I am a wife and mother of 3 and I am a new grandmother. I work full time and I go to school full-time. I am in an Associate Degree for Nursing program with less than a year left before graduation.

I knew something was wrong a few years before I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  In 2004, I broke my sacrum from a fall.  It seemed to take forever to recover.  I lived with constant low back pain that never went away.  It did get less severe with good and bad days.  Looking back, I really think that was the key to what triggered my fibromyalgia.  I researched fibromyalgia since I have been diagnosed.

I feel better in warmer weather, but keeping active is the key to feeling my best.  For me, if I am not active, I get stiff and have more pain.  I have to balance my activity, because if I do too much, then I pay for it for days after with a lot of pain.  
I try to eat healthy.  I notice the more sugar intake, the more pain I have.

My goal is to stay active and find ways to improve my health and well-being.  I have tried different medications but found that most of them made me feel tired and foggy.  I try to take the least amount of medication as possible and still function.  I have strange side effects from medications, so I am leary of trying new meds. 

I have noticed that there is a stigma with telling people I have fibromyalgia.  It is not always believed by some doctors and I have been treated unfairly by some physicians in the past.  It is crucial to find good physicians that I can trust to listen to me and take me seriously. 

I am blessed to have worked in a hospital for over 15 years and I have a lot of support from my co-workers and managers.  I can continue to work with the Family Medical Leave Act.  This allows me to take a day or two off when my pain is at its worst and I cannot function.  I think, for me it is important to my mental well being to continue to work and be productive.  I feel my depression would take over if I could not work at all.

I think it is helpful to talk with other people who have fibromyalgia for mental support.  Sometimes having fibromyalgia can be isolating and depressing because it has no rhyme or reason and is-at times unpredictable.