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in Health, Uncategorized · October 9, 2014

Fibromyalgia & Arthritis

Arthritis is the worst. I have a story about fibromyalgia today – brought to you by my dear friend Emmie, whose story I told in one of my most popular posts – and I’m also going to tell you a bit about fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is considered an arthritis-related condition, so I am including it in this week.

According to the Mayo Clinic, fibromyalgia is a “disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.” The Arthritis Foundation says, “This condition is referred to as a syndrome because it’s a set of signs and symptoms that occur together with no known cause or identifiable reason. Although considered an arthritis-related condition, fibromyalgia is not truly a form of arthritis because it does not cause inflammation or damage to the joints, muscles or other tissues. It is, however, considered a rheumatic condition because it impairs the joints and/or soft tissues and causes chronic pain.”

I developed fibromyalgia a couple of years ago, and according to doctors I have consulted, nearly 50% of arthritis patients develop fibro to some degree. Fibro needs to be treated by medications as well as lifestyle changes, and Emmie is an excellent example of how you can live a life containing these lifestyle changes and have it be an excellent one.

Fibromyalgia and arthritis Kate the (Almost) Great

My name is Emmie and I am a dear friend of Kate’s from college. She was one of the first people my own age with an arthritic condition that I had ever met, and I am so grateful I did. Without her support, empathy, and guidance, I’m not sure how my own story of being diagnosed with fibromyalgia would have played out. The process was long, slow, and painful, to say the least. I have had chronic pain since I was 14 years old, but after getting a few tests done and having all pronounced “normal” and having all pronounced “normal”, I ignored it until I couldn’t anymore.

Arthritis and fibromyalgia

I had stomach problems that I knew needed attention, and it was through continual conversation with my wonderful primary care doctor over the course of 2013 that we realized that my symptoms were far beyond the normal range of either gastrointestinal or rheumatological problems. Each time I went back to her, there was a new symptom that was indicative not of stomach problems, but of neurologic and rheumatological problems (fibromyalgia): diffuse, all-body tenderness and pain without an obvious origin; tension headaches; trouble sleeping; poor concentration and short-term memory, what’s affectionately known as “brain fog” among spoonies; fatigue that wouldn’t go away with rest; and other symptoms that were each manageable on their own, but in tandem, not.

The formal diagnosis of fibromyalgia both crushed me and gave great relief to me. What I thought was 10 unrelated problems now became one diffuse umbrella explaining all of my symptoms, but now I was left with the pieces of a dysfunctional body and an uncertain future. Would I be able to continue my world adventures? My education? My hopes of working a full-time job? I was no longer capable of being the perfectionist I once was, and without that identity, I felt lost for a while. I had been lost already without having known it, but now all of my maps were gone. I only knew how to live my life as a healthy person.

With the help of my family, friends, medical professionals, and God, however, I decided to use the tears, pains, and feelings of being lost to be found again. Slowly but surely, acceptance of my new reality grew in my heart, and soon I felt called to help others accept their lives as well. I became an advocate for people with invisible illnesses (those that cannot be seen with the naked eye). I started a blog called “Illness to Wellness“, focusing on physical and mental health, where I teach all I know, share my story, and have the honor of hearing others’ – courage is contagious! I may have lost my identity of being a perfectionist, but I gained the incredible identity of being a voice for stigmatized, stereotyped, and misunderstood populations.

fibromyalgia and arthritis

It has been an amazing journey, moving from the teary patient upon first hearing the diagnosis in November 2013 to a role model for taking charge and making as much change as possible in life, while compassionately and lovingly accepting what cannot be changed. I work really hard to maintain my physical and mental health as much as possible. That doesn’t mean there are no bad days – trust me, there are – but I am working to be my best. I may not be able to do everything that my peers can, but I cherish what I can do. I am a fiercely loyal friend, a college student and an aspiring medical social worker, an adventurer (when I have the spoons!), a musician and photographer, a human rights activist, an educator, and a daughter of God. I may need to sleep 9 hours a night and devote substantial time to exercise, quiet time, and other health maintenance activities to get through each day, but I fill the other hours with people and activities that I truly love.

If you have someone in your life who has chronic illnesses and they make time for you, let me tell you this: they love you. Time is precious. Some of us have to realize this and come to terms with this more than others do, but it’s true for every person. Your time is precious. Fill it with what you love – I know I have.

Arthritis Facts / My Story / Arthritis Week Video & Giveaway

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kenji is Here says

    October 9, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Absolutely love this post. I can relate in so many ways. Thank you for sharing and I am going to check out her blog now!!

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  2. Suburban prep says

    October 9, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    I so know the story of Fibromyalgia and a few other health issues.

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  3. Kenzie @ Life According to Kenz says

    October 10, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    Love love love this post! Thank you for sharing your story, Emmie! And Kate, thank you for allowing her to share her story in your space!

