Dear Fibromyalgia

Tag: fibromyalgia warriors

Celebrate the resilience of Fibromyalgia warriors, sharing stories of strength, tips for managing symptoms, and resources for support and empowerment.

Fibromyalgia is Complicated and so are its Causes

This is the 64 million dollar question. I wish I could answer it but fibromyalgia is complicated and so are its causes. However, I will say that I’m sure it’s connected to the evil quad that is causing so many people to be sick these days: antibiotic use, too much sugar in the diet, a sterile, nutrient-free, toxin overloaded food supply (thanks to agribusiness) and bad chemicals in all the plastics our foods are packaged in.

That said, here are things that have been mentioned as issues and causes: Epstein Barr virus, car accidents or other trauma, surgery, a disorder of the gut biome, hypothyroid, POTS. I can tell you my own disease progression: it started with IBS in my 20’s. I was working in ICU, a very intense, high-stress job.

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In my 30’s I got married and worked in a doctor’s office and my health improved. Then around 40, I was having muscle problems. I had bronchitis twice in 6 months, with 10-day courses of augmentin (a broad-spectrum antibiotic) each time. The muscle trouble worsened to the point I asked my Dr for a course of physical therapy.

I did the Wharton stretch method, which helped. I walked a lot and got about 90% of my health back. Then I started bleeding very heavily with my menses and had to have a hysterectomy at the age of 44. I got worse again. At 46 I was in a minor car accident, broadsided at a stoplight when I had the right of way.

I wasn’t cut, and I didn’t break any bones, but it put me into a fibromyalgia crisis, where all my muscles spasmed, and I had a nerve pinch down my left arm that lasted a month. I found a book at that time called Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction. As a result of reading it, I went to a physiatrist who diagnosed me with fibromyalgia and said, “ I can’t help you”.

That was devastating! I’d never heard of the disease, so I went straight to Barnes and Noble and bought a book, which said basically,” You hurt like hell, no one knows why, and learn to live with it” Over the years I’ve learned to get off sugar and gluten, but a little dark chocolate is ok.

Eat organics when possible, particularly meats, eat lots of raw veggies and a moderate amount of fruit. Keep exercising and stretching, but gently. Walking, Pilates and tai chi are good. Swimming is only good in a warmed saltwater pool. Take probiotics for your gut. Get your thyroid levels for both T3 and T4 checked.

Adrenal stress goes along with this disease. It can cause you to leach potassium which will make you feel exhausted and make your heartbeat irregularly. I supplement prescription-strength potassium daily. I also supplement magnesium malate, vitamin B12 SL, and Omega 3 fish oil, and I put flax oil in my fruit and veggie smoothies.

I tried Cymbalta, Prozac, Plavix at different times, and found them not to be helpful. My strict diet is what keeps the pain away. I’m usually at a level 2–3, which I can bear. In the beginning, it was at 5–7, which is hard to live with. I hope you figure out what helps you. Good luck!

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02/09/2022
Stress that Causes the Hypothalamus may lead to Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is primarily a neurological brain disorder. It is seven times more likely to strike women than men, and it doesn’t matter what nationality you are. The hypothalamus part of the brain acts as a circuit breaker/fuse box for the rest of the brain and body. It’s like the battery for the entire body.

There are several things that typically cause Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to manifest, but basically high amounts of stress are what cause the hypothalamus to blow its fuse, creating a host of neurological problems, like hormone imbalances, increased pain sensitivity, fatigue, and “brain fog“.

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Essentially, you’ve got a dead battery that won’t hold a charge, which is why so many people experience debilitating fatigue. The blown fuse can happen in an instant, and you get no say in if or when it happens.

The hypothalamus has done a system-wide “shutting down” and tried to reboot, in an effort to protect your body and brain from further stress and damage. Like when you turn off your computer and restart it because using Ctrl +Alt +Delete hasn’t worked. Only, by doing this, the brain is permanently altered, like a computer virus that can’t be repaired.

