Sound Off
One Person’s Response to Fibromyalgia Assumptions
I just read this Letter to the Editor of a Jacksonville paper in response to the article,–that I couldn’t locate! But that said, here it the response to the article (Maybe it’s best we didn‘t have the article to read-it just would have made us angry!)
I know when you read something unpleasant about your illness, it can be hard to pick up a pen and write the editor. But I encourage you to do it and let them know just how prominent invisible illness is too.
Lisa
____________________________
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )FREDERIC PORCASE,physician,Jacksonville
FIBROMYALGIA-Painfully real
Monday’s article demeans all of us with fibromyalgia.
The horrible part was the “Mind over Matter?” stating that “Patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia are more likely to have a history of mental illness, be overweight and economically disadvantaged.
Some doctors say their suffering may stem from difficult circumstances rather than disease.”
I run a support group for people with fibromyalgia, and that is not the case. We are all type “A” personalities who have been forced to change our lives due to this horrible disease/syndrome.
All of us would give up our “great” disability checks for the more profitable lives we were living before the chronic pain and fatigue. We may be overweight now, due to not being able to exercise, but this was not the case before the chronic pain and fatigue started not after the diagnosis.
We all had the symptoms years before we actually got a diagnosis. No, we are not hypocondriacs.
Fibromyalgia is an invisible disease. Thank goodness we don’t look as bad as we feel.
Walk in our shoes just one day and then say we have a mental disorder.
TV Programs and Illness
“Well, you look good?! ” is a blog that was started by Michelle in Lewisburg, TN . She recently blogged the following about the TV show House that aired this week.
On Monday’s episode of House, the patient had chronic pain and had been to seven specialists in three years. The whole episode hit very close to home. I wish I could put this episode on a DVD and hand it out to everyone who tells me…well, you look good. It is hard each and everyday and most days the pain is not visible. Please keep my family in your prayers, especially my kids. My illness is just as hard on them as it is on me.
Michelle shares a little bit about herself in her bog… “In February 2005, I was diagnosed with three chronic illnesses. The first illness, scleritis, is an auto-immune disease which causes thinning of the white layer of my left eye. Fibromyalgia, my second diagnosis, is an increasingly recognized chronic pain illness which is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal aches, pain and stiffness, soft tissue tenderness, general fatigue and sleep disturbances. Last but NOT least migraine headaches.”
Have you caught a television program you thought portrayed chronic illness or invisible illness well done? We’d love to hear!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )
