Hello!

I'm usually somewhat of a private person, I don't like the idea of spilling the contents of my life all over the web, but if my experiences can help even one other person out there suffering from or trying to understand someone who suffers from Fibromyaglia, then that is a good thing.

I'm a single (divorced) mother raising two (out of seven) children under the age of 7. These are my "later in life" babies, the older one is a high functioning autistic and the other has some apparent issues that are in the process of being addressed.

I have a pretty strong faith in God, I consider myself to be Christian, but I am not fundamentalist, by any means. I'm very unorthodox in my beliefs, and because of the nature of my symptoms, I don't attend church because the loudness of church services exacerbates my symptoms. I wish I could attend church, though.

I'm also a bit of a business woman, although my small business makes no money yet, so I'm living in a very low income bracket.

I am forced to try to work out of my home because I'm unable to keep a job for more than a few months. I'm basically not employable but I'm not considered disabled at this point, either, although I probably should be. This is one of the many problems fibromyalgics have to deal with. Caught between being disabled physically while not being recognized as "officially" disabled, despite the debilitating nature of the condition.

How does fibromaylgia affect people's lives? It affects more than the person who suffers with it, their friends and family suffer with it right along with them, and try as our loved ones might to understand Fibromyalgia, it's generally something that demands a lot of patience from those who are close to us, and this is one of the many subjects that will be explored on this blog.

It's not something most physicians seem to understand let alone accept as a legitimate physical or medical condition. Given this, how much more difficult is it, then, for our loved ones, who put so much trust in the medically trained, to understand us?

I have apparently struggled with Fibromyalgia for most of my life. When I was a small child in the 1960's, I experienced excruciating and unexplained pain in my legs, usually at the end of every day. I would howl in pain as my mother and father would try to massage the pain away. Physicians chalked it up to growing pangs.

It is my hope that if you see yourself or someone you know and possibly love in anything I''ve published it will provides encouragement and comfort to you.

I invite your comments.

-- Sandra