About a year went by without too much to worry about when I suddenly began gaining weight. I was 5' nothing and 90 lbs. soakin' wet. I had been that way my whole life. I was always running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, so no one ever questioned if I was Anorexic or not. They knew better. My Mom had six kids and she wasn't much bigger, so it was easy to see which side of the family I came from! LOL When I started gaining weight without having changed my eating habits, or any other habit for that matter, I started to worry. So did my husband. My next doctor visit was with my Gynecologist (I still didn't have a regular doctor) and I guess I got 'lucky' yet one more time.
There was a visiting doctor there (although I didn't know that) and he was scheduled to see me. I told him everything that had happened to me eight years ago and what was happening now and he was intrigued, to say the least. Then he told me that he was just a visitor there and asked if I would come see him at his office. I knew I had to say yes or I would never go anywhere, so I told him I would. He didn't even give me a chance to change my mind. He called his office and made an appointment for me and when he returned to the exam room he handed me an appointment card and said, "See 'ya over there." and left me alone in the room to ponder what had just happened. When I got home, I think my husband was just as relieved as I was not to have to think about 'it' anymore. It was a done deal.
Like I said before, this was the beginning of the end. Life as I knew it was over -- I just didn't know it yet. I thought the party was just getting started, but what I didn't know was that it had begun long before this. Remember the eyes? Remember the car accident? The trauma the car accident caused was the true beginning of the end. It wasn't until a couple of years or so went by before we all figured that out! You'd think I had learned something from my first go around with the doctors that didn't believe I was sick, but this time, I had visible symptoms that could not be explained. After a battery of tests, all they could find was that I had a thyroid problem and that's what was causing the weight gain. Unfortunately, I had nearly doubled in body weight. I was two pounds shy of doubling my weight at 178 lbs. My little bones did NOT like all this new weight and the pain I was experiencing was almost unbearable!
Since I was running my own business, I thought the timing couldn't have been better to start our family. My Mom lived above the business and my office was below it and my husband was going to be the best 'Mr. Mom' there ever was, but then I got sick and we both thought we'd wait until the doctors figured out what was wrong with me THIS time, only 'this time', it wasn't going to get any better. It was probably going to get a lot worse. The only thing I was sure of was that I couldn't even work anymore. How would I ever be able to raise our children? I no longer had to worry about that. I missed the opportunity all together. All the plans we had made were twisted around now. My husband would have to find a job again after not working for so long because he let me chase MY dreams. What else could we do? Running a business was out of the question and so was having children. Fibromyalgia didn't just take my life away -- it took his, too. It took our life away. Everything we thought we were going to do was gone and we weren't even left with a different life in it's place. We were left with no life at all. It really wasn't going to get any better from here on out and the sooner we accepted that the better, so we hunkered down for our first winter with our new roommate, Fibromyalgia. Next, I'll tell you what life's been like with Fibromyalgia in our lives.
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Tags: Fibromyalgia FMS Arnoldchiarimal Formation Chiari ACM Hypothyroidism Pain
