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Valkyrie

New member
Joined
Jan 26, 2016
Messages
7
Reason
DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
10/2015
Country
US
State
Kentucky
Hi!

I was diagnosed at the very start of October. I've been living with the symptoms for years now, but the process is finally finished.

What sucks the most is that I wasn't prepared for it. I'd been feeling like it was likely for so long, but when I actually got the diagnosis, I couldn't help but cry. And things have somehow been worse since then.

I started on Cymbalta last January (because the symptoms of Fibro were pretty clear to my regular doctor) and have been struggling with the weight gain (16 pounds!) caused by it.

I'm fatigued a lot, and living on the fourth floor of my apartment building doesn't help. We have no elevator. :/ (Which you'd think would help with losing weight. :p)

My mom was diagnosed with it when I was 8 or 9, and I've always had quite a few of the symptoms. We're fairly certain that my mom's mom had it too.

I've been having a rough time with it, both psychologically and physically, so someone recommended that I find a support group. So here I am!

A lot of times, it feels like nobody understands what I'm going through, especially since I am young (age 25)--and look much younger (I'm regularly mistaken for a high-school student).

Everyone thinks that if you're young, you can't have these kinds of issues. "You're young; what do you have to be anxious about?" "You're young; you can't be in that much pain." "You're young; you can't have all these health problems."

My anxiety and fatigue have made working pretty difficult this past year, so if anyone has any suggestions for dealing with that, then I would really appreciate it. <3

Other things about myself:

I'm a freelance writer, editor, and content strategist. After I couldn't stay teaching college English because of budget cuts, I started freelancing on as regular a basis as I could. I've been editing work for a Korean-American since last June, writing articles for a gaming site since last July, and writing, editing, and strategizing for a new division of a big-name WordPress plugin.

My article-writing has been pretty sporadic, but I try to work on my own personal writing as much as I can.

The WordPress plugin stuff has been a wonderful surprise, and I currently have a 6-month contract for helping to get the blog up and running.

There are a lot of days when I don't work at all due to fatigue, depression, or anxiety, but I do my best. :)

I like to read and write, and I play video games if I finally let myself relax for a bit since I'm pretty much always on edge these days. I have a sweet tooth and a Master's degree in English.

I'm also pretty long-winded at times. :p

I'm sure you get new members all the time, but here I am. I hope we can learn and heal together. :)
 
Hello!

I just prepared a long intro post, being new myself, and I've been writing and working for days trying to finish this semester (first-year Humanities PhD student, teaching 2/2/1 Fall/Spr/Sum) so my hands are about shot for now, but I wanted to say hello from Louisville and that I'd really like to get back here and talk more when I've rested some. I hope you're still hanging out here!
 
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