* Please note* I don't sell anything. I just make little videos talking about fibromyalgia.

YouTube keeps insisting on saying I'm 43. I'm not actually that old, but I am up now officially over 40.

And, I am happy about being over 40. I feel better now at 40 than I did at 30, or even at 20. But, I didn't get here overnight. It has been a long and winding road.

I'm happily married, and live in northern California, about 12 miles from the ocean, (as a bird flies.) I can't fly like a bird, so it takes me about 30 - 45 minutes to get there when I want to go surfing.

My husband and I met while surfing in Santa Cruz over 12 years ago. We were married in Hawaii, and now I have a cute kid that looks nothing like me. (He's mine, though. I saw him come out.)

We're both ocean people... some folks like looking at the ocean, and some folks liking being in the ocean. I guess I like both.

Our son has been going out in the water with us since he's about three, but just started surfing on his own last year. (He caught his first wave solo wave in Hanalei, Kauai. I should post that video. It was very cute. He's six and already waving to the little surfer girls...)

A friend from church once said to me: "If you didn't have fibromyalgia, you'd be leading a perfect life."

That's pretty accurate. I do lead a good life. I feel very blessed. My husband is a good man, and my son is a good kid. I like the town we live in, and our circle of friends.

The only thing that has ever thrown a wrench in the whole works is having fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is a pretty big wrench. But, if you have the disease, too, you already know how much it can gum up the works.

How can I phrase this delicately? Well, there is a San Francisco based support group entitled: "Fibromyalgia sucks." Yes, I think that about sums up the disease in two words.

I wasn't diagnosed with fibro until after my pregnancy, but I'd had symptoms of it for many years. Raynaud's Syndrome. Migraines. Back pains. Severe "growing pains." (It shouldn't hurt to grow. Don't let your grandmother convince you otherwise.)

Yes, it was the pregnancy that forced me to accept this was more than just a few headaches and sore muscles from the gym.

Something was WRONG. I just didn't know what.

Unfortunately, neither did any of my doctors. For some reason, every single one of them missed all of the classic warning signs and symptoms for diagnosing fibromyalgia.

Hello! Shouldn't there be a seminar or something on this?

"Diagnosing fibromyalgia in miserable complaining pregnant chicks."

or,

"If she's got migraines, back pains, jaw pains and can't sleep, maybe it's fibro..."

Yeah, doc, go to THAT seminar...

(sigh)

How could ALL of them missed something sooooooooooooo PAINFULLY obvious?

Gheeeesh! There's five years of my life I will never get back...

Anyway, water under the bridge, right?

Well, if I can spare anybody from going through what I went through by sharing my story, or sharing what I learned, well, then I will keep making my silly little videos.

The number one cause of death for people with fibromyalgia is suicide. It is a reality you can only understand if you have the disease, or live with someone who does.

(My poor husband. There really should be a support group for "husbands of miserable chicks with fibro who HAVEN'T run out on their wives.")

Thanks to networking with others online, my health is vastly improved from what it was five years ago. Some days, I am almost symptom-free. (Almost. Not there yet.)

Each of us that gets well, has an obligation to help others get well. So, I am sharing what I have learned in the hopes that some of it might help you, too. I don't sell anything. Good luck to you on your journey. - Diana