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The Exercise Experience
Thursday, July 5, 2007
By: Janie Mathis
Patient Story
My experience with fibromyalgia has been a painful one, but one I have to live with every day. When I was first diagnosed, my rheumatologist told me to walk and stretch for short periods of time each day and stay limber. Well, I tried it for a while, and I still hurt, so I didn't do it as I should.
On Jan. 30, 2004, I had gastric bypass surgery. After you have it, they tell you to walk, walk, walk. Well, I live on a loop out in the country, and I worked up to walking that loop every morning—all two miles of it, in the dark, the rain, the cold, the heat. I haven't missed many days.
I'm retired, but I have two part-time jobs. One as a librarian on the weekends, and the other as an insurance agent for two or three days during the week. Along with walking those two miles (and now that I have dogs that have to be least walked 3-4 times a day, I walk probably 3 ? miles), there's not many days that I am not bending or stretching for books, files, stooping down, reaching high up, lifting up and pulling down. I also do all of my own yard work, because my husband is disabled.
I have felt better with exercise than I ever have. I do, of course, have flares every now and then, but my friends with fibromyalgia that don't get the exercise that I do, suffer so much more. I've tried to convince them, but it is hard to get someone to understand something unless they experience it themselves.
I am an avid supporter of Fibromyalgia awareness. I have spent the last week putting flyers out for May 12's Awareness Day. The question I get most often is "What is it?" So you can see that our small community needs to be aware. We count only five or six that have admitted to having it, but there are many more that we think have been misdiagnosed or have been told it's "all in your head.” It's our goal to get these folks to try to get to a doctor or rheumatologist who can give them the help they need.
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