In 1999, I figured out on my own (with some help from above, of course) all about this strange new word, Fibromyalgia. I knew that there were very few Drs. who believed in it and even fewer who did believe in it, but just didn’t know what to do about it. I also knew there were only a few ways to diagnose Fibromyalgia. Ugh, more tests. But, at least this time we were searching for something that they thought was “real” and not all in my head. So, rule this out, check. Rule that out, check. Trigger Point Test, um “OW!”, check. We went over the list of the “typical” Fibromyalgia symptoms, check, check, check... I don’t know about you, but when you check off 100 things on the SAME list, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. But I’m playing the game, I’m going with the flow. It’s been 10 long years, so what’s a little while longer.

“Ok,” he says to me “You have Fibromyalgia!” Well, duh!(I didn’t really say that out loud, I wanted to, but I didn’t) Then I asked, “How do we fix it?” “Well, we can’t fix it,” he says. A roar of laughter came blaring out of my mouth, the guttural, primal kind of laughter that makes you blow snot out of your nose. “What do you mean we CAN’T fix it?!” “You’re just going to have to live with it,” he says to me. I really wanted to say, “What on earth do you think I’ve been doing all these years?” “I’m done with it now. I’m moving on. I’m leaving Fibromyalgia behind like a lousy ex boyfriend.” But, instead, I just thanked him very much for recognizing and acknowledging that what I had was NOT all in my head and took the prescriptions he wrote for me. I knew deep down that none of them were going to work, but I owed it to everyone to try. So, I took my happy little butt, my book, my Fibromyalgia diagnosis, a hand full of prescriptions and marched on out of there.

So, I became a human guinea pig and I tried all the prescriptions that were given to me to deal/cope/live with Fibromyalgia. I really didn’t have much hope for them, but I thought it was worth a try. What else could I do? I didn’t have any other answers. This was the closest that I came to any kind of resolution in all these years. Who was I to argue? So, medication after medication, side effect after side effect, reaction after reaction, I trudged on, all in the name of...What? I still had Fibromyalgia. I was still in pain. I still didn’t have any energy. The symptoms were all still there. The only difference was that now I had some weird new symptoms (also-known-as SIDE EFFECTS) from all the drugs I was taking. Talk about complete and utter frustration. What am I doing wrong? I thought this was the answer? I thought I’m doing what I’m suppose to do? WHAT?! Again, no answers. (Little did I know, at the time, that all of this was leading me to my path of healing!)

Fast-forward to the year 2000. In the miraculous way the word Fibromyalgia came into my life a year before, so I could finally get my answer of what was wrong with me with a proper diagnosis, another BIG life changing moment happened... I was standing in a book store and I just happened to stop in a random aisle and look up and there it was...(No, I’m not making this up) Reversing Fibromyalgia by Dr. Joe Elrod. “Reversing” Fibromyalgia?! It IS possible! I knew it! Well, if I didn’t do a back handspring right in the middle of that aisle (Ok, I am making that up, but I did do one in my head). But seriously, I snatched that book up off that shelf faster than the speed o’ light! Yeah, actually, I did kinda hit the person next to me in the aisle. I startled the frick right out of him and had to apologize profusely, but anyway, moving on. Needless to say, I took that book home and read every single word from cover to cover...