove "OK, so I've waited a while just to make sure it was real but it is time to give my testimonial! I used to suffer from daily IBS. For those who don't know what that is, it is Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a bit of an embarrassing explanation but here goes: It is an excruciating condition that involves your colon and intestines. Either you have diarrhea or you are constipated or sometimes both, as in, you have diarrhea but you still can't go and just have constant painful abdominal cramping. It is miserable!!! Anyone who has it knows exactly what I am talking about. It is painful, it is embarrassing, it keeps you from going out and doing the things you want to do and living your life because you always have to worry about how close the nearest bathroom is. I had severe symptoms approximately 5 or 6 days a week with a very rare good day. I had a single session with Christopher Bartow where we worked on my IBS problem using hypnosis and NLP techniques. To be honest, I didn't see HOW it could possibly work... but I was desperate and willing to try it anyway. It has now been 5 weeks since my session with Christopher and I have had NO MORE IBS since then! It has been wonderful to sleep through the night, go where I want without worry of pain and embarrassment, eat what I want without fear of triggering an episode, and be pain free. If you suffer from IBS I would really recommend that you get in touch with Christopher! It worked for me... what if it could work for you too? You don't have anything to lose except pain and embarrassment and who needs those? I sure don't and you don't have to live with it anymore either. Kathrynn Donovan ~ Kealakekua, HI

  http%3A//www.bihihypnotherapy.com

  Christopher%20P.%20Bartow

• I have Ankylosing Spondylitis which isn't responding to drugs, in fact the last drug Sulfasalazine made me I'll to the point of hospitalisation on Boxing Day. Today I had a meeting with my rheumatologist and discussed what's been going on. She tested my joints, and felt my flabby bits, I stretched and twisted as far as I could and she then discussed anti-TNF treatments. She also used the dreaded F word. My inflammatory markers are up, so clearly my body is launching an all out mutiny on joints, bones, soft tissue etc. so I said to her, "right the pain is all in my head?" Nope, the way she described it was that something goes wrong with how you perceive pain. It's as if whatever pain you have is magnified. Unfortunately the cure is a tricyclic, so I asked if this meant she thought I was depressed, no but depression can lessen your resistance to many things. Told her we'd already been down the Neurontin route, OK... Just turned me into a zombie. She asked why I was so resistant to being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I explained that to me it seems like some of these self styled fibrowarriors seem to wear their illness as a badge of honour and martyrdom. I've read forums where sufferers are actually trying to outdo each other with symptoms and tales of pain and woe. In a way I can't take them seriously because they are so damned precious and to an extent have hijacked conditions such as RA and Lupus - dear God one forum even used a purple butterfly (which I thought was a lupus meme). Some even put unproven Fibromyalgia ahead of a proven condition such as Lupus. I'm sorry if this offends you, and I am sure that one day in the future a test may discover something concrete going on in your bodies, but as it stands all I see are too many people 'choosing' to have fibromyalgia to explain other conditions which may or may not be down to their lifestyle choices.

  Ka%27El

• My girlfriend is supposedly a fibromyalgia sufferer. She is also an opoid addict. The miraculous thing, I have to share, is she can be in such pain and not able to move, but go to hand her an opiate drug, and she miraculously recovers as soon as she pops it in her mouth, long before it has had time to be absorbed by her body. From what I have seen and lived through, is she suffers from some type of depression and the drugs help to enhance her mood. In my opinion, most of the people that I have come across with "fibromyalgia" have never had a "really" rough day in their life, even though they think they have, and they love to feel sorry for themselves like they are some type of "victim" of something that gives them a reason to whine. I am curious as to how many fibromyalgia sufferers there are in our third world societies. I am also wondering how many there are in the poverty stricken class of people as compared to others that are more well off.

• It's not bullshit. I'm convinced it most likely has to do with wheat gluten intolerance. That shit gluten is effing everywhere. It's an autoimmune response.

  anon

• The very sight of muffins at the office sends jolts of pain throughout my body. I have to immediately go home.

  Brooke

• In my previous post, I neglected to add that money, in combination with opiate pain killers, seem to cause complete remission of all of my girlfriend's fibromyalgia symptoms. The opoids give some relief when administered and likewise with money. When both are administered in unison, she is on top of the world!

• Why are you with her then R388?

• 386 - it may very well be the case, so do you find that eating gluten free actually makes a difference? Rather than self diagnosis you might need to see a doc. Sadly too many people rely on medical advice of wiki, without going to get bloods checked. You need a baseline otherwise you could be blaming completely the wrong thing. 388 - if she's such an issue for you then go. It might be better for you and it might be better for her. I have to take codeine based drugs to manage my symptoms as and when they don't allow me to function, and I take the absolute minimum to get by. There are days when I don't take any, not because I'm not in pain, but because I want to know I can stop and also to monitor exactly how bad things are getting. Your girlfriend sounds like she might be better with some form of antidepressant as that is often what they first prescribe for Fibro. I agree with money, that make me happy too, but not to the point a miraculous recovery -I wish! I don't dispute that some people have an as yet untestable condition called Fibro, I dispute the number who self diagnose simply to become special.

