How it all began...

"Ouch! Don’t touch me it hurts. I can’t move my neck, every bone in my body aches! Leave me alone just let me stay here. I can’t move just let me stay here in bed!!!!"

     Do these statements sound familiar to you? Are you in so much pain at times you feel like your world is crumbling down? You’re depressed, fatigued and miserable. If you suffer from Fibromyalgia you’re not alone even though you may feel that way. Would you like to Restore your Quality of Life?

     My name is Lynn LaDuke I to suffer from the crippling disease Fibromyalgia and this is my story.

Years ago I thought I was going crazy. I was in constant pain. My body ached all over and it hurt to move. My family was tired of hearing me complain and the doctors took all kinds of tests not finding anything wrong. I knew it wasn’t in my head I felt pain all over my body,especially in my shoulder area and it wasn’t going away. When the doctors finally told me that I had a chronic disease I thought it meant the end of my world and I was going to curl up and die. 

That panic mode made me start to wonder what was going to happen to my children and me. The pain was so unbearable nothing seemed to be working. I was popping pain meds, anti-depressants, sleeping pills, living on heating pads and getting snappy with everyone. My family didn’t want to be around me. All I wanted to do was to be left alone. Getting up out of bed was the worse. It was such a chore. I had my share of good and bad days mostly bad back then. I went to work though, took care of the house and children the best I could when I could get up. There were times when I stayed in bed for three and four days.

     Fibromyalgia?  What is this I kept asking, what is this disease? No one was really sure back then. In the 80’s it was newly discovered. It was a form of arthritis I was told. Most commonly found in people who have had a traumatic shock or injury to the spinal column. “We’re still researching it” was what I was told by one doctor. “You may have developed it with your back surgery.” said another. I was sent to physical therapy countless times. Nothing worked.

     There is an old cliché break a mirror and you get 7 years of bad luck. Well I don’t remember breaking a mirror but the bad luck still cursed me. Between 1990 and 1997 I had 2 car accidents resulting in a double spinal fusion (my second back surgery first one in 79) and surgery to the face. Came down with Spinal Meningitis while in Texas preparing for my daughters graduation, was told I needed to have a hysterectomy in the midst of preparing for my sons wedding and a new grandchild on the way. Not to mention going through a divorce.  At this point of my life I couldn’t tell if the pain was from the injuries or what they called this fibromyalgia. Stress adds to the disease kept ringing in my ears.  

     I went to my doctor’s appointment one day after doing weeks of pain block shots (this is 24 shots of medicine injected up both sides of the shoulders and into the head) biofeedback, physical therapy and any other thing I could do to stop the pain. I remember crying to the doctor I couldn’t live like this anymore. He said, “You need to live a stress free life”. I laughed at him. “Doc do you realize what you just said? No one lives a stress free life. I have just started back to school after waiting 25 years, am trying to refurbish my parents cottage, take care of my grandson and have two jobs just to name a couple of things and you want me to live stress free?” 

     It wasn’t more than a week after being told that if I wanted to live a quality life I had to change my lifestyle. So I started to journal everything that made my pain worse and things I did that made the pain ease up. Sought out counseling with a family counselor who could help with whatever was at the surface of my inner being. I made time for myself! Something everyone needs no matter how busy of a schedule you have. I did the exercises the therapist gave me, continued with my pain block injections a little longer but started to feel better. I read a lot. Self help books, books on stress and releasing stress. I joined a yoga class for beginners. At first it was tough but then it got easier and I found I was stretching a little more every time I did it. What I found I liked most about yoga was the meditation at the end. This is where you just let you mind, body and soul go blank. I found when I was in meditation I had no pain. I then started to incorporate yoga and meditation into my daily life. I bought tapes so I could do it at home starting with getting up an hour earlier just to do it.

   In 2003 I came down with Lyme disease and found myself back in the hospital. I was determined not to let fibromyalgia take over my body again. I kept telling myself as much as it hurt I was not going to live in pain this time.  Here is where I found all my natural resources that I had learned and incorporated into my daily schedule to live that “stress free life” really helped.  I had an amazingly fast recuperation period the doctor said. I told him "thanks to my biofeedback therapy, yoga, meditation, diet and rest I learned how to mend a broken body". 

  After studying and practicing these arts I wanted to learn more. So went on to try Tai Chi, Reiki, QiQong, and study what would help me nutritionally. I learned that all these arts help fibromyalgia.  It is now 2011 and I can honestly say with a smile “I continue restoring my quality of life. I have peace within, grandchildren that keep me young, work two jobs, hike, ski, and do things I never thought I would ever be able to do again. If I can do it so can you! I will be there to help every step of the way. 

   Restoring your Quality of Life (R.Q.L). Live a stress free life. 
   Lynn now holds support group sessions in Western Mass for fibromyalgia sufferers.  She hopes you take the time to join her and see that there is, indeed, a better way to live...