How did your fibromyalgia start?

I read a couple stories about people and how they noticed that fms pretty much snuck up on them.

As For myself, I was wondering how you could be perfectly normal one day and be miserable the next. I thought I got this overnight, but in reality my body was gradually giving away symptoms that at the time unless you are an expert on the subject there is no way for you to know....

One day I remember sitting across from my boss having a normal conversation, when my left arm went numb and my heart started racing out of the blue. Then an anche in my left arm took place and I visited the ER where they ruled out any lung or heart issues.

The next day I got a Cortizone shot in my arm and that made the pain better and for months I didn't get it again until one day I started feeling exquisite pain in a very weird area near my left shoulder blade. it was a pain that my husband could pinpoint with his finger and when he pressed down it hurt a lot. Back then I didn't know it was a trigger point...

Then one day months later all of a sudden my right leg felt very happy and I had a very dull ache that sent me to the ER and I got tested for Lyme and it was negative but that excruciating pain on my leg Dr's could not explain... a week later I developed terrible pain in my neck, then my shoulders and upper back, then I fell ill with what I thought was the flu and this sudden, frightening weakness in my arms and hands that 'till this day are my biggest concern...all that took place in approx 7 monts building up anxiety in me and taking away all my goals and pleasures in life to the point where I lost my job and whatever motivational drive I had in me...

But I have learned to accept it as I have no choice, just as I'm sure all of you have done. Share your stories with me...I would love to read them. Thank you all for your time and God have mercy on each and every one of us!!

Mine hit me out of the blue. February 2011 After finished doing physical therapy for a fall I had on my shoulder I started having extreme fatigue and hurting all over. I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with Lupus. The medicines for lupus didn't stop the pain so he said I had secondary fibromyalgia.

I saw my rheumy a couple weeks ago and he asked me if I had had growing pains growing up. I told him I used to love to run but when I was in middle school I no longer had fun running. He said that might of been the start of it. Since I am about to turn 49 (!) that was a long time ago.

Well I'm not exactly sure when or how it started...I thought that it came out of nowhere, but looking back now it kinda crept up on me. I'm 25, and I remember saying many times "I don't remember the last time I had one day where I felt good all day" over the past few years. At that time it wasn't specifically the body pain that bothered me all that much. It was headaches, sleeping problems, low energy, no motivation, severe IBS, constant anxiety and frequent panic attacks. I always just contributed all this to three consecutive abusive relationships, the loss of my father and numerous loved ones over the years and the fact that I was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I was in the Joplin, May 22nd tornado, and my friends and I barely escaped it's fury. We pulled up to a house and got to the basement maybe 2 minutes before the tornado hit and completely destroyed the house. After that I was just the biggest mess. I became a hermit. Every time the wind blew hard enough for me to notice it I would freak out. So if it actually stormed it was like full on panic attack mode. Late 2011 I started having really bad headaches all the time. It felt like my head was bruised, and my panic attacks became more frequent. They finally went away, but then I became dizzy all the time. The dizziness got worse with stress, but it was there whether stress was present or not. I started having panic attacks every day, sometimes more than once a day. One night back in March of 2012 there was a tornado warning. I was mortified. It was the most intense panic attack of my entire life. I was convinced that I had a heart attack or something of the sorts. I remember waking up the next day in sooooo much pain. I just thought it was from all the stress the night before, so I thought that over the next few days it would subside. But I was wrong...sooo wrong. That was just the beginning of it. I was always dizzy, in pain, constipated, constant panic mode, derealization and depersonalization, TMJ, cluster headaches lasting for weeks at a time, breathing problems, heart palpitations and little to no energy and the list goes on. I went to the hospital, doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, holistic health practitioners, therapists, reflexologists and so on. After about 4 months a doctor at urgent care diagnoses me with Fibromyalgia. I'm still not completely sure if that is really what is wrong with me, but I must say that I have tried A LOT of different stuff to help out and the only thing that has really helped much at all is prayer. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true. I have went from feeling like I'm going to drop dead any second to feeling like crap most of the time. :) Sorry that was so long. But that is the shortened version of my story.

I'm 31 and have had fibro since I was 21. I was always a sickly child, battling recurrent sinus infections, tonsillitis, and vaginal infections. I believe I took antibiotics quite a bit. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia at 13 and didn't ever eat like I should to keep my blood sugar in balance. I remember starting to feeling sore and achy while working as a server when it started. I thought it was just my low blood sugar. I was so fatigued that I would crash after work. I couldn't work as a server anymore. I think in the beginning I probably had CFS and then it became more about the pain then fatigue even though I have both pretty bad. I'm not sure what set it off. I also have anxiety, depression, IBS, vulvodynia, and GERD. It seems that a lot of my conditions became chronic over the years. It seems that there are a lot of people who suffer with these same conditions together.