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Living with an "invisible illness"

Never in a million years did I imagine that being in my 30's would be a complete 360 from the carefree days in my teens and 20's. I thought that I would go on living life to its fullest and embrace each new day with new eyes waiting for some adventure to come my way. Instead I have had to embrace self-doubt, disappointment, and pain.

Little did I realize that in my teens and 20's I had small warning signs that I was slowly developing a condition known as Fibromyalgia. This name would not come into play until I was in my early 30's and not understanding any of the odd pains or conditions that were re-occuring over and over again with no real reason as to why?

For years, I was plagued with odd pinches and pains in my hands and feet that I thought were from wearing bad shoes or just bad circulation. But, I couldn't really tell my family, because I was far too young to be experiencing odd sensastions of this nature when I'd grown up only knowing elderly people to complain of arthritis. I thought I might have it, but it wasn't all of the time and it was tingling not achy, like when your feet fall asleep.

Then in my 20's I had UTI after UTI and problems with so many other body parts, that I thought for sure I was being eaten alive from the inside out. But, no doctor could find anything wrong. The tests were run and the cases were left unsolved or I was treated like I was making it all up. What would I have to gain from constant UTIs, or endometriosis like pain but no proof of the condition? I have always been a very honest and open person and to lie or embellish the truth was not in my nature, so I became depressed and insulted that my loved ones and physicians did not believe my discomfort.

I wanted answers and no one could give them to me. This went on and got more frequent in my 30's, especially after the birth of my only child. The pains got worse, the owie spots as I like to call the pressure points got meaner, and it felt like I was walking on glass most of the time when I'd get up from a still position. I thought for sure I had gestational diabetes, because it was noticeable while being pregnant too.

To top things off, from my early 20's and continuing to this day, I had been experiencing horrid headaches that could or would make me very ill and possibly out of commission for hours into days. I had been diagnosed with migraines in 2000 and started trying out new medications to resolve these headaches, becasue it was interfering with my ability


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