April 16, 2007
The Letter of the Month for April was written by Fiona Williams. Fiona wins a $100 gift certificate for ProHealth supplements.
If you only knew how much I have longed for each newsletter to be published. For the past four years your news has been my saving grace - my wisdom when I thought I had lost it forever, my sanity when I thought my life was anything but, and my link to reality when the life I had grown so accustomed to seemed lost forever.
I was diagnosed with pericarditis in September 2002; then Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in March 2003. I used to be a leading teacher – curriculum coordinator, behavior management teacher and choir coordinator. I was also happily married, with three beautiful girls. In short, I was burning the candle at both ends, and it caught up with me.
My healthcare is managed by a fantastic rheumatologist. I have a wonderful general practitioner, an unbelievable husband who totally took over the running of our family life, and a gracious healing God. But, even with all these pluses, nothing beats reading the latest research articles and going – “Oh my gosh! That is sooo me!” I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there is almost a sense of satisfaction, when you read an article and find that it describes patients just like yourself - and I thought I was the only one who felt like that!
I have found that the best way to cope with any medical information overload is to read and highlight the articles, and then type any questions I might have on a computer table which includes my medications and script requests. Then I actually remember to ask the doctor really intelligent questions! At almost every visit, my rheumatologist has been suitably impressed with my grasp of the current research data!
Well done, ProHealth! You have filled my fuzzy brain with FM/CFS wisdom so that my days are not spent pondering my degree of insanity, nor my loss of touch with reality! How much easier it is to cope with chronic illness when you actually understand what is happening to you. – Fiona
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