How I Faced and Fought the Family Illness: Fibromyalgia

Finally taking charge
Arriving back on campus my junior year, I decided enough was enough. I had never been a helpless person, and I was not going to allow myself to become one. I began slowly by taking steps to improve my diet. As the weight came off, I felt more motivated to move. I took the stairs to all my classes and walked to and from my off-campus apartment rather than opting for the bus. Gradually I began running and as the miles increased, I enrolled in a yoga class to balance out the tension the running was putting on my muscles. The months flew by in a blur. I had rekindled my old friendships, began going out (though never drinking, and always leaving by midnight), and had managed to steady my condition as much as possible.

Each fibro journey is different
It was during these years of actually experiencing the syndrome first hand, that I began to understand that no two cases of the condition are the same. While I could lean on my family for moral support and advice, none of them held the key to pain-free living. Each and every one of them had to go through their disease journey and find what worked best for them, just as I did. My aunt swears by yoga and a strict diet, my oldest sister runs distance while my middle sister and my mother hardly exercise at all. All of this is accompanied with wraps, heating pads, and my mother's famous tennis ball invention which, when rolled on at the exact right angle, can hit a trigger spot and provide some temporary relief.

Though I'm certainly not holding my breath in the hopes of a wholly pain-free future, I've learned that I'm in control of what I choose to do to manage it. A careful combination of faith, yoga, running, and eating right as well as a good eight hours of sleep each night have proved to be the best stabilizers for me. Along with that plan, simply deciding to change the way I looked at my situation helped immeasurably. I found peace in the realization that, as with any chronic pain, I'll have good days (which I can focus on and revel in) and bad days (which I now know how to handle).

Had I not had six of the strongest women I know to help guide me through this syndrome, I don't know how I would have survived. It is through them that I have been given the power to cope with both my realities and my "illusions."

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