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Having decades-long health problems sometimes mean Having decades-long health problems sometimes means coming across something in your health history that you completely forgot about⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #rheumatoidarthritis #arthritis #spoonielife #healthblogger #autoimmune #autoimmunedisease #chronicallyill #healthblog #dysautonomia #fibro #fibromyalgia #endo #chronicallyill #disability #disabled #invisibleillness #spoonielife #healthblogger
Here are some ways I practice self care, aka talki Here are some ways I practice self care, aka talking care of myself AND who I am as a person separate from illness⁣
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This is my Wonderful Things jar. Every day, I write down something wonderful or good that happened that day. ⁣
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I know it looks like I'm forcing Harley to sit like this, but he was making this face before I put my arm around him. Dog snuggle time is the best!⁣
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I got a Kindle this year and it has been amazing. It's so much easier on my body than lugging around books and it makes borrowing from the library a lot easier.⁣
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Yes, I share this all the time, but filling my pill boxes every 3 weeks make it so I stick with all of my medications. But the self-care part of this is that I don't have to take the time to refill a box every single week.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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3️⃣ A Kindle on dark mode in Kate's lap⁣
4️⃣ 3 open pill cases on a yellow bedspread ⁣
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What I Bring To the Doctor _______ Video: a pa What I Bring To the Doctor 

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Video: a pan of an exam room. White text reads “What I Bring To the Doctor ” and the “1. Planner/notebook
2. List of current medications 
3. Notes on my biggest concerns and questions 
4. My kindle for wait time” 
The intro to Maroon 5’s Priceless plays. 

#AlmostGreatHealth #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #SjogrensSyndrome #Fibromyalgia #Endometriosis
💃🏼 Week 17 of #2025Weekly 💃🏼⁣
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1️⃣ She’s married!! ⁣
2️⃣ She married the best person in the world for her!!!!!⁣
3️⃣ I got dressed up! ⁣
4️⃣ The reality of doing fun things with chronic illness and pain is that then you have to recover from the fun things. It took … a while. One million percent worth it, but this is why I don’t do big events on a regular basis. ⁣
5️⃣ And then I had to be a person again for an appointment!⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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1️⃣ Kate stands hugging Emmie. They're both white woman. Emmie is in a wedding dress and Kate is in a red dress and wearing round tortiseshell glasses.⁣
2️⃣ Kate and Emmie stand next to Matt, Emmie's husband. He is a white man.⁣
3️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. she's in the same red dress but now also wears a jean jacket and holds a cane and mask.⁣
4️⃣ Kate takes a selfie while giving a thumbs up. She looks tired. She's now wearing a pink flowery dress. ⁣
5️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's wearing black shorts, a gray shirt, a jean jacket, a blue mask, and black aviator sunglasses. She has a bag over her shoulder and holds a cane.⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #AlmostGreatLife #ChronicallyIll #InvisibleIllness #SpoonieLife #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumatoidDisease #Autoimmune #ButYouDontLookSick #AutoimmuneDisease #SpoonieLife #InvisibleIllness #DisabledAndCute
On the one hand, you should always believe what pe On the one hand, you should always believe what people tell you about their bodies.⁣
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On the other hand, I’ve had so much ridiculous and unconnected health things happen that I do understand why people might not believe me.⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how systemic autoimmune arthritis can be. But something else that surprised me was how much pain can be caused by small things.⁣
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In this picture, I was getting ready to have an MRI on my knee. It has been bothering me a fair amount the last 6+ months, so I'm trying to do something about that. ⁣
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Unsurprisingly, some of the tissue is damaged, but it's not bad. What's probably causing it to bother me so much is a teeny tiny cyst. ⁣
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Baker's cysts are a type of cyst in the knee that are generally caused by arthritis. But having a cyst in my knee means that it's causing pressure on that damaged tissue. ⁣
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The body is a weird thing, and one of these weird things is developing tiny cysts that cause a lot of pain. ⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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ID: Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's a brunette white woman wearing a hospital gown, scrub bottoms, black mask, round tortoiseshell glasses, and round tortoiseshell glasses. ⁣
🌸 Week 16 of #2025Weekly 🌸 ⁣ ⁣ 1️⃣ S 🌸 Week 16 of #2025Weekly 🌸 ⁣
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1️⃣ Spring has sprung … ⁣
2️⃣ … Which means I am overheating! ⁣
3️⃣ A quick view of NYC on my travels ⁣
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3️⃣ A picture of the New York City skyline behind a bridge.⁣
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If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ... ⁣
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I tell her how things would get worse before they got better. ⁣
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I'd tell her to stop eating gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs immediately (although that would have been a lot harder in 2010, more than it even is now). ⁣
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I'd tell her that she still needs to keep advocating for herself. ⁣
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I'd tell her that having a diagnosis unfortunately doesn't mean everything automatically falls into place. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she'll develop many more illnesses but her quality of life will actually get significantly better. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she would eventually have to get her right foot fixed, although she does expect that.⁣
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I'd tell her that using a cane is not a sign of failure, but a tool to make life better.⁣
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(I did a sort of tongue-in-cheek post about this a while ago and thought I'd post a more serious one).⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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ID: Kate poses for the camera holding a mug with the letter M on it. Kate is a brunette white woman wearing a blue sweater and round tortoiseshell glasses. A white text box reads "If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ...". ⁣
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The thing that surprised me the most about autoimm The thing that surprised me the most about autoimmune arthritis is how systemic it is. ⁣
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Like with most things, it's one thing to know the fact and it's something else to experience it. ⁣
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Yes, my joints are affected (a lot). ⁣
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But I've had enough serious infections thats I have to see an immunologist because we need to be aware of my antibodies and I sometimes need help recovering from illnesses. ⁣
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And, yes, I see pulmonology because of my asthma, but we also have to keep an eye out on developing rheumatoid nodules in my lungs. (So far so good!)⁣
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Not to mention that, when I developed POTS, the hospital admitted me to run every heart test to make sure that, at 26, I wasn't experiencing heart failure. ⁣
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Plus, when I developed endometriosis, I also went through a number of GI tests because one theory was that I had ulcerative colitis. ⁣
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Anyway, RA is so much more than "just" joints. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have to kill my immune system every 3 months like I am in this picture.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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