A person can quite literally be fine one day and wake up the next morning feeling so completely different, and your entire life has changed because your brain no longer functions the way it used to. Many Fibro/CFS patients can pinpoint the exact day/week/month everything changed for them. The most common “triggers” fibromyalgia patients report are:

•a virus/illness or a prolonged decrease in the immune system
Lime’s Disease, Epstein Bar Virus, Mono are often associated with the development of Fibromyalgia and CFS symptoms. etc.

•a sudden traumatic event
A house fire, abusive situations, physical attacks, etc. Similar to PTSD, or Dissociation disorders, the brain is trying to cope and process the additional shock and stress, triggering the hypothalamus to “protect” the rest of the brain by flipping a switch.

•an accident
Car accidents, drowning, severe falling, etc. can cause the hypothalamus to be trying to “protect” by flipping the switch.

•medical or dental surgery
Any time you have surgery, it puts the body under huge increases in stress, because cutting into your body sends the brain “we are under attack!” signals.

•pregnancy
Because of the drastic hormonal shifts, joint stress, depleted vitamins and minerals, and the physical trauma of the birth process, pregnancy creates so much stress that for whatever reason the mother’s body just can’t handle it. Fibromyalgia develops during pregnancy or soon after birth. For many women, their Fibromyalgia symptoms and Chronic Fatigue are ignored as simple “hormone shifts” or ” new mommy fatigue”, when in fact her body will never really readjust back to normal.

• high-pressure lifestyles/stressful jobs/major anxiety
Workaholics, or people who don’t take enough time off, or just can’t relax and rest. In school-age students, the stress of studies, trying to get good grades, fears of the future, or even too many activities can cause an abundance of stress the body can’t handle.

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For some adults, this means they get sick in the form of common things like high blood pressure, heart attacks, or stroke. Others can develop Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or other random “stress-related” illnesses.

Many people are able to live completely normal, energetic, and happy lives BEFORE these stressful, triggering events. Any of these things can cause the hypothalamus fuse to blow like a light bulb that goes out. Once that fuse blows, basically your “brain is broken“. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or what gender.

Even children and teenagers can (and do) develop Fibro and CFS, especially if they have had an accident, undergone serious trauma, or had to have surgery. Being young doesn’t automatically mean someone is healthy, even if they “look healthy”.

This can happen to anyone, at any time, and once it does, there is no way to change that. You can’t just flip the switch back to fix it. The hypothalamus begins sending the wrong signals to the rest of the brain and to the nerves, causing the super sensitive fascia, painful joints and muscles, sensitivity to touch, and intolerance to certain foods and weather changes, causing thyroid and metabolic changes, and cognitive disruptions.

Ironically, the brain’s fuse box blows in an effort to protect your brain and body from further damage because of the prolonged stress you have already been under. This is the chief reason why so many Fibromyalgia patients experience a “Flair Up” of pain and other symptoms when they are under high amounts of additional life stress, like family conflict or having to pack and move. Things like exercise and many mundane physical activities are just too stressful for an already constantly stressed out body, so these things cause a flair-up of symptoms.

The body is already so stressed out from whatever life has thrown at you and being in pain 24/7 that you just can’t handle it anymore. The “Flare Up” will force you to slow down and rest, even when you have things you need to do. This is why a Fibro/CFS patient can feel okay enough to go out and do things one day (feeling “normal”) and be utterly exhausted for the days or weeks after, in a “Flair up“.

Because Fibromyalgia is so physically debilitating, in this way your body is forcing you to rest and slow down, so it can make an effort to heal itself and relax. This is why people with Fibro need to take steps to simplify their life and be as stress–free as possible.

Medicine and Science is just now figuring this out, and it might take another couple of decades for them to agree on a treatment plan that will actually cure the hypothalamus and flip the switch back on.

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References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

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Fibromyalgia Stores

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02/09/2022
Fibromyalgia Diagnosis gives me new SUCKINESS

As everyone else said, it does suck, but how it feels to live with chronic illness varies as much as people vary. People react to their new limitations, lifestyle, and the overall new “suckiness” of their life differently, based on personality, previous experiences, support network, mental health, and a million other variables.

