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Thursday, May 12, 2011

National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

So today is the day! The day we are to get the word out on the one thing that plagues us everyday of our lives relentlessly that most people do not understand. We are to advertise the fact that we live with a chronic condition. How many of you are still in denial of that fact? How many of you really don't want anyone to know what you go through everyday, simply because you can hide it or cover it somehow? You don't need to tell anyone what is going on with you, they may look at you weird, they are going to say it is all in your head. Maybe you still actively believe that you are some how forcing your body to feel run down, bruised, beat up, achy, sore, overtaxed and weak all on you own. GUESS WHAT? We have all been there. No one wants to admit that they have a condition that will affect them the rest of their lives. Diabetic people don't. Anemic people don't. Cancer patients don't. Heck, we don't even want to admit that we are getting a year older on our birthday's once we reach a certain age. But the reality is, you have got to come to grips with it. In order for you to move on, to create a life worth living and to move forward, you must take hold of the situation you are in and gain control of it. You need to control it, not let it control you. Do you ever feel like people say, so and so is not keeping up with her share of the work, or have you noticed that so and so seems to be slipping a bit with what he used to do? I know I did, and then I just tried harder to hide what was going on with me. It did not work. There will always be people out there that are not going to believe us, our pain, what we go through, but that is their problem. If you don't speak out for yourself and help people understand, you are adding pressure to yourself. You are in pain, so why push yourself harder into deeper, longer lasting pain to prove to someone else something you know is not true. You are not slacking, your are not slipping in your capabilities. You are adjusting your mechanisms in order to maintain and that is ok. It is hard to put yourself out there, we all know that. Even harder when people don't believe or understand, but if we just keep shying away from talking about it, how will they ever find out the truth. No one is asking you to put a sign over you and prance around the streets, of course, unless you want to. Simply put on the color purple today. Wear a purple ribbon or a button that says fight for a cure. If someone stops you and asks, let them know why. Tell them that this silent painful condition is suffered by many and hardly understood. We need the word out there. We need to have people question it, we need people who are suffering to fight for a diagnosis and help. We need a voice out there fighting for us. All it ever takes is one step to start a journey. We all need to take that one step today, and another step tomorrow, and each day hopefully we can add a partner or a couple people to our trek. If we all start the journey together we could be powerful. That is why we all started these blogs, websites, forums, clubs and groups. Many times it is one voice that starts the whisper, that will end in a huge ear piercing roar. Take that step with me today. If you have not told anyone, tell someone. Ask for support from family, have everyone wear purple, or a ribbon, or a pin or post on their facebook or twitter or email or where ever they can just some basic information about Fibromyalgia. One small push can move a mountain if it is an army of people doing it together! Here is something I hope you will copy and paste, just to start : ******Fibromyalgia Definition Fibromyalgia 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. The most common sites of pain include the neck, back, shoulders, pelvic girdle and hands, but any body part can be involved. Fibromyalgia patients experience a range of symptoms of varying intensities that wax and wane over time. Over 6 million Americans, 90% of them women in the prime of their life, suffer from FMS and sometimes struggle for years before being correctly diagnosed. Symptoms usually appear between 20-55 years of age, but children are also diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome. Pain and severe fatigue may keep FMS sufferers from their chosen profession and unable to perform common daily tasks. Fibromyalgia pain continues throughout a person’s lifetime. ***taken directly from the National Fibromaylgia Research Association Website www.nfra.net

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