  Ka%27El

• Hi I have FMS.... it is not bullshit, and it took me 8 yrs. to get over the fact that I could no longer do the things I love and wanted to do, along with a list of things I didn't want to do. I had a thriving career, and loved every minute of it. I enjoyed having sex with my husband, and going for long swims, and bike rides, and hanging with friends. All of witch I can not do at all or very little of. So it offends me greatly that you think that it is bullshit, or that I am crazy. I am sure there are some out there, that are "faking it" as all they need is someone with the true symptoms to tell them what is wrong, and they copy that. However if you truly have it, you would know that you wouldn't wish something like that on your worst enemy. Although no one knows the exact cause or, exactly how to treat it. it is very real. There are some theories as to how it comes about, and I believe that most are partly right. FMS is on set from a traumatic event, a car accident, a surgery or other major factors in a persons life. It is also in part to do with the autoimmune system. Neurons travel from the muscle to the brain and back, in this transaction the neurons react one of two ways. They tell the truth eg. the coffee cup weighs 2 lbs., or they lie and the neurons tell the muscle the coffee cup weighs 25 lbs. and that is to much to lift, so you drop it. there are many variables. And here is something for the non believers, cancer was considered a figment of the imagination, until the right medical devices where invented to help diagnose a very real problem.

  JC

• IT IS REAL .... I HAVE IT .... I DON'T USE IT AS AN EXCUSE TO LIVE OFF THE GOVERMENT .... BUT I DO HURT EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE ... AND I STILL KEEP IT MOVING .... JUST CAUSE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT DON'T MAKE IT FALSE... ASK SOMEONE WITH IT ... GET EDUCATED.... I PROMISE YOU IF I HAD A CHOICE.... I WOULDN'T MAKE THIS UP. .... LOVE N RESPECT.

• Good grief. Frauen googling fibromyalgia have found us.

• Fibromyalgia is simply the new-speak name for good ol' rheumatism. Remember rheumatism? Anyone growing up in the 1960's remembers all those commercials for Ben-Gay. Even back then, the psychological component was recognized. It was the "disease" of the lazy and the privileged. Everyone has aches and pains... but there are those who can allow themselves to wallow in it.

• [quote] I PROMISE YOU IF I HAD A CHOICE.... I WOULDN'T MAKE THIS UP. Hold on, hold on... so you're telling me that you are making this up, but you don't have a choice in the matter?

  Confused

• Fuck you Fibromyalgia Fatties! Get off your lazy snatches and DO something about how shitty your fibromyalgia festooned life is. I love how you all have a cute little name (fibro) for the "disease" you cleave to your bosoms like a crack addict smokes a pipe. Now, all of you just shut the fuck up about fibromyalgia already! Find something else to define your reason to exist.

• It isn't the people who have what are called "fibromyalgia symptoms" who are responsible for making noise about the term. They're just suckers for having a label put on everything. I agree that the components in question probably include something autoimmune as well as psychosomatic. My mom has an autoimmune disease (evidenced by other unmistakeable symptoms) that causes her ridiculous pain from the lightest pressure sometimes, but she never bothered to FIND OUT what was wrong, because that's irrelevant to her. Doctors might have tried to push that specific diagnosis on her in recent years, had she consulted them. And, for the record, she's not overweight, lazy, or psycho.

• The lack of diagnostics for Fibromyalgia unfortunately lend itself to a very easily bullshitted condition that is 100% subjective. As a result you will find (A) ppl that cant do dishes but can golf, are looking for disability but can Rock & Roll all nite etc... IMO it should be called "An excuse for ppl who dont want to work and want to throw a dash of self-pity ontop. Oh and a cherry" That brings me to those (B)individuals that really DO suffer from undifferentiated global pain of no origin, that is not testable. These ppl do not complain, take medication quietly and drag their asses to work everyday with the rest of us hoping that the next clinical trial will yield a medication that will provide some relief. As a medical practitioner, you would think that I might have a more open mind...nope sorry. The Type A group I describe above needs psychiatric treatment. Type B, unfortunately are marred by the actions and comments of their sister group of complainers and slack-asses. just my opinion

  anonymous

• Wow, can't believe the bullshit in this thread. FM is very real, for all the doubters out there get off your judgemental butts and do some real research, I suggest starting on on PubMed and the like. There's some excellent research being done out there that's showing what's really happening. For those who think we're faking it, brain imaging doesn't lie. People with FM consistently show excessive activity in areas related to pain, so yes we really are in pain!!!! And for the "it's caused by gluten intolerance" people. Big thanks, going gluten free triggered my rheumatoid arthritis. SO cheers. There's no consistent evidence that gluten is the cause, and it's misinformation like that's causing ridiculous debates like this thread. People get off you butts and start looking at real science not the crap posted all over the Internet.

• Fibromyalgia is literally a diagnosis for people who want attention. They only get pain when people attentive to their needs. My little brother "has" it and he'll be home all day playing xbox or doing stuff on the computer just fine, but as soon as my mom or dad come home hes in constant "pain". It's a bunch of bullshit. It says in medical articles that this disease is usually accompanied by "depression, PTSD, or aniexty". In other words, the pain is all psychological and will only get worse when they're fed the attention.

• [R390] - yes I found that getting off gluten (wheat flour) really helps with the overall lousy feeling, i.e., burning sensation/feeling that happens but it's hard to describe that's why I call it an overall lousy feeling. It's hard to explain. I was set to have a blood test but somehow I instinctively knew a blood test would be worthless by not indicating anything was out of sorts. At that point I decided to forego the blood test and eliminate all products containing wheat flour beginning with wheat bread. That was just about 2 years ago and that overall lousy feeling is/has been gone since the change in diet. I think my immune system was revved up and on high alert or whatever. I told the doc I did not take the blood test afterall and told him that I cut out all wheat flour products from my diet. He then made a comment about leaking gut syndrome (look it up). Anyway I have felt soooo much better since I eliminated wheat flour from my diet. FYI

  anon

• It seems like many people with Fibromyalgia can't press enter between paragraphs.