First Post EVER!

So, a blog. Seems like everyone has one of these, nowadays. I never thought I would; I always thought I'd have nothing to write about, nothing interesting to say. Then I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Immediately, my family and I began gathering as much information on it as we could - online, from doctors, word-of-mouth. What we found was there's not an overwhelming amount of information on it, especially for young people. And so, I decided to write a blog. It may never get read, it may not amount to much, but maybe it'll supply someone out there with a little extra information.

 As it's not a very well known illness, here's some brief info on Fibromyalgia:

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS or fibromyalgia) is a term used to describe a cluster of symptoms that may include widespread pain and tenderness in ‘trigger points’ on the body that are abnormally sore to touch.

Fibromyalgia affects 2 to 4 per cent of the population, predominantly women. While it is more common in women, men and adolescents can also develop fibromyalgia. It tends to develop during early and middle adulthood or in a woman’s childbearing years.

I got the above from this link:

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Fibromyalgia?open

You can find more details here:

http://www.medicinenet.com/fibromyalgia/article.htm

And here!:

http://www.fmnetnews.com/basics-symptoms.php

In my case, I developed Fibromyalgia shortly after I had Mono (or Glandular Fever). A lot of people develop Chronic Fatigue after having Glandular Fever, which is similar to Fibromyalgia, except that the predominant symptom for Chronic Fatigue is, well, the fatigue, whereas for Fibromyalgia, the pain is the main symptom.

Glandular Fever itself is unpredictable. Some are sick for a few days, then perfectly fine. Some are sick for a while and take several years to fully recover. Some don’t even get sick at all. I got very sick for about 3 weeks in July 2010, and ended up missing half a year of school because I was constantly exhausted, weak and got sick again very easily. I couldn’t concentrate, had memory problems, was in a lot of pain, developed insomnia and felt sick every time I ate. Several GP’s later, I saw a specialist for POTS syndrome. That seemed to only explain a few things, and the treatment didn’t seem to do anything for me. So we saw a rheumatologist and Fibromyalgia specialist. Though still in the process of working with that doctor, it seems more relevant to my symptoms, and the treatments are working! We’re still experimenting with different diet and exercise changes, different medications and routines. After over a year of being “sick”, I’m finally getting some answers.

But there will never be an easy fix. Fibromyalgia is all about learning to manage the individual symptoms on a day-to-day basis. It isn’t always easy, and there are lots of different approaches. The purpose of this blog is to share some of those approaches that have helped me and others, and to find some more! Later I’ll add things like fibromyalgia-friendly-exercises, recipes, articles I find and other simple things that seem to help. Plus I might just talk about me sometimes :P