I’m Using Writing to Cope With the Emotional Rollercoaster of a Chronic Illness Diagnosis
Come with me as I sort through my emotions
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In my last article “This Is How It Feels to Be Young and Have a Chronic Illness,” I discussed the pitfalls of having a disease that never goes away.
For the past couple of years, I have been suffering from random excruciating pains in my body, debilitating fatigue, and a myriad of other symptoms unrelated to the Osteoarthritis I have had for five years.
I finally advocated for myself with the help of my therapist and was tested for every possible aliment before being referred to a rheumatologist.
I mentioned in that article that I had my appointment with the specialist the following day.
At that appointment, my new doctor diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia.
The past couple of days, I’ve worked on home renovations and ignored my feelings.
Now It’s time to deal with my resentment and sadness the only way I know how to: Writing.
Welcome to my journey, thank you for being here.
What Is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by debilitating, widespread musculoskeletal pain, and 200 other symptoms that affect many different areas in the body.
For years, some doctors believed that Fibromyalgia was “all in our heads” and they are not incorrect, in a way.
Hear me out.
Fibromyalgia pain seems to be related to how our brains interpret pain. I watched a video from “Arthritis Ireland” with a dissertation from a pain doctor named Andrea Nichol who specializes in Fibromyalgia.
In the video, she explained how fibromyalgia patients are different from other people without Fibromyalgia.
“We have learned from good research that patients with fibromyalgia have lowered pain thresholds”
The pain is very real and this is a legitimate condition.
She went on to explain that if you hook a patient with “fibro” up to an MRI machine and pressed hard on their body, their brain “lights up” on the imaging in…
