Fibromyalgia Community

Fibromyalgia is progressive. The medical community, who tend to manage everything in compartments, will come to this conclusion once they start doing thorough histories and connecting the dots. Here is how it progressed for me.


Childhood: Sleep disturbances, momentary bouts of RLS, and oversensitivity to light and sound. As a child I was a sleep walker. The sound of the television would often make me feel sick. Sometimes my legs and feet were desperate to walk or run even though I was tired.

Adolescence: By the time I reached adolescence I could not fall asleep if there was any noise in the house or any light entering my room. The sleepwalking stopped but I would often have lucid dreams or the sensation I was out of my body after falling asleep. My periods were painful, lasted for 7 full days, and very messy. My hands and feet were always cold.

Early adulthood (18 - 27) By the time I started college I had difficulty falling asleep. This is when the sleep disorder started to blossom into something unmanageable. In addition, I was diagnosed with IBS. I also began to experience anxiety and "fibrofog" although I didn't know what it was. I also developed deep muscular "knots" near my shoulder blades that would not go away with massage. All of my earlier symptoms continued and I developed PMS and chronic yeast infections. I also seemed to catch every cold and flu around.

Adulthood (27 - 39) At this time I averaged 3 hours of sleep a night. Falling asleep and when I did fall asleep I was awakened by what "jolts of anxiety" where my entire body would jolt awake as though electrocuted. All of the above listed symptoms continued. In addition, I started having stabbing pain in my neck and upper back.My back felt like a rock - the muscles were always hard. I was sick almost all winter long with colds and flus. I was suffering much.

Mid-life- All of the above listed symptoms continued. I developed pain in my neck and lower back. Got an MRI and was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Still suffering much. By age 48 I began to have all over body stiffness. I couldn't stand the pain of being seated for more than an hour. I could only work standing up. I went to a surgeon who sent me to rheumatologist who diagnosed me with fibromyalgia.

Polygenus: My 21 daughter, since she was a child, showed similar oversensitivities, a proclivity for sinusitis, and was diagnosed with a circadian rhythm sleep disorder with difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. In addition, she sometimes feels like she's looking through a fog (like the claratin commercial). I took her to the same rheumatologist (at age 21) who diagnosed her with fibromyalgia as well. Trazadone has helped her sleep disorder immensely.

I would like to add that I've worked part-time most of my life because of the debilitating effect the untreated sleep disorder had on my life. Doctors I had seen truly felt that they could do nothing for me at the time. Also, my appearance has always been one of good health. I'm not overweight and have been an athlete all my life. So you see, my outsides truly do not match my insides. Treatment for me has been about 40% effective which I appreciate.