Life as I know it

Fibromyalgia.  Just the word is awful.  I've been an RN for 34 years and have known in my heart that I had it for more years than i care to remember.  I prob have cronic fatigue too, but don't want to know.  Learning to live with the pain has been mostly a series of ibuprofen and ignoring it as much as possible.  Painful feet for almost 30 years was chalked up to nursing and being on my feet so much.  Painful lumps were chalked up to bumps or bruises. Chest lumps were chalked up to polycystic breasts.  Erratic sleep was attributed to stress, motherhood, taking care of elderly parents, whatever.  Fibro was the catch-all psycho diagnosis at one time and the health profession did a lot of poo-pooing of anything that could cause folks to be so crazy. I avoided telling my MD about my lumps, pain, pain control, poor sleep, fog, memory loss, etc.  I didn't WANT to be diagnosed with FMS.  Last year the pain was too much for me to control or stand anymore.  I had a permanent flare up when we moved from California to Texas.  The stress of my hubby being laid off 2x in a year, and the move, and my only daughter going off to school 1500 miles away was too much.  I was in permanent pain all over my body.  There were days that it was all i could do to get out of bed and start unpacking boxes.  The mere thought of going out to dinner, getting in the shower, making the bed, even going to bed, was overwhelming.  So, new state, new MD, I spilled my systems to him.  He started me on Cymbalta.  Other than a little nausea for a few days, it's working pretty good.  Pain is down 50% and naprosyn takes care of another 25%.  I can get through the day now.  I still have fog, painful lumps all over, erratic sleep, and now plantar fasciitis on my right heel, but reading how others are dealing with it, and getting through the day sure helps.  I try to be positive... there are 'down' days, but that's a choice that I can make or reject.