What is Fibromyalgia?

I guess if I'm going to write a blog about Fibromyalgia then I should introduce it first. Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition affecting approximately 5 million Americans. Woman between the ages of 25 and 60 are at the highest risk of developing fibromyalgia. While the symptoms vary from person to person, the most common ones are: muscle pain throughout the body, fatigue,sleep problems,anxiety or depression and headaches. I personally suffer from the widespread muscle pain,fatigue,sleep problems and both depression and anxiety. I frequently have headaches and am often unable to even just stay awake. Since there is such a wide variety of symptoms it's often hard for doctors to diagnose fibromyalgia. There is no one certain test that will prove for sure if you have it or not. The way that I was diagnosed was my doctor ran several blood tests, sent me to have tests done to rule out problems with my nerves, and tried to rule out other problems it could be. After about 6months of regular monthly check-ups she came to the conclusion that I had fibromyalgia. There are questions to ask your doctor if you think that you have fibromyalgia and for a list of them visit the webmd website. I hope to discuss common treatment options in my next blog.

Allow me to introduce myself

First allow me to introduce myself. I'm a 26 year old mother of three that has suffered from fibromyalgia for almost three years now. I was first diagnosed in December of 2008. Since then I have been struggling with ways to deal with the day to day pain. I am hoping that through this blog I can help clear up the misunderstanding that some people have that fibromyalgia is just a mental condition, all in the person's head and is not something to be taken seriously. From personal experience I know that this is a real condition,but I know that there are many people out there that think I'm making this all up. I also hope that through this blog I can help people that might think that they have fibromyalgia recognize the signs and symptoms. The last thing that I hope to do with this blog is to help spread awareness of the different treatment options that are not only based in traditional medicine,but also alternative medicine treatments. I personally want to be able to find a viable treatment plan that doesn’t involve such expensive medication. It's not that I'm against medication,but I know that I personally cannot afford it and would like to know what other options are available to me. To learn a little more about fibromyalgia visit the Mayo Clinic's website http://www.mayoclinic.com/.