Newbie here....

[Guest guest]

Hello, my name is Dellamarie and i just joined this list in hopes of

learning about this condition that has pretty much taken over my life

and possibly make a few friends along the way. First a little about

myself....

I just turned 40 in July, i am very happily married to my highschool

sweetheart going on 20 years. We have two wonderful sons, ages almost

19 and 16. I was involved in a car accident on December 30, 1991 which

totally changed my life forever. I was one semester away from getting

my AS degree and becoming a paralegal, with dreams of going on to become

a lawyer. Didn't happen. My Life took a totally different course. One

i never would have thought to pick for myself. After MANY, MANY

doctors, including specialists, TONS of poking, prodding, testing, more

testing, more poking, and lots more prodding, i settled into the only

semblance of a Life i could. I was being shuffled from this doctor to

that doctor, from Myelograms to Thermograms, to CT scans to MRI's to

this to that and all the back again. In the last 14 years i have had

probably almost as many doctors. I was searching. Searching for the

one who would make me feel like i was a person and not just a chart.

Like they knew i truly had pain, and wasn't just making things up.

Sure, they gave me all kinds of diagnosis, though most of the time i

never knew about them until i pulled my own records and read them for

myself, Myofascial Pain Syndrome. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Degenerative Cervical Disc Disease. Depression, (hell, who wouldn't be

with all the crap i had been through?!). Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Whatever that all meant. I never really knew.

All i DID know was that i was in pain. I was terrified to drive.

Terrified for my husband to drive. I was closing myself up into my

home. Sure they gave me drugs, and they helped to some extent, but i

felt as if i weren't living, only existing. Half the time i felt like

no one, (especially the doctors), even believed me. I TRIED to finish

school. I TRIED to go back to work. I couldn't do it. So...all these

years my family has been sinking slowly into the cesspool of bills,

including that wonderful student loan. We barely get by on what hubby

makes.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I am fed up with the currrent doc in

the string of docs i have had. So, i decide it's time to look and see

if there was any that i haven't seen yet. How funny that i spotted one

with the last name 'Butcher'. Why not? I am a quirky gal and i have

been through most of the others. In my FIRST visit to him, he did more

for me that the 14 years of seeing all the others!!!! He switched my

pain meds around, (i hated the 'stupid' feeling i would get and then the

plummet from the meds i was taking), introducing me to this WONDERFUL

pain patch called Duragesic, as well as another patch called Lidoderm,

for immediate relief. He ordered me a TENS unit for the house, that i

could keep and use whenever i needed it. He got me scheduled for PT.

He even scheduled me for a follow up appointment to check on me in 4

weeks, something the other docs never did. They just wrote

prescriptions out. If i saw them, it was because 'I' called them and

made the appointment. So, after several months and just as many

appointments with him, i FINALLY found out that i have Fibromyalgia. I

had heard of it from others, but had no idea that's what Myofascial Pain

Syndrome was!!! And it encompassed most of all my other

problems!!!!!!! He has even signed my disability discharge papers for

my student loan. Now i am looking into filing for disability with

Social Security. I finally feel like i'm not crazy. The way i feel has

been validated. I'm not a hypochondriac. What a liberating feeling.

Anyway....i am sorry this is so long, i have never had anyone to share

all this with that truly understand. I look forward to being a part of

this list.....

Thanks for letting me join....

Dellamarie