The Truth Sounds Incredible

I freely admit that I have fibromyalgia, but I don’t always offer many details to the people I see every day. It feels like I am admitting to being abducted by aliens.

I went to get my eyes checked. Years ago, they would have had me read the eye chart and given me a prescription to help me see. These days everything is so darn sophisticated. Besides the photographic map of the inside of my eyes, they have a history on me. I had to answer a questionnaire when I started with them, and they keep it updated. On my history is the fact that I have fibromyalgia.

So the optometrist looked at my history and he asked me if it is tough having fibromyalgia.

“Yep, not fun.” I told him.

That didn’t satisfy him. He kept up his questioning. “Are you in a lot of pain?”

“Not most of the time. I have it pretty well under control.”

“So you feel good?” he persisted.

“I am probably pain-free about five days out of a week.” I said.

He shifted in his chair. “So when you are in pain, is it severe?”

I wasn’t sure what he was fishing for, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to give up.

“It can be.” I answered him. “It depends on what happens to me. It is all about lifestyle. If I don’t get enough sleep, or if I eat poorly, or if I don’t exercise, then I’ll hurt.” I forgot to mention chemical sensitivities and stress. But oh well, no matter how much this eye specialist cared, I didn’t think he was going to cure my fibromyalgia.

“If I catch a cold or a virus, it sometimes triggers a muscle spasm.” I continued. “If that happens, the muscle spasm is way worse than the cold.”

His eyes got big, and he stopped asking me questions about that.

Sometimes I wish that I had been abducted by aliens instead of having fibromyalgia.

How do you deal with the questions people ask? If you are completely honest, do they react with skepticism?

To a large degree I’ve learned to live with the enigmatic physical pain that fibromyalgia brings. I haven’t come as far in knowing how to deal with the psychological ramifications. I don’t know for sure whether it is better to speak the truth with love or to tell little white lies to the curious.

I guess my point in writing this particular blog is to tell you that if you feel uncomfortable describing your fibromyalgia experience to others, you are not alone. What you experience when you have fibromyalgia is not something anyone else can truly understand without having felt it for themselves. The pain and symptoms that come and go often don’t make sense to logical people who haven’t experienced it.

Fibromyalgia may divide you in understanding from your friends and relatives, while it unites you in understanding with strangers who suffer the same.