It was a routine follow-up with Ms. G. I have seen her every three months for the past four years. Each time the interview begins with the same question: “ How are you feeling today?” "I still want to run that marathon" she said. For Ms. G, her days are usually in shades of bad, very bad or better and having a good day was a dream she cherished, like her dream to run a 10K marathon once her health improves.
Ms. G is our everyday woman with a career and family to balance and an avid explorer of the outdoors. She loves hiking up on trails along the north shore and skiing cross-country in winter. But in the past four years, she has mostly spent her time indoor, on her recliner or in her bed, suffering in pain – in silence; and it was on one of those days spent in her recliner she dreamt of running her marathon.
Ms. G has a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. The term was used to describe widespread pain, more as a “waste-basket” term, up until recent research has suggested it to be chronic pain condition with its own unique central mechanism (In Neuroscience, the word “central” is always indicative of having a closer relationship to brain and the neuronal networks). Over three to six million Americans have Fibromyalgia. Sometimes, doctors feeling the pressure to have answers for every illness, try to escape the responsibility to support their patients with illness that have no answers. Ms. G’s experience with doctors was unfortunately that for her fibromyalgia. Ms. G also had jaw pain on and off, which interestingly overlapped with her pain flare-up. Even the act of opening her mouth and eating hurt. Fibromyalgia and TMJ pain are co-morbid or conditions that can co-exist more often than others.
So, in Ms. G’s treatment plan, there was pain management for her TMJ disorder, there was a good dose of motivation three times a day to cherish her dream and one day her discharge summary is sure to include the story of her finishing her 10K run. Until then, we look for answers and give her support so as to give her more “better” days than “bad” days.
Do you know any one who has fibromyalgia? If you do, may be we can choose to be sensitive and supportive of their pain instead of mocking and blowing it off to be mental illness. Because, their pain is as legitimate as their dreams… as real as your dreams. If you are some one with Fibromyalgia, do share your experiences with your comments.
