It seems that my mom has always been plagued by illness after illness. When I was just three years old she got breast cancer and had to get a mastectomy. Ever since then she has been battling the repercussions of the surgery and chemotherapy. She decided to get reconstructive surgery a few years later, but because her immune system had been damaged by the chemo, she had a very slow recovery. She ended up having to have two surgeries and tons of scar tissue. She never fully recovered from any of this.

Growing up, I had gotten used to my mom always being sick or tired, so when she began complaining about pain all the time it was no surprise to me. I always just figured she was exaggerating and that she was really fine. As always, I underestimated my mom's familiarity with her own body. It turned out that she was suffering from the symptoms of fibromyalgia. I had never heard of it, so I figured it really couldn't be too bad. The real problem with fibromyalgia is that it just never goes away. It is a constant battle against pain that is not a winning battle.

In my research of fibromyalgia, I found that this illness is just as confusing to the people who have it as it is to everyone else. No one really knows for sure what causes it or how to cure it. Sure this is frustrating for researchers, but from my experience with my mom I feel that it is much more frustrating for the patient. The patient has to battle this illness with no knowledge about it, other than the symptoms it brings them.

From observing my mom, I noticed that it is very difficult for her to deal with. It takes a lot of energy for her to manage things like shopping trips or just standing for a little while. When the medicines she was put on didn't seem to help much, she just got more discouraged and felt that she was even less capable of doing those small tasks.

I'm not really sure what things could be done to help these people battling these confusing chronic disorders. I feel that it is important to assess the emotions and mental health of these patients in order to make them feel that they are still capable of performing daily activities. The fact that these patients feel helpless about their illness seems to be more disabling than the actual illness. It's time to change the symptoms that physicians are healing.