I, for example, handle it really well. I’m 100% disabled. My autonomic nervous system doesn’t work properly which causes heart rate and blood pressure abnormalities, frequent fainting, inability to stay on my feet for more than a few minutes at a time, body temperature variations, inability to digest food normally, and a ton of other whacky symptoms. I also have fibromyalgia and migraines that can last for days on end.

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Small, everyday activities that most people take for granted I have to plan in advance – things like getting dressed, taking a shower, or making food take planning, setting up workarounds, and recovery time.

Over time I have outfitted my apartment to be more convenient for me…placed furniture in such places so that no matter where I am I have something to grab on to, make sure there is always a seat within reach, put down extra rugs for padding if/when I fall, outfitted my shower and bathroom with seats and handles, etc.

I live alone, so these precautions are necessary. I am always thinking ahead about what I might need or what problems might come up. Right now I only need a wheelchair part-time, but what if I become constrained to it full time, how will I need to change my living arrangements? Am I prepared for that? How hard will it be? Should I start some early preparations now, just in case? I want to make a certain meal for dinner.

Can I stand long enough to prepare it? Is there any way I can split up the preparation to make it easier? Can I do part of the prep the day before and freeze it so I don’t have to do it all at once? Stuff like that.

Notice my answer focuses on action more than on feeling. That’s because that’s how I am. I’m not an emotional person. I don’t get caught up in the touchy-feely stuff and I don’t get upset that I’m sick. Shit happens.

There’s nothing I can do about it so I don’t see the point in being upset about it. I want a doctor that will fix me, not one that will give me sympathy or tell me it’s going to be okay. As I said, everyone reacts differently.

Many people with chronic illness, on top of all the things I’ve listed, struggle with anxiety and depression because it is hard to keep dealing with all these stupid days today struggles when you’re looking down the road of the rest of your life, years, and years down the line, and realizing it’s not going to get any better, it’s not going to change, that this is it, this is your life now.

Depression and/or anxiety can make getting out of bed hard for someone without additional health problems, let alone in someone who is disabled for other reasons as well. For me, at least, I’m not sad about it, I’m just busy. I used to be busy working. Now I’m busy being sick – constantly.

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References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

Click here to Get the latest Chronic illness Updates

Fibromyalgia Stores

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02/09/2022
In my Experience, Fibromyalgia Pain Can Happen in any Part of your Body.

I’ve had it for about 29 years now. In a word—-Pain. Never-ending, constant pain. Your shoulder will suddenly start to hurt, which can last for a few seconds to days. That can happen in any part of your body. When it quits, it will start in some other place, again for only a few seconds to days.

One day I woke up, got up to go to the bathroom, and fell on my knees with horrible pain in both groins. I had to crawl to the bathroom. It felt as though I had sprained or tore both groin muscles, was that way for a week. I couldn’t go to work. All of a sudden it stopped.

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It causes brain fog—forgetting things that used to be just automatic, sleep disturbances, your brain just will not shut up. You do stuff like put milk in the cabinet and cereal in the fridge, your wallet in the freezer, Go into the bathroom to pee, and all of a sudden you are standing in the tub, fully clothed with your watch and glasses on, frequently wonder if you have Alzheimer’s or dementia—-you test normal on all tests. The one that needs to be done is called the Stroop test. It actually takes us twice as long as “normals” to process stuff in our brains.

You can frequently get an incredibly intense itch—-anywhere, on me, usually my thumb or any finger or palm of my hand. And I do mean intense, To the point, you are screaming and wanting to run out into the street pulling your hair off and ripping your clothes off.

You need to put immense pressure, to the point of pain on the spot to get a little relief. It can last several very long, excruciating minutes to about 30. It seems days. I’ve put all sorts of stuff on it and taken Benadryl or anything else I can get my hands on. ( still do not know what has worked, if anything.

Your whole body can ache, like the horrible flu. You feel tired—-beyond belief. You feel so tired you are scared to fall asleep because you are too tired to breathe. You feel like you just won’t wake up because you won’t be able to continue breathing in your sleep. There develop tender points on your body. certain areas that when touched are very painful.

