Writer seeking fibro patients willing to share story

[Guest guest]

Hello Members:

We've been contacted by a woman who is writing a book on Fibromyalgia

and she is looking for Fibro sufferers who would like to share their

stories for her book.

I've attached a letter from her below. Contact her directly - don't

email the list, she's not a member! - if you are interested in

getting more information or participating.

Note that we moderators don't know anything about this woman or her

book. We're just passing on the information. So if you want to

contact her, be aware that it is up to you to make sure that she is

legitimate, and I'd recommend never sharing anything that you

wouldn't want to see printed for millions to read with your name

attached!

Cheryl in AZ

Moderator

Here is her letter:

Good morning, fellow fibromites!

I have known all my life that there is a book inside me waiting to be

written, but the topic of it has eluded me until now.

I am going to start collecting people's personal stories about their

experience with FM/CFS and/or chronic pain in general. There are tons

of books out there about how to determine if you have FM/CFS, how to

find a doctor, what meds people are taking, etc.

I'm not really interested in the clinical side of things.

I would like to focus more on the issues of how this disease affects

our lives, our relationships, our ability to work. I find that I write

in my journal a lot about the way people look at me, about feeling

like other people treat me like I must be faking it, or other people

assuming that I must be feeling fine because I look fairly " normal. " I

think a book about real people with real stories about how this has

affected us and how we have dealt with it all would be helpful to

other sufferers and to those who are newly diagnosed.

Your personal stories will be confidential, with each person

identified only by first name and your state or country of residence.

I would also like to include a reference section for websites,

organizations, resources in your community, etc. that have been very

helpful to you, so please feel free to pass information about those

along to me as well.

I have set up a separate Yahoo e-mail address for collecting

materials, so please send your stories to fibrobook@... (in

case Yahoo hides this email, it's fibrobook @ yahoo.com - just remove

the spaces.) As I am compiling these stories, I may need to edit

some of them for grammar or length, but I will not edit the content

of your basic story.

When writing up your stories, please be sure to use only first names,

unless there is perhaps a really good doctor you see.

I really want this book to be an examination of the emotional impact

this disease has on all of us and on those who care for us--how it

affects our daily lives and our interactions with the world around us.

By submitting your story, you will be agreeing that it can be included

in this book and stating that you understand that you will not be paid

for your submissions.

Please contact me at fibrobook@... to submit your stories. I

will be compiling a questionnaire in the next few days to help guide

you in writing your stories, and I will send this out to those who are

interested.

Please e-mail me with any questions. Any suggestions for content that

you think would be helpful will also be gratefully accepted.

Thanks so much for your help!

Betsy Paine