A bit about myself

I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia on Friday 4th March 2011. I thought I would write a blog about my life with Fibromyalgia and how it affects me.

I am 35 (shortly to become 36), I live with my other half and our cat and work as an AutoCAD technician (drawing on computer) for an engineering firm. I play Soprano cornet in a brass band and like to read, draw and cross stitch when I get a bit of spare time.

I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia by a rheumatologist after suffering increasing joint pain from July/August 2010. It started with the knuckles in my right hand hurting when I was playing my cornet but initial tests came back negative so nothing more was done and it was put down to a virus. Things got increasingly worse with more and more of my joints starting to hurt. I now have pains in my right toes, left ankle, both knees, both hips, back, neck, shoulders, left wrist, right elbow, right knuckles and jaw. Other symptoms are confusion, problems with short term memory, headaches, dizziness, dry eyes, bruise easily, often get itchy, stiffness and overwhelming fatigue.
I also have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a stomach ulcer, depression, asthma, polycystic ovaries and wheat/gluten and dairy intolerances.

At the moment most of the pain is not too serious, just a constant ache and generally not everything aches at once. On my bad days, or more often bad nights, I ache all over and cannot get comfortable at all as something always hurts no matter what position I'm in.