My husband would bend over, place his hands on my knees and give me a kiss. Did it for years, all of a sudden, it started hurting, to the point I just wanted to haul off and slap him! He had to stop doing it, even though he was not applying that much pressure. There are more—-flare-ups, you are worthless when they happen. I think this is enough—-in short—-you do not want this!!

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References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

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Fibromyalgia Stores

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02/09/2022
I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia by a Physiatrist who told me that he couldn’t help me.

I’ve had fibromyalgia since the 1980s. It came on gradually, with a lot of muscle pain. I knew something was wrong and had a course of physical therapy, and started working out, which put me at about 95% of normal. Then I was in a car accident, which caused a fibromyalgia flare.

I had a nerve pinch from my neck down my arm, which was a 7 + on the pain scale and lasted a full month. That’s when I was diagnosed, by a physiatrist who told me he couldn’t help me. I have had times when I was in so much pain I couldn’t walk. Other times my feet are fine, but my glutes hurt so much I can’t move. Or my neck is locked up.

My shoulders feel like bone plates, the muscles are so tight. I have a trigger point in my back that catches me when I’m dehydrated. It feels like a searing hot knife in my back so that I cry out loud. At least I know I need a glass of water!

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But the worst is fatigue. I have days when I can’t think. I can’t even process what I’m reading. In those days I watch videos. I watch fixer-uppers, soothing scrolls through gorgeous houses, or animal and nature movies.

I sit in my recliner with my computer on my lap and go away somewhere peaceful. That’s the only thing that I can do. I have many days when I can’t process numbers. It’s like my brain locks up. Try doing your taxes then!

You have to learn to pace yourself. You can’t do any one thing for more than 2 hours. You can’t stay in any one position for more than 2 hours. Then you should completely change what you’re doing. I have to pay a lot of attention to ergonomics. I am short, and I always head for the small chair that’s low to the ground.

A tall, armless chair is torture, nowhere to take the pressure off the weight of my shoulders. I carry a folding footstool when I know I’ll be sitting for a long time. At the movies, I sit in the front row middle where I can prop my feet on the bars in front of me. At home, I have a footstool at the dining table, my desk, and my drafting table.

I buy fabulously expensive office chairs that are multi-adjustable so that I can at least be halfway comfortable at home. I have a massage chair in my bedroom, and a Thera cane draped over my recliner.

I’m retired and my husband is working. We have only one car, so if I need the car for anything, I have to get up 2 hours earlier than normal, take him to work, then run my errands, and pick him up at the end of the day.

A car day takes me a week or more to get over. The day after a car day I will sit with my computer and do nothing else. I have to plan on that. People wonder why I don’t run around doing endless fun stuff or shopping or whatever. I can’t.

Some of my relatives think I’m just a hypochondriac. They don’t believe I’m sick because I look normal. Believe me, I’m not at all normal. I wish I could work, go places, and have a life. Oh, one last thing: I have to consider everything I put into my mouth. This disease is only managed by diet.

I’ve given up anything with sugar in it, anything with grains in it, all processed food, all carbs except fresh fruit, which I eat as a meal by itself. It is very hard to have a social life – people serve baked goods on every social occasion. I’ve learned to bring my own food and ignore what’s on offer. When I get tired of that and ignore my own rules, I always suffer.

My muscles feel all ropey and knotty, and they are always sore, somewhere or another. I don’t have the skin pain others describe, but ever since I had an osteopathic manipulation, I can do a stretch and it will release something somewhere, causing spontaneous muscle spasms that I can’t control.

My husband can gauge my level of fibromyalgia that day by flicking his fingers at me. If I’m having a bad day, my head shakes uncontrollably.

If you want to avoid this, keep yourself healthy. Stay active, and eat healthily; get off sugar and processed foods.

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References:

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Fibromyalgia Stores

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02/09/2022
I was Diagnosed with Fibromyalgia Approximately 1 month After Got Well

Fibromyalgia is a nightmare. I have had it for approximately 25 years. My GP, at a time when it was at its worst, gave me Tramadol. It was a miracle drug for me, but it is very difficult to come off of, so I stopped taking it.

