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Jeanne's Struggle with Fibromyalgia

Program: Understanding Fibromyalgia: Perspectives from an Expert and a Patient 
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Andrew Schorr:

Jeanne, you have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. What does it feel like?

Jeanne:

Exactly what you said; tired, achy all over, it feels like my whole skeleton hurts, and I understand it's not necessarily your bones. It's more your muscles and tendons and things, and it comes for me in kind of cycles. It's not always bad, but when it gets bad, it's the kind of bad that almost made me lose my job.

Andrew Schorr:

Because you were just too tired and in too much pain to do anything?

Jeanne:

I couldn't sleep well. I couldn't concentrate. It was just like I needed to be a bear in the winter; sleep, sleep, sleep.

Andrew Schorr:

Okay, so obviously when that sort of situation happens and doesn't go away, what did you do? I mean, who did you talk to? What doctor did you see? And what were you told initially?

Jeanne:

Well, it's been a long time, and it wasn't diagnosed until just the last couple of years, and so my first thought was, you know, when I mentioned it to my doctors, the first thing they would say was I needed to lose weight; I'm overweight; and so that I would get more energy when I did that, or that it's probably something that I'm trying to work through, and so I need to see a counselor about it. I was raised in a home where there was a lot of sexual abuse, and so that went for years, and apparently stress has a lot to do with fibromyalgia, at least in my family.

Andrew Schorr:

We're going to hear more about that in a minute.

Jeanne:

Right. So, it took quite awhile before I finally found someone who could identify this. In fact, it was in the group of sexual abuse survivors that I first heard the word fibromyalgia, and it was every single one of the women in that group had it, and I kept thinking, oh, you know, they're just not handling their stress very well, but I finally realized that it was me too, and it got diagnosed a couple of years ago by a Dr. Sue Romanick.

Andrew Schorr:

Right, who we're going to speak with in just a minute, a rheumatologist. So, Jeanne, you fortunately didn't lose your job, so is there hope that with this extreme fatigue and this pain all over your body and in your joints that you can get some relief and go on and have a life?

Jeanne:

There are some things you can do. I don't think there's a cure for it. At least, I haven't found that from you or anyone I've known, but yes, there are things that you can do that help minimize those symptoms.

Andrew Schorr:

And you've been doing that and been doing better.

Jeanne:

Yes, much better.

Andrew Schorr:

Jeanne, thank you. I know you've got some grown kids and you work in a podiatry office and keep a pretty busy life. Don't go away, we may have some further questions for you, but I wanted people to just hear what it's like, and I guess the bottom line is, when it really becomes "full blown" if you will, it's just difficult to get through the day.

Jeanne:

Definitely.

Andrew Schorr:

You'd agree with that?

Jeanne:

Oh yes.

Andrew Schorr:

Okay, well let's talk to your doctor, Sue Romanick.

Dr. Romanick:

Good morning Andrew.

Andrew Schorr:

Good morning. Welcome. Now, Sue, you are a board certified rheumatologist in Bellevue, Washington, right?

Dr. Romanick:

That is correct, yes.

Andrew Schorr:

Right near where Jeanne is living, and you've taken on fibromyalgia as a special interest of yours, and I know you speak to other doctors about it. Fibromyalgia, I know I've been hearing about it for the last few years, and often when you hear about it, it sounds like vague symptoms that are certainly troubling, but the doctors, at least many of them, have not, you know, some of them said, well, is it a real diagnosis? What's really going on? Is there anything we can do? What do you think of fibromyalgia? Is it a real diagnosis? What do rheumatologists feel about it, and your medical society, and how big a problem is it?

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