New member

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this list. I'M French Canadian and my English is poor: I

apologize for any mistake I can make. I would like to share with you my

experience with FM and CFS. To introduce myself, I copied the following

questions provided to me when subscribing.

Age range: I'm 40 years old

Male/female: I'm a woman, a mother of a 15 year old boy and a spouse.

What are the symptoms? Too many to answer, but mainly, extreme pain, very

extreme fatigue, orthostatic intolerance, dizziness, nausea, poor sleep if

not total insomnia and so on....

Has you illness been diagnosed? Yes, 7 years ago.

How long did you suffer before you got help? About 4 years.

Is there a time that you can remember when it started? At least 10 years

ago.

Some of us have found lack of exercise we are overweight. Have you found

this to be a problem also? Oh yes! I took 40 pounds within 2 years. I

succeeded to lose 15 pounds.

Are you on disability? If you mean receiving disability benefits: no, but

I've stopped working 7 years ago.

What have you found that helps ease the pain, warm baths, medications etc.?

I've tried many things and they seem to help on a temporary basis. Lately, I

was on Celebrex and it worked a little but I was beginning to have stomac

problems so I stopped the med. The only med I still take is Rivotril because

I suffer from many intolerances from meds. I need those pills also to

control the panic syndrom which began with FM/CFS. Beside, I do some

stretching which help a lot to aleviate some back and neck pain. Massages

and warm bath are helpfull. I use also an electric pad. Beside all this I

pray and wait for the flare to calm down :-(

Do you have sleep problems? How do you deal with it? Lots of it. I try to

develop what I call a sleep pattern. Always do the same thing every night as

to say to my body that it's time to go to sleep. I take a hot bath, I read a

little bit spiritual books. I avoid tv, novels, music. I try to go to sleep

at the same hour every night. Once in bed, I do mental imagery. I find

myself lucky if I sleep well two nights in a row. I tried sleeping pills a

few years ago but it never changed anything but the first 2 weeks. Meds

seemed to work in a short period of time so now I'm very reluctant to use

any.

Do you have family that understands your illness? They do not understand my

illness. Therefore, I don't give them the choice to accept me with my

limits. It was very difficult the first years but they don't talk to me

about it anymore. In fact, they don't want to hear about it. Fortunately for

me, my husband and my son are wonderful with me and I find myself lucky to

have them.

Some have found certain foods causes problems with CFS or Fibro, have you?

Not at all. In fact I've found that eating lots of low fat proteins (I mean

at every meal) has giving me more energy. But I don't do any special diet. I

saw a nutritionist to help me plan my meals in order to have all vitamins

and proteins I need and avoid fat.

What type of Doctor have you found that has helped you the most? My

physician only. All specialists I saw didn't seem to «know» anything about

it. They don't know the cause, so they don't care. It took me 4 years to

find a good doctor.

Well, these questions help to let you know what I'm going through. I wish to

add this: I've been with a support group a few years ago which help me a

lot. After a while, I wanted to see if I could live without any support and

frankly I wanted to go on and try to live a «normal» life. It's impossible!

After 7 years, I find nothing has changed, it's an everyday battle and I

need to share my suffering and also I need people to share their suffering

with me. I find it to be the best way to cope with this illness. I could not

tell you all about my experience with coping with this illness in this

email. If you wish to know me better or to ask any question, i'll be more

than happy to answer you. And above all, I'm looking forward to get to know

you as well.

Take care

Sephira