: This is long, so bear with me please.

: Is this for real?

: I am confused about this “syndrome”. I was looking up muscle groups on the computer a few days ago. I’d had a fall a week earlier and I was still pretty sore. That was when I saw the word “fibromyalgia”. I read a few paragraphs and said to myself that it described me exactly. How strange. I checked all the websites that I could and they all said the same things.

: I am a 40 year old who was incredibly active in her teens and early twenties. Now I am about 25-30 lbs overweight...

: I feel sluggish all the time.
: I have strange recurring aches and pains
: I have mild depression once or twice a month.
: I could never follow oral instructions in my life.
: I grit my teeth unconscientiously day and night.
: Every night just when I fall asleep, I WAKE UP suddenly and feel horrible.
: Some mornings I wake up feeling like someone had punched me in my jaw during my sleep.
: Once every couple months, I wake up with half of my face tender to the touch and very sore.
: I have to sleep with a pillow between my knees to prevent major back pain in the morning and, sometimes, I wake up with one of my knees on fire.
: Some mornings my shoulder hurts horribly.
: Sometimes my fingertips and toes just go completely numb.
: I hurt in strange places around my body almost daily.

: In my own opinion, I believe that if I went to a doctor with these “problems”, I feel he/she would consider me to be a hypochondriac. That is the way I feel like and it is why I have avoided seeing a physician. I have often thought of trying to list all the things I believe are wrong with me and scheduling an appointment and getting them all hashed out at one time. I am tired of wondering “what’s wrong with me?”. I’m just like anyone else, we all have occasional aches and pains…..don’t we? I don’t use any aspirin or ibuprofen for any of my aches or pains because they will just go away sooner or later. Why keep using the stuff when after a while there will be another spot that hurts. That’s life.

: I don’t suffer incredible pain daily, only annoying throbbing pain everywhere almost all the time. Waking up is always like playing roulette.. will it be the knee or the back or the shoulders this morning? But doesn’t everyone have aches and pains?

: I believe that I have a good excuse for every pain that I have because of small (and large) accidents I've experienced through life.

: I sometimes wonder how my husband deals with me complaining constantly about my aches and pains. He has heard me for years. I thought maybe I’m just a grump and try not to tell him every time I am achy.

: When I read about this “syndrome”, it sounded like a bunch of cry babies who wanted to give their lazy, stupid pains a clinical name so it would be justified to be a grumpy, complaining slob.

: Please do not be offended by that statement, I was actually describing the way I portray myself because this syndrome sounds so much like how I feel. I think I’m just a complainer who believes that life is a bitch and then you die and everyone has aches and pains. It’s just that I feel more compelled to make sure everyone around me knows it.

: Why do I wake up tired and achy and not my husband? Doesn’t he have pain sometimes? I never hear him complain about anything.

: Do my friends and colleagues think I complain too much? How come I never hear them complain about having pain here and there? Don’t they have sharp stabbing pains sometimes for absolutely no reason at all?

: Why should I go to the doctor and embarrass myself, just to hear him say that he has pains all the time too, and that they are just natural? "Just take some aspirin or ibuprofen and it will be alllll better".

: I ask myself - why do I feel so horrible all the time. I don’t want to take walks, I don’t want to do anything that involves physical stress, including sex and the loss of libido I have experienced in the last two years baffles me to no end. When I do go to sleep at night, I hit the pillow and I’m OUT. Not without at least one episode of being violently interrupted by something -- I don’t know what it is, but it is painful and makes me mad. Only a person who has experienced that last sentence would understand it. I believe all my problems would be solved by exercising and eating right, and cutting out the caffeine. THAT’S ALL.

: Is there really a syndrome?

: I have never been able to concentrate, have never been able to follow oral instruction. I figured that I have attention deficit. Ok, live with it, you have all your life to this point, so this is the way that your genes built you and that cannot be fixed.

: I don’t know anymore. What do I do?

: Does it sound like I have FMS? Should I actually go out and see a doctor? Or am I just a person who loves to be the center of attention and believes that her pain is worse than anybody elses?

Dear Shewolfe,

You may have fibromyalgia. However, even if a doctor diagnoses you with FMS, there's a slim chance that the doctor will know how to treat you. You may get over-medicated or under-medicated. Very few doctors know how to manage fibromyalgia. I invite you to join fibroquest (our online interactive e-mail). All of the professionals at FibroDoc.org have fibromyalgia -- including Dr. Alpert. You may get the answers you're looking for.

Cheryl
(webmaster for FibroDoc.org)