Hi Laurie!
I too am very glad you have joined us! Even with wonderful spouses we can feel very alone when we live in pain 24/7. I too have fibro and it took me quite a while to understand what was going on. Once I did then I was able to deal with it much better.
It's very common for people with fibro to have it 'show up' after a major surgery or other insult to the body. Popular theory is that it may be laying quiet for many years, even possibly genetic, and when something shakes up the system like surgery, having a baby, a car accident or severe emotional trauma it takes off like wild fire. Rarely do you find someone who can't trace it back to some significant point in their life but...with that said, we do have people over in the fibro forum who have had it since birth!
I couldn't imagine living to 50 years old with fibro either but here I am about
to leave the 50's and the pain isn't going away any time soon. I personally feel that the best thing you can do is to educate yourself. Join in forum posts, read all you can and ask questions. If you find yourself in the care of a doctor who believes your pain is "all in your head"...turn and run! Sadly there are still doctors who are in the dark ages when it comes to fibro. There are a lot of great books out there. My style is to check out the library and see which are good. If I find one that if very good I will get online, like to Amazon or something, and buy it used. Always trying to save a few pennies. I would suggest that when you are researching to be cautious about
the sources. Just like diet plans and pills, there are plenty of people ready to relieve you of your hard earned money with promises of a 'cure'...lol Mighty silly to claim to have a cure for something that doesn't even have a known cause or route of transmission. Fibro is a syndrome...a cluster of symptoms and as of yet the medical community has not come to terms with what is happening or why we have pain 24/7.
Many of the university/medical sites have good information about
the latest research and ideas on treatment. No, there's no cure but you know what??? That's not about
to stop any of us from leading a great life! So, if you like....take my hand(extending hand) and we'll walk this path together. We will enjoy each day and cherish those we love. Our lives will be different than before but they will be rich and rewarding.
Ya ready???
Chutzie
ps....please join us for Koffee Klatch each day either here or over in the fibro forum and we have Chat Night on Thursday evenings at 6 PM Pacific time, 9 PM Eastern. This will be posted before the chat with instructions on how to get to the chat rooms and use them.