Hi, I just found your group and signed up I've struggled with health problems for as long as I can remember but recently was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and felt very lost and scared so it felt like a blessing to find your group.  I do have other health problems that have been diagnosed as well in the past that require treatment regularly and that are active I have CFS, chronic urticaria which is caused by a unspecified autoimmune condition, dermographia,  essential tremors, hemochromatosis, and I have a problem with my methylation so I don't absorb the vitamins and folate well  and the cherry on top is that my body doesn't process pain medications very well so anesthetics an opiate medications are not very effective makes surgery a little more complicated. I've been trying to find answers for years as to why these things happened to me but instead of finding a root cause I have gotten diagnosis for these conditions. All my doctors think I'm very unique in how I present symptoms I don't register pain like most people because pain  medications don't work so I've learned to live with it since I was very young so when they ask me how I feel in a scale of 1 to 10 I don't understand what the scale means it's very subjective in my opinion some people can tolerate a lot some can't  that doesn't mean that the pain isn't there it just means that I've learned to live with it.  I try to stay positive and I try to focus on all the good I have in my life my husband has always been his very supportive I'm not really close to any of my other family which to be honest is OK  most of my family are the type of people that live off of drama and stress and that's not me I like to be boring I like to Birdwatch, I love nature  and I love stillness no stress no drama I prefer to be boring.  I have a great team of doctors I work with my neurologist, rheumatologist, immunologist, allergist and orthopedist who is helping me because I have tendinitis in both of my hands and my general family doc they all work together and I've been very lucky to find them I did encounter a lot of bad doctors along the way it took a long time and a lot of years to accumulate the crew of doctors that I now have.  Fibromyalgia is new to me so I'm just here to get advice from people who have been living with it for a lot longer and know what to expect my doctor has put me on a medication called gabapentin and while I hate pills I know sometimes they're necessary I'm just a little scared I guess. I look forward to getting to know more of you. 

Thanks, Rachel