Today is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day...

Peace - Love - Cure - Support Fibromyalgia Awareness

Today (May 12^th) is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. So, for today’s piece, I want to talk a little about Fibromyalgia. Not many people know that much about this form of Arthritis, which affects a lot of people I know.

**Imagine waking up (or lack of sleep, getting up from a night of restlessness), with pains on parts or even all of your body. You are paralysed with the pain, and the only way to get out of bed is being carried out of bed. Imagine not being able to make sense of sentences being said to you, because of the constant pain you’ve had all day. You’re tired, you cannot think straight. Sometimes you feel like life is not worth living, because your energy is drained from keeping positive. **

This is the view I got from someone very close to me who I admire that has Fibromyalgia, and these were the worst days. No-one understands how much pain a person with Fibro has to deal with in a day.

Fibromyalgia is basically widespread chronic pain, fatigue, and cognitive problems. When visiting a GP, initially they do not recognise the symptoms, as it is an “invisible” condition. Only the person experiencing the constant muscle pain and tiredness knows what they are feeling. Sometimes they themselves do not believe this is happening to them. Friends and family might not believe that you are experiencing these symptoms, as they cannot “see” it themselves.

I need to stress that people with Fibromyalgia need our support. It cannot be “invisible” to people anymore. It’s not just senior citizens that suffer from this, young people suffer as well. I will put up a few links for sites in Ireland that help with your questions, and also to meet people that have Fibromyalgia, and other Arthritis conditions like Juvenile Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Juvenile RA, and etc.

Am sending Fibro Love to all my friends and family that have FM. I look at you, and you remind me of steel, how strong you look. I admire you, and will help in any way I can to make people more aware. It will not invisible anymore, and will be acknowledged.

Links for you:

Arthritis Ireland

ArthritisIE : Fibromyalgia
Yorkshire Evening Post : Health: Coping with an invisible illness
About.com : What is Fibromyalgia?
Facebook: Young Arthritis Network
Facebook: ArthritisIreland.ie

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