I finally went to a doctor for emotional issues and he recommended Cymbalta. It worked immediately to lessen my pain. I also take Wellbutrin. Between the two I am very functional.

Everything that has been said here is 100% true. I walked around for years unable to enjoy anything in life. Everything hurt constantly. Clothes were horrible to put on and then wear all day.

At home, I put on the loosest pair of pants and shirt I could find and just tried to sleep. I think the foggy brain was the worst of it. I just wanted to be laying on my bed all the time. Sometimes I even would sleep on the living room floor. For some reason it made me feel better.

Anyone who has never had this condition can never know how dreadful it can be. I worry constantly that my daughter is developing it. She has many of the same physical symptoms I had in the beginning.

I firmly believe that it began after I had a serious bout of the flu. The flu attacks your muscles. I couldn’t move for one week. I developed fibro approximately 1 month after I got well.

Anyway, I am now 69 years old and more functional than I was at 50, but I totally empathize with everyone here. It’s a horror that I wouldn’t want anyone to develop. My recommendation to everyone is to see if their doctor will give them Cymbalta if they can take it. It’s worth a try.

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References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

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Fibromyalgia Stores

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02/09/2022
In Fibromyalgia you must know that everything you wear or do how much its pain?

It’s like having your nervous system turned up to 11. All the time. With no end in sight and only minor times where it is lessened. You feel everything that is touching you (even your clothes and light breezes) all the time, which can range anywhere from fairly irritating to “why am I being rubbed with coarse sandpaper?” Every joint and muscle feel like you’re just completed a marathon when you’ve just been sitting still.

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People tend to see you as completely healthy, maybe even wonder why you don’t take better care of yourself. Some wonder why you don’t “just take something for it” as if a minor lessening of pain is worth the damage overusing the medicine can cause. Your body language (of being in pain) can be off-putting and isolating.

Medical professionals have a hard time believing it exists, and those that do believe can have a hard time figuring out what to do about it. This can make it especially difficult to get help from other agencies that work for people with disabilities.

For me, the thing that is the hardest is the lack of human touch. I flinch when touched by someone else, cause it hurts, so it makes others not want to give simple touches, like a hug or a caress, cause they don’t want to cause pain.

You have to make a decision for everything you wear or do about how much pain it’s worth. No one can make this determination for you, nor should you for anyone else.

Going to work, playing with kids, wearing something tight (or rougher than silk), having sex, having someone simply put their hand on your shoulder; all of these depend on how much pain you think you can take, balanced against doing nothing at all, which has its own level of pain.

To top it off; pain is subjective. What’s horrid for one person is manageable for another. Every description will ring true for others with Fibro, but we’ll each have our own story.

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References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

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Fibromyalgia Stores

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02/09/2022
Every Experience in fibromyalgia have some Level of Pain

Imagine being beaten and having huge bruises over your entire body, with a full-body sunburn on top of that, and having someone taking a stick and repeatedly poking all your tender spots while you are trying to run a long marathon. For someone with Fibromyalgia, everyday tasks are just as exhausting as running a marathon. Even simple things, like taking a shower, requires 5 times the amount of energy for someone with Fibro and CFS, then it does for a healthy person.

In addition, they often feel like they have the whole body muscle aches of the flu. Imagine trying to live your life with the pain and utter exhaustion of the flu and never getting any better. This is why everyday activities are often utterly debilitating for someone with Fibromyalgia.

Okay, now that you are sufficiently bruised, sunburned, and achy from the flu, don’t sleep for two days straight. No coffee, sugar, or carbs to keep you awake either. How tired and slow do you feel? Can you still think normally? Yes? Go another day without sleeping, until you are so tired you can’t remember how to spell simple words, and chewing food to too exhausting.

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Now that you are tired enough, take 50 clothespins and put them on yourself in random places over your sunburn and bruises. Make sure to get your legs, arms, neck, shoulders, back, hands, and feet. Leave them on and try to go about your normal day even though you have the flu and feel like you can’t even get out of bed.

