Coming out of the Fibromyalgia Closet

I try try try to not let fibromyalgia affect my "life" too much, but it is inevitable that it does. The pain and fatigue have to be taken very seriously in order to avoid getting so fried that it takes days to recover. This "delayed reaction" time is probably part of what makes things so hard to plan.

I was doing photo shoots almost daily for a couple weeks, and starting the second week felt the "burn" of doing too much. Ended up canceling several shoots in week 3, and I haven't taken any photos at all since Saturday-and it is now Wednesday. I may be taking some pics tomorrow of a new model, but I'm waiting to talk to her, I think she is still at her day job.

With all the cancellations I made the decision to "come out of the closet" with my pain/fatigue issues, telling some people that I have fibro, others that I have a chronic pain condition. Everyone in the photographer community that I have told has been very supportive. This would not, I think, be the case for every person in every job. Talking with a friend yesterday-we actually made it to Starbux!-we got to talking about the taboos related to admitting you have pain. From talking to family to aquaintences, it truly is a type of coming out of the closet, a somewhat shameful (at least, potentially the other person could think this) admission, that you may or may not have come to terms with. Sometimes you're forced out, other times you can "hide" it for a while, or forever from some people-depends how involved they are with your life.

I have found, with some people, the word fibromyalgia is akin to hypochondriac. Nope, sorry folks, you are misinformed. Even trying to explain it, once I used the phrase "there is the feeling of pain but not anything really wrong with your body" and then I realized how... incorrect that is. Something is wrong, dreadfully wrong, its just a matter of figuring out what it is!


In other news:

I had complete thyroid blood testing yesterday, should hear the results tomorrow. Crossing fingers that something *IS* wrong this time, because thyroid issues can be medicated and lead to a much better quality of life. I'm half afraid though, that things will come back "normal" and it will be another dead end.