dear paulette,
after reading your comments about your extreme sensitivity to the pain and suffering of animals, i cried for an hour. i , too , feel this way. my husband thinks i’ve lost my mind and yet i can NOT see nor hear anything about animal suffering / cruelty for fear of endless sleepless nights and mental anguish. thanks for relating. i have been diagnosed w/ CFS and fibro for about 3 yrs. now. have had 3 back surgeries in the past 1 1/2 years. still recovering from all of that. just wanted to say it helps alot to read comments from other sufferers. thanks. dana

I wish I had answers Paulette. I can only suggest any kind of relaxation exercises along with gentle physical movement and support systems of caring people. It isn’t easy. We can all relate to your pain.
Kind regards,
Barbara

I agree with all above comments. So, what are we to do? I feel so frustratedbecause in my case I think I’ve found the cause altho there are so many of them. Being an animal lover and I am (SO SENSITIVE) if I see any cruelty towards them that I cannot even allow myself to watch any TV program which depicts any of that.

For. ex. tomorrow night there is a program about gorillas being murdered in a park in Kenya. I cannot watch
it because just thinking about it sets off a series of my symptoms. These will include crying, pains, sadness that may last for long period of time. Maybe forever. Is this a way to live?

Yes we know plenty of the causes but where is the cure? Best to all of you, who also suffer. Paulette

Dear Lynn: Yours is a very sad story indeed. Have you been ‘officially’ diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and/or Fibromyalgia? It certainly would not be a shock if you had CFS/FMS after all your horrific health problems. The pain, fatigue, brain fog and depression are enough to deal with, let alone COPD. It is unlikely that Fibromyalgia caused any of your actual physical diseases but rather probable it is the other way around, that is, CFS and FMS are the result of the other issues. It is so often difficult finding a physician who can put all of this kind of history together to help with treatment plans but I hope you will be able to do so soon as I can see you are in great need of support. I wish you very best wishes, Barbara

I had multiple, tho somewhat minor physical and emotional traumas before age 13. I started having vaso-vagal syncope at this time, not knowing that each time I lost conciousness my heart rate was dropping dangerously low, sometimes in the teens. I also started suffering from chronic fatigue, muscle aches and gastric trouble. But at age 29 I almost died because my pain center failed to kick in when I was having an ectopic pregnancy. While I continued to develop strange, non-provable ailments, I had a kidney stone that after 2 weeks took me to the ER. The ER physician said I couldn’t possibly be having a Kidney stone because I wasn’t writhing in pain enough. I had to force him to do a scan that revealed I had a kidney stone. I got fired from my job for sleeping while on duty despite being on 3 medications designed to keep me alert. As an RN, imagine my shame and subsequent despair. I have COPD and the only Doc that will say I am disabled is my lung doctor. However, there is a test that can be done for that disease and I was denied benifits because the test show moderate disease. Why is it my pain center varies in how it depicts pain? And why can’t I find a doctor that understands that when you hurt every day, you are exhausted when you wake up, you may or may not remember conversations held yesterday, and you will fall asleep when you read, write, or do data entry you will fall asleep, then you are not employable or insurable? And depression results form loss of function, not the other way around. I say, I would be nuts if I weren’t depressed especially now that I am faced with losing my home due to lack of income.

Hi Rowena: I am not surprised at all! Over and over again I hear this same story. Thanks for your comments!

Having done a lot of research for my own Fibromyalgia I have come to this conclusion about the cause. I am exactly what you describe.

Thanks Lydia! I am not so weary now:-) All the women in my book agreed too!

I totally agree with you about the cause, at least in myself.

Lydia