Leave the pins on and try to take a shower, brush your teeth, get dressed, go to work, run errands, cook a meal, clean your house, go see a movie with friends, play with your kids, pay your bills, mow the lawn. If the pins fall off, put them back on in a different spot.

Don’t take anything for the pain, because it won’t really take the pain away anyway, since the clothespins are still on. Leave those clothespins on until it hurts so bad you want to scream and you have tears in your eyes, and you can’t possibly stand another second. Go ahead and take them off.

How long did you last? Feel the pain radiate through your whole body? This is the kind of pain someone with Fibromyalgia lives with EVERY DAY. Only, we can’t take the clothespins off, the flu and bruises and sunburn never go away, and the marathon never ends. Even when sitting or laying down, we still feel the pain and are still exhausted.

According to the McGill pain scale, Fibromyalgia is directly under Childbirth as one of the most painful things a person can endure. Fibromyalgia pain ranks higher than sprains, bone breaks, tooth fractures, arthritis, post-shingles nerve pain, chronic back pain, phantom limb pain, and cancer.

This is really what it is like for us every day.

Everyone experiences some level of pain in their lifetime, but the difference is, eventually they heal, the pain goes away and they can go back to living their normal everyday life as if nothing has happened. For someone with fibromyalgia, the pain never goes away.

They can not just go back to their normal life as if nothing has changed. Their life is forever changed, and they often lose the ability to work or do things they once enjoyed, because the pain and fatigue consume their entire life and every waking moment. When your life is so drastically changed, you feel like a part of you has died, and you are only a shell of the person you used to be.

You are mourning and grieving the life you lost, only no one else knows the person you used to be has died. They don’t care, because they can’t possibly understand. How could they? They aren’t the ones who have to live in your body and endure the pain you feel every second of every day for the rest of your life.

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For More Information Related to Fibromyalgia Visit below sites:

References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

Click here to Get the latest Chronic illness Updates

Fibromyalgia Stores

Click here to Visit Fibromyalgia Store

02/09/2022
What are best coping tricks people with Fibromyalgia trying for their hardest symptoms?
Post Exertional Malaise is my most annoying symptom. I had to stop exercising during a flare 4 months ago, and trying to get myself where I can go for a swim again is highly frustrating, because even a 50m swim will use up all my energy for the day, so I need my husband to do everything else for me. Almost impossible to coordinate. Everything else I can mostly sort out on my own.

Here are my top coping strategies, in rough order.
- Pacing, aka counting spoons. Rest little and often in between bouts of activity, and you will be able to do more. If you stop overdoing, you will start to heal and feel better.
- Learn to say NO!
- Exercise, even if it hurts during. If you hurt more afterwards, you did too much – reduce by half next time. If you are more tired the next day, you did too much – reduce by half next time. Start small and increase only very gradually. Try and do some every day, unless overtired. D-ribose may protect you a bit from overdoing. Deconditioning is what causes disability IMHO
- Keep a journal of symptoms and treatment, so you know what works and what doesn’t for the future.
- Treat the symptoms. If one particular joint hurts, you probably injured it, see a doc. If it’s generalized pain, it’s probably fibro.
- Sleeping shouldn’t hurt (much). If it hurts to lie in bed, you need something softer like a memory foam topper.
- Massage is wonderful… If you have the right therapist. If it hurts much, get a new one. A good one can take apart your trigger points, reducing pain.
- When pain is driving you nuts, have a hot bath with 1 cup (or more) Epsom salts. Keep in mind heat is tiring, so this is best done before bed.
- When overwhelmed, go find a dark and quiet spot to rest. TV is not real rest! Nor is having a conversation
- Eating sugar will make you tired, guaranteed.
- Caffeine energy is fake. Don’t, you’ll feel worse.
- If you are stressed out or depressed go see a therapist. No, I am not suggesting this is all in your head, but your head can help or hinder.
- Meditate! Or do yoga, or other mind-body techniques. Your body will start to relax. You have no idea how tense you are until you feel yourself relaxing. Tension causes fibro pain.
- Don’t rely on your doctor to solve this. The best way to cope is take control. The changes that make the biggest difference are all about lifestyle… all the drugs these days just treat the symptoms and give crappy side effects.
- Supplements can be almost as powerful as drugs, if you get someone really good to prescribe. Go find the best in your city. One day I’ll write a list of what works for me, but it’s really really long! In the meantime, here’s a good spot to start.
I could go on, but that’s enough for today…

