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Georgia: How fibromyalgia impacted my life

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Category: General Information

Published on Tuesday, 05 May 2020 13:32

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I was always very active and driven. I did a sport or activity every night of the week. I loved Musical Theatre and sang and danced almost every day. I wanted to pursue Musical Theatre as a career and was training very hard to get there. Unfortunately this did not work out as I would have liked it to because of my fibro. I am very lucky to have very supportive people around me. My family have been great and support me through the anger, the pain and upset, the career downfall, the mental health and the tiredness. It has had a massive impact on my life, but I refuse to let fibro define me. I push through my pain everyday so I can provide a good life for myself and any future children I have. I'm still the same driven, ambitious person that I was before but now I have to fight myself more to have the energy to get there.

My pain began at 16. I went to the doctors every few weeks with intense pain in my wrists and was finally sent to see a specialist where I was diagnosed with joint hypermobility. For the next 3 years the pain grew from just in my wrists to my whole body. No one could work out what was wrong with me and why I felt the pain I did when nothing was physically wrong with me. Everyone had a different idea and none of them panned out. I went to university to do Musical Theatre and had to drop out after my first dance class as I couldn't walk for 2 days. After this I was finally sent to see a specialist again who immediately diagnosed me with fibromyalgia.

Life is very hard, but I am very stubborn. I went through intensive physio and dance physio for my fibro to try to get me back to university but unfortunately my fibro did not allow this, which still breaks my heart. But I think I have made the best of a bad situation. I now work as a Learning Mentor as well as teaching Singing on evenings and weekends and I am also doing my degree with The Open University in Music. I am very proud of what I achieve on a daily basis and I am proud that I refuse to let my fibro affect my life and get in the way of my dreams. It has taken me longer to get there but I will.”