When I got here I just jumped in because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say in my introduction. Anywayz, here's a little about me.
I started out in this world with health issues, and thats been the way it always has been. I've learned to accept it and just live my life around what I can do. I have days of depression when I get tired of my bad health and somedays are easier, but I deal with life as it unfolds the best I can.
I started out as a preemie with a heart mumeur born to a 14 yr old due to extreme unmentionable circumstances. I was immediately placed in foster care and adopted at 6 months. I was blessed with a weak immune system from the start. I had an eye problem where they had to cut the bone and mscle into when I was very young. The migraines I get now have a habit of working their way into the scar tissue there and once that happens they barely go away.
I started puberty when I was around 8 years old. My fibro symptoms began after puberty started. I went through hell in gym class when I was forced to do the actvities even though I was tired and felt touchy at that point. I was embarassed when getting tagged or hit with a dodge ball always hurt like crazy. It's tough as a kid not knowing there was such a thing as fibro and knowing the doctors and my parents thought I was a hypochondriac and said there was nothing wrong. My father constantly compared me to a 90 year old woman as he put me down for being lazy and complaining about always being tired or in pain. Now that I think about it my grades were slipping ever since I ended up with fibro. I couldn't concentrate in school and I couldn't remember things for tests at all.
I was always late for school and had many detentions because of it. There was no real reason. I just couldn't get moving in the mornings and the colder it was the more I just sat still while I was supposed to get ready. Now I realize it is because with fibro it takes me a while to be able to freely move around after waking up.
I have a uterus shaped like a heart which causes "that time" to feel just like labor as well as multiple kidney stones. I have a kidney disorder where my body can't process calcium or magnesium, so I have to stay away from supplements or excess amounts of them.
I have lost many jobs due to poor performance because of my fibro. The only job I managed to keep besides the over stressful afterschool care job I had was in my Dad's company that we lost due to the economy. I have given up on working because it's phyically more than I can handle and the constant job loss was too emotionally stressful for me. I'm attempting to pecome a published novel writer so that I can be my own boss. I've been denied disability twice already.
My adoptive family, inlaws, stepkids, and their mother all think I'm lazy, over reacting about the pain, and think that I need to get a job. My husband I'd say 90% believes and understands. It's the other 10% that brings on hurtful comments and expectations of me that I can't live up to from time to time. He's very helpful and supportive for the most part.
My birth family is very supportive. They all have heath problems and just about all of the women in my family experience extreme pain. The rest have small issues with their joints. After going 27 years with my doctors all telling me that nothing was wrong I finally found a reumatologist through them that they have been using who informed me that I without a doubt have fibro. I cried when I left with the relief of finally having a diagnosis and being told that I was not crazy.
I also have a miracle daughter. I was between 3 and 4 months pregnant when I found out about her. I kept getting told by my doctor that I wasn't pregnant based on blood tests and they kept giving me medicine to start my cycle that I hadn't gotten in months. I took a home test one day and found out that they had been wrong. My daughter was two months premature with a diphragmatic hernia. The whole contents of what was supposed to be in her stomach area were in her chest with her lungs and heart instead. She wighed 3 pounds 5.6 oz at birth. She had to be fed by an iv only for two months until she could have surgery when she gained enough weight so that her stomach wouldn't grow and suffocate her.
She had 5 surgeries between a patch on her diaphram, heart surgery, patch repair, and eye surgeries. She was in a specialty hospital for 7 months from birth where I had to stay an hour away from my home, husband, and family. It was very hard to be scrutenized by the hospital staff with fibro when they thought I needed to be around on early hours and be ok with sitting in the room for 6 hours. I don't function well until at least 10am to start my day. My peak is typically from 6 pm to 10 pm. I'm not sure why but I seem to function better after its darker. She had a 40% chance of surviving and they all didn't have much of a plan for her because they didn't think she would make it. They kept telling me not to count on her pulling through. It's very unusual for preemies to make it with her birth defect.
She's currently 18 months as of April 14 and on oxygen24/7. She's just a bit developmently delayed. We have a home nurse that sees her once a week and she has several therapists that come to our home and work with her. She's currently getting dissability and I'm able to be a stay at home mom. She can't go to daycare due to her underseveloped lungs, so I am thankfully not expected by the non understanding family members to get a job for a while.
Thats a bit of a summery about me and my life. I love this forum because you can complain and nobody gets upset. Everyone supports you instead. Everyone here is going through exactly what I am and it really helps. You'll probably see me around a lot at night. I love the time around midnight to 2am because it's so calm and laid back with the bulk of everyone around asleep. 