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References:

Fibromyalgia Contact Us Directly

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Official Fibromyalgia Blogs

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Fibromyalgia Stores

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01/18/2022
Have any incidents or trauma in your life that bought on your Fibromyalgia?

Story of Fibromyalgia Support Group Warrior

ABSOLUTELY!!! December 2009 thru January 2010…..I was employed at a Major grocery retail store’s food warehouse (not naming names, but a little hint would be they are based in Germany…I would LOVE to just name the company and give as many bad reviews to them as I could.

I HATE this place …they have NO regard for their employee’s health safety or anything else for that matter…all this place cares about is the Almighty Dollar!!) I had been employed at their warehouse for about 13 yrs I think.

I still can recall all 5 days I used as sick days, meaning, I was there all the time…I never called off, my boss used to say “if you look up “woman hear me roar” in the dictionary you’d see my face”….I was an exemplary employee!! They decided they needed to expand the warehouse due to growth.

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They employed several outside contractors to do the work. Long story, it could take me days to tell the details, but I will spare you all that. I worked in the freezer area where they cooled and froze products using Ammonia gas.

An employee of one of the companies went into the area, in FULL gear (suited up and a mask (respirator type mask), and instead of clearing the lines of all the existing ammonia first, he cut the pipe. the entire dock area where I was filled with ammonia gas.

(I’m actually getting goosebumps as I’m reliving this incident) A few days later, another one of the companies was doing concrete demolishing on some of the walls. The ENTIRE dock area AGAIN was affected.

Do you all remember the picture when 9/11 occurred with the people running down the sidewalk with the huge plume of smoke and dust behind them?? That is what the dock looked like! We all who worked there could hear each other, but there was NO way to see each other!!! Needless to say, after these 2 incidents and after breathing all these toxins, my breathing became almost impossible!

I had woken up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. As I was attempting to get back into bed, my throat closed. I couldn’t breathe!! My husband called 911 and they took me to the hospital via ambulance. (the whole while my 3 yr old son was yelling and crying “please don’t let them take my mommy”). They ended up sending me to a pulmonologist.

He had me on 5 different inhalers and MASSIVE amounts of prednisone to try and take down all the swelling of the airways. I was diagnosed with Asthma. THAT was the first of so so many diagnoses! It “freed” my vocal cords (I actually had to take Speak Therapy to relearn how to talk, breathe and learn how to try to breathe if an attack started to happen.

So here’s the list: Asthma, Vocal Cord Dysfunction, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Migraines, Adrenal Insufficiency (this was a BIG one as I almost died), PTSD, and anxiety, SEVERE continuous pain 24/7.

I’ve had my lower back and neck fused, I’ve had a “pain stimulator” inserted into my right butt cheek with the leads put into my spine to try and help ease the pain, More trigger points, cortisone, and botox shots than I could ever count.

The last 20ish years have been a HELLISH NIGHTMARE!! I have lost, NO they have TAKEN away, my job, health, income, insurance for the family and myself, 401 K retirement plan, 5 weeks vacation, and probably most of all my self-worth! I struggled with guilt, (God only knows why this “incident” was by NO means my fault at all!) not being able to provide for my family what I did for so long!

Almost lost my husband, it is so much harder than ppl think to deal/live with someone with chronic issues! I feel so bad for my husband and 2 kids!! My son “has a much different” mom than his sister!!! SO there is my answer to your question: “Can I pinpoint an incident or trauma in your life that brought on your fibromyalgia?”……ABSOLUTELY I can!!

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01/17/2022