Re: Rosemary's Questions

[Guest guest]

Hi Guys!

Rosemary is right in that I do enjoy helping others. :-) I am not a doctor

and I do not diagnose nor prescribe. I am a genealogist with a scientific

bent who because of my own inherited illness, Familial Mediterranean Fever,

has done some pretty serious research. Some of the symptoms of my inherited

illness are: fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, RA tests that alternately show

positive, then negative and which were done because FMF also has arthritic

symptoms. Muscle weakness and wasting as well as chemical sensitivities and

allergies which are part and parcel of this illness. As are many other

symptoms including depression, anxiety and obsessive complusive problems.

FMF can be *triggered* by stress, accidents, emotional problems in the family,

What I am writing will not help ALL of you, but it may help SOME of you, so

please read on.

I saw the program on Providence abt FMF and it was a good show. Would have

loved to have been a consultant on that show because some of the things were

left out and of course, the illness changes when we grow older.

Having information on your family's history is so VERY important to our

health that I encourage everyone to learn at least about the 4 generations

behind them. This will usually for those of mid-years take you back to the

early 1800s. If you do not know at least that far back, then any illness you

have *could* be an INHERITED illness. I used to teach beginning genealogy

classes. I will send you my outline for that class which gives a few tips on

how and where to search your family tree and includes a lot of good sites on

the net for research. This is FREE and via e-mail. The internet is chock-full

of genealogy. It is the fastest growing hobby around and with an illness

getting in your way, it can help you do something useful with your time, and

may even make you a little less pained as you get into it. :-) For awhile it

was the only thing I could do besides watching tv.

When I started researching I did not even KNOW that I had ANY Mediterranean

ancestry. My family has been in the Appalachian Mt ranges of NC/VA/KY/TN/WV

for more than 200 years, but what a change this has brought into my life. I

no longer have ANY pain and I suffered terribly and was almost bedridden for

awhile. My stamina is still not what it used to be, but I am able to play

bridge w/ my friends, go to movies and theatre, out to eat and enjoy it. I

can sit through church and Sunday School listening to the lessons, and so

much more than I was able to do 3 years ago. And I am able to exercise,

lightly and get through the grocery store without feeling like if I don't sit

down, I am going to fall down. I feel that as I am able to do more, my

stamina will increase along with it. I wish that this would be so for some of

you. I know that it will not fit all of you. With Rosemary's family history

and their common list of medical problems for several generations, it

certainly seems to me that looking into inherited illnesses would be a very

good idea.

On my medical website which has absolutely NO advertising (and I am NOT

selling anything.), noted below there is an overview of Familial

Mediterranean Fever which some people *think* is rare in the US. I think it

is just not well-known and much more prevalent than previously thought. I

also have my PERSONAL story w/ this illness on there. IF any of this sounds

familiar or you are just interested, I will be glad to send you a fuller

version of this information, also FREE and via e-mail.

May your day and night be as painless as possible.

S

THE MELUNGEON HEALTH EDUCATION AND SUPPORT NETWORK:

http://www.melungeonhealth.org

Sparks Genealogy: http://SparksGenealogy.net

Searching SPARKS, HAGER, JAYNE, RAMEY/REMY, COLLINS, MUSICK, WALKER, PORTER

MAYO, CAREY/CARY NAPIER,QUEEN, PERDUE, KELLEY, LETT, BELCHER