Newly diagnosed and new here

[melantre]

Hi all, seems like most people introduce themselves. I'm 43 and love in Northern NY. I've had chronic pain since I was a teenager, but was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia back in November.

I'm still learning about it and discovering that it pretty much means doctors want to just pass me along to the next one.

It's super frustrating, so I'm doing what any other inquiring person would do and joining a forum. Lol I don't have any sort of Fibro community around me, so I'm hoping to find it here.

 

[sunkacola]

hello @melantre and welcome to the forum. This is a good place to get information, read about the experiences of others, ask questions, and even just to rant and rave if you feel you want to...we are all here because we want to help each other. I hope this forum proves to be useful and helpful to you. I wish that we all had in-person fibromyalgia support groups, but almost none exist anywhere, it seems. This forum is at least a chance to know that you are not alone.

 

[melantre]

Thanks @sunkacola
There's definitely a lack of in person support. I live very rurally and medical services in general are limited. I look forward to connecting here

 

[SBee]

Hello @melantre and welcome. Know only too well the seemingly lack of professional support. I am based in the UK and it appears from other forum members that they feel the same whatever country they live in.

I can honestly say nearly all my knowledge of fibromyalgia, both from the more 'medical' side to living with it has come from this forum. I too live quite rural (luckily for my preference) but even my l nearest hospital in a big city doesnt touch the fibro side of things.
Hope you find coming onto the forum was a great idea- works for me!

 

[sunkacola]

I also live rural, and I need to because I am not able to live with the light, sound, and sheer presence of other people that is present in cities or even in towns. The only problem with that for me is that I live a ways from town and sometimes cannot drive myself to town to get what I need due to being either too depressed, too anxious, or in too much pain...or some combination of those things. But I would simply perish if I had to live in town, so I just muddle along.

I am happy for people who have other people to help them with things like this; there are times when I might go out if someone else did the driving, but cannot manage it on my own. If I get to the point of not being able to drive, it will basically be the end of me because one cannot live as far out as I do and not drive, and there are no services that come here.

The connections that we can make here online are limited by being online instead of in person, but still very valuable indeed for people like us, and for everyone else as well because unless there's an in-person support group it's not likely that you'd find others with fibro to talk to. I mean, you can't just advertise for that kind of thing! Or.....walk up to strangers and say, Hey, do you know anyone with fibromyalgia?

 

[melantre]

I can't even imagine in a dating atmosphere either lol
I bet "Do you know what fibromyalgia is?" is a surefire convo starter for romance

I'm actually curious whether there's any sort of convention for Fibromyalgia sufferers. A chance to be social with people who understand would be amazing. But it also sounds tiring

 

[melantre]

Thank you @SBee , and it's good to know that there's so much info on here. It's hard to know what's reliable info and what's not. So getting to interact with other people and hear stuff first hand is so helpful.