Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, Richmond Hill Liberal, Copyright July 18, 1990
Dear readers: Today I will continue to present a letter written to me several months ago from a reader who is afflicted with a condition known as “fibrositis.” I don’t have the space in each column to thoroughly review this condition, but I will remind you that it is a type of arthritis which causes muscle pain, fatigue, weakness and disturbances in sleep. Here is a continuation of this reader’s story.
One day your ankle may hurt while another day it may be your elbow. The pain travels all over your body. It takes many years for the depression to lift because, unfortunately, that’s how long it takes an MD to finally recognize that something is seriously wrong. It’s not in your head.
Unfortunately, too, in cases such as mine, as the years go by, the pain eventually takes over the entire body from head to toe.
Believe me, honey, you would be depressed, too – from pain you dodo, not from the pressures of life as you implied!
Can you begin to imagine what kind of reception you get from in-laws who never cared for you to begin with? “My poor son/daughter, look what he’s saddled with for the rest of his/her life.” Please spare me.
Climate. Now there is what controls my life and you failed to mention it. It can’t be too hot and humid and it can’t be too damp and cold. There can’t be overcast clouds and there can’t be any winds.
Hell, what else is left? Not much! Where can one go? Arizona? I’m told to go to Arizona. Well, you cant just pick up and move south. Besides, what if it doesn’t work either?
Then you can talk of marital bliss, or lack thereof. Climate, Dr. Horowitz, is the number one factor in my life and Southern Ontario is one of the worst places to live if you have climate sensitivity. It’s constantly changing and I’m just one of the “lucky” few to be deemed a human barometer.
That’s what this is all about, Dr. H., being a human barometer, along with headaches and, of course, the good ol’ migraine. We can’t forget them amongst everything else. One vicious circle, round and round.
You, inadvertently I’m sure, left out two most important facts about fibrositis: That (1) it is invisible and (2) in a lot of cases such as mine, the pain is constant, 24 hours a day! It can involve one joint or every joint. Even your flesh hurts!
Imagine living a life where your husband/wife has to be constantly careful that he/she doesn’t squeeze too hard when you may be “funning” or you wrestle with your kids and let out a scream from the pain they inflict. “Geez mom isn’t fun anymore. I hardly touched her.”
If your children are young, it is hard for them to understand that Mommy hurts all the time. I always wanted to practice baseball with my boys, but that’s a dream.
I can’t even believe such a thing could happen to me; me, the one who was terrific in track, baseball, volleyball, etc. The tomboy of the group.
Now I limp half the time and even walked with a cane on and off for about a year.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some good days and the odd time even good weeks, but they are few and far between considering how many days and weeks there are in a year.
Readers: I think that is enough for today. I will continue to reprint this letter in its entirety over the next two weeks. Not much is known about fibrositis and I think the main point that this reader is trying to establish is that, because we don’t know that much about her condition, we tend to place some of the blame on the patient and that, along with her constant pain, frustrates her.