When I say I’m “dilling” with Fibromyalgia it’s actually a positive thing. This is because I’m actively educating myself and applying changes to my routines that are improving my overall quality of life as opposed to just grinning and baring it.

So what does having Fibromyalgia mean I have to “dill” with? Well, although it’s different for everyone with Fibro (sometimes better, sometimes worse or just different) for me it’s random chronic pain, heavy fatigue, and brain fog, accompanied by other random symptoms that come and go.

2012 – May 2013
This has been a five year journey that began between the ages of 19 and 20, that I’m only now starting to really understand. I leave this gap because I believe the health issues I was experiencing during 19 are related to the fruition of my Fibro after I turned 20. To be more clear during this time I would get horrible strep every 3-4 months where my tonsils would get so inflamed that my throat almost closed. I was always prescribed a Z-pack until it went away, just for it to happen again in a few months.

June 2013
I was finally scheduled to remove my tonsils and although I haven’t had a single soar throat since but I was later met with an even bigger challenge.

October 2013
One day I was at work and I felt like I got hit by a bus. I was sore and tired and I honestly thought I was just getting sick. A few days went by and I didn’t have any cold symptoms but my fatigue and body pain got even worse. I would get stabbing pains all over and random body parts would start throbbing. I remember crying because my left leg felt like it was being crushed while I was sitting on the sofa watching tv! I went to the doctor the following day and described what was going on. He ran multiple blood tests including thyroid and Mono. Two days later they told me I had a positive test for Lyme. Back on antibiotics I went for the hundredth time in my life. The symptoms lessened but never disappeared, and follow me until this day.

August 2014
Almost a year later I visited a Lyme specialist nearby that took insurance. He listened to my symptoms but did zero testing and just threw me on two types of antibiotics and I don’t even know how many supplements, that totaled 14 pills a day! Not feeling well had made me drop weight and the large amounts of supplements were making me feel sick so I stopped seeing him.

October 2015
Fast forward EXACTLY two years from the first Lyme diagnosis and the intense symptoms reoccured full force. I made another trip to my doctor who retested me for Lyme and this time it came back negative. His response was that I was, “working too much”. For the first time in my life I was out of school and only working one full time job and there was no way a 40 hour job was ripping me apart. I did some googling (which can be scary!) Through the searches I found pages about Fibromyalgia and how it and Lyme can often be mistaken for each other. I took this information to my doctor and asked him to be referred to a specialist. He said although I was “too young” for Fibromyalgia he would send me anyway.

December 2015
I met with the specialist and she ran some blood tests to rule out other possibilities and because there’s no lab testing for Fibro she listened to my systems and looked for tender points that are common. She told me she believed I had Fibro but there wasn’t much that could be done other than give me a combination of sleeping pills, antidepressants, pain killers, and another drug I cant recall. I honestly looked at her in disbelief that the only option for a 22 year old was to take pills for the rest of my life….NO WAY. It was right then and there I knew that I was going to have to take things into my own hands. I read books and blogs on holistic ways to aid the symptoms of Fibro and decided a more natural approach through diet, non-toxic body care, and holistic remedies, seemed like the safest and most effective way to go. I’ll have another post about HOW I’m Dilling With It, but for now I’ll just recap my last specialist appointment since switching things up.

May 2018
I continued to do my own research and because Fibro and Chronic Lyme symptoms are so similar and there’s not much solid testing for either, I decided to visit a specialist that worked in both areas for his unbiased opinion. He listened to my history, symptoms, and asked questions of his own. After all this he told me that he believed my symptoms aligned more with Fibro. He also said it could have been caused by Lyme or another infection that had different things firing off in my body that could have triggered a false positive Lyme test! This was especially intriguing because I had just finished reading something similar in “Medical Medium” which provided a very different insight on these illnesses. I told him what I had been doing to cope with the pain and fatigue naturally and he left me an awe with his response. He told me other than the options for medication which might or might not work and were all band aids, I was already doing everything he’d recommend for me to do. He explained that it might sound discouraging because I’m still in pain but that he’d guarantee that if I wasn’t doing these things I’d most likely be in a lot more pain.

I learned at a young age that life, time, and energy are invaluable and you can lose yourself chasing them. I’ve made a point to make changes to my life that add to it instead of taking away like many “treatments” seem to do. Some overlook the simplicity and effectiveness of holistic healing but with this latest validation I’m pushing forward and Dilling With It!