Hello all!
32 years old at the moment. As a teenager I played tennis, basketball and did some swimming, and weightlifting began for me at 16. Progress came quickly, training was genuinely enjoyable, and I felt great overall.
Then things turned around the age of 20, when type 1 diabetes was diagnosed. Soon after that came a lot of suffering and trying to work out what was wrong, and coeliac disease was diagnosed as well. Even with both autoimmune conditions brought under control, I never quite felt the same again.
Not long afterwards, odd physical sensations, aches and various kinds of pain set in. Over the years there have been what feels like a hundred X-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds, every sort of blood test, and appointments with one specialist after another. Roughly 10 years on, with things like rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis and other conditions ruled out, several very good rheumatologists have told me they are fairly certain it is fibromyalgia.
A referral has now gone through to a specialised medical centre, with an appointment roughly two months out. The day there will apparently be spent mostly being assessed and tested by various specialists, which hopefully brings more answers and some guidance.
Serious gym training stopped a few years back. The pain got bad enough in the last year especially that a change of job was needed too. Inevitably, after a long stretch of being far less active, some unwanted body fat has come along as well.
The bright side is that things have improved a great deal since the fibromyalgia suspicion became firmer. I'm happier than I've been, training has restarted at home, I'm getting outside to play more sports, and just two months ago I became a dad!
Two things, I think, explain the improvement. The first was simply hearing at last that something real is going on, after all those years of tests, appointments and uncertainty. Mentally, having an explanation for what I've been going through has helped enormously.
The second is that I began trying a medication called LDN (low-dose naltrexone). It came up during a short trip to Italy to see family. An old friend who works in medicine and I got talking, my suspected fibromyalgia came into the conversation, and LDN was discussed. Afterwards a pharmacy in Italy handed me some of it.
Since then, with training restarted and my outlook generally more positive, the improvement has been noticeable.
Now, and hopefully more so as the pain keeps easing, I want to train seriously again and really start looking after myself. Not being able to do the things I wanted was hateful. It feels like another chance has finally come along, and I intend to take it!
No idea whether an introduction this long is acceptable! I honestly set out to write the "short version" of myself, and somehow this is where I landed.
Warm greetings to everyone!
32 years old at the moment. As a teenager I played tennis, basketball and did some swimming, and weightlifting began for me at 16. Progress came quickly, training was genuinely enjoyable, and I felt great overall.
Then things turned around the age of 20, when type 1 diabetes was diagnosed. Soon after that came a lot of suffering and trying to work out what was wrong, and coeliac disease was diagnosed as well. Even with both autoimmune conditions brought under control, I never quite felt the same again.
Not long afterwards, odd physical sensations, aches and various kinds of pain set in. Over the years there have been what feels like a hundred X-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds, every sort of blood test, and appointments with one specialist after another. Roughly 10 years on, with things like rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis and other conditions ruled out, several very good rheumatologists have told me they are fairly certain it is fibromyalgia.
A referral has now gone through to a specialised medical centre, with an appointment roughly two months out. The day there will apparently be spent mostly being assessed and tested by various specialists, which hopefully brings more answers and some guidance.
Serious gym training stopped a few years back. The pain got bad enough in the last year especially that a change of job was needed too. Inevitably, after a long stretch of being far less active, some unwanted body fat has come along as well.
The bright side is that things have improved a great deal since the fibromyalgia suspicion became firmer. I'm happier than I've been, training has restarted at home, I'm getting outside to play more sports, and just two months ago I became a dad!
Two things, I think, explain the improvement. The first was simply hearing at last that something real is going on, after all those years of tests, appointments and uncertainty. Mentally, having an explanation for what I've been going through has helped enormously.
The second is that I began trying a medication called LDN (low-dose naltrexone). It came up during a short trip to Italy to see family. An old friend who works in medicine and I got talking, my suspected fibromyalgia came into the conversation, and LDN was discussed. Afterwards a pharmacy in Italy handed me some of it.
Since then, with training restarted and my outlook generally more positive, the improvement has been noticeable.
Now, and hopefully more so as the pain keeps easing, I want to train seriously again and really start looking after myself. Not being able to do the things I wanted was hateful. It feels like another chance has finally come along, and I intend to take it!
No idea whether an introduction this long is acceptable! I honestly set out to write the "short version" of myself, and somehow this is where I landed.
Warm greetings to everyone!
