Help for a Victim of Fibromyalgia
Donation protected
That picture is of me from a little over three years ago. I was a personal trainer and in the best shape of my life. I was a huge exercise nut and never went to the doctor and rarely took medication. I paid close attention to my diet and still do...try to eat organic, or at least all natural and avoid all chemicals whenever possible. In fact, I was the one to get my mom on that bandwagon after I had done a ton of research on it.
However, after several neck spasms and 6 months of trips to the chiropractor, I found out I had a herniated disk in my neck in August 2012. I was devastated. So I started taking medication and had three cervical epidurals, none of which helped very much. There aren't any natural ways to fix a herniated disc. Desperate for any way to get back to normal, I took the advice of my primary care physician and started taking a prescription drug called Cymbalta. She thought that with my anxiety combined with the extreme nerve pain in my neck it would be a good idea. I liked her and trusted her opinion, so I started taking the medication without researching it. This is a decision I will have to live with for the rest of my life. After about six weeks, I decided that I couldn't stand the side effects and that I should stop taking it. So I spent three weeks weaning off it, and then just stopped it.
THE FIRST DAY without it, my life changed forever and turned into a living hell. I had full body pain like never before in my life… Muscles, bones, joints… I was so dizzy it was difficult just to get up and use the bathroom. I was in severe withdrawal from this medicine that was described as such a miracle drug to me… It has ruined my life. Since I was so against prescription medication to begin with, I refused to start taking it again just to ease the withdrawal so I just suffered through it. My mother and sister had to take turns coming to take care of me for about two weeks. I had never felt so hopeless in my entire life. I was always the one people turned to to get things done… Nothing stopped me from something I set my mind to. Well, those days were over. Now I have gained about 20lbs and most weeks I barely leave the house except to go to the doctor and buy groceries. It's like an alternate universe. I used to be one of those annoying people who absolutely loved to work out....it was one of my favorite things that has now been completely stripped from me. It makes me sick that all this has been from taking that drug for 9 weeks.
A rheumatologist diagnosed me with severe withdrawal that had triggered fibromyalgia and inflammatory arthritis – at 34 years old. He put me on an extremely high dosage of hydrocortisone for a month, and that helped, but you can't take that on a daily basis… It has to be tapered down so it was not a long-term solution. After that he didn't really have any answers for me and his office staff treated me like crap so I stopped going.
My mom has fibromyalgia and I had found her a holistic doctor that she had been seeing for about a year so I started going to him. He is a great guy, but the results were extremely slow, even now. The super severe effects of the withdrawal from the Cymbalta lasted two or three months, but I still have extremely bad days and the last time I took any of that medication was July 9, 2013. So I have to see my fibromyalgia doctor once a month and I have to go to a pain clinic once a month for medication. There is no rhyme or reason to it-I have good days and bad days and you never know what to expect. It is infuriating and makes it next to impossible to commit to anything. It is a very helpless feeling.
So around March of this year I had a drastic change in my financial situation, and coincidentally shortly after that I started to have gallbladder symptoms. Knowing that if I had to have surgery, there is no way to be able to tell what to expect because of my situation and medication that I take on a daily basis. I wanted to try and avoid surgery if it was at all possible. So I spent a couple months having every test possible done to make sure it was my gallbladder and I didn't have the surgery for the wrong reason. By the time the scheduled surgery rolled around, it was almost an emergency situation. That happened at the end of June of this year. It took more than a month to recover from that… I was in the hospital for four days for a procedure that should have been outpatient because they could not get my pain under control. From the moment they brought me into the recovery room until I left that place, it was a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
So needless to say, I have fallen behind on my bills and if any of you knew me at all, you would know how unbelievably difficult it is for me to ask for help, but I'm running out of options. My mother told me about the gofundme website and honestly, I was shocked that there was such a site out there, where people would just donate to all these different causes out of the goodness of their heart just to help some stranger in need. If she were able, she would take care of everything for me, but that's not the case, so I am telling my story with the hope that there are some people out there who are in better situations than I am right now and have the means, and desire, to help. Words cannot express how appreciative I would be...any amount, no matter how small, would be wonderful. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and know that anything you decide to give will not be taken for granted.
Thank you,
Asheley
However, after several neck spasms and 6 months of trips to the chiropractor, I found out I had a herniated disk in my neck in August 2012. I was devastated. So I started taking medication and had three cervical epidurals, none of which helped very much. There aren't any natural ways to fix a herniated disc. Desperate for any way to get back to normal, I took the advice of my primary care physician and started taking a prescription drug called Cymbalta. She thought that with my anxiety combined with the extreme nerve pain in my neck it would be a good idea. I liked her and trusted her opinion, so I started taking the medication without researching it. This is a decision I will have to live with for the rest of my life. After about six weeks, I decided that I couldn't stand the side effects and that I should stop taking it. So I spent three weeks weaning off it, and then just stopped it.
THE FIRST DAY without it, my life changed forever and turned into a living hell. I had full body pain like never before in my life… Muscles, bones, joints… I was so dizzy it was difficult just to get up and use the bathroom. I was in severe withdrawal from this medicine that was described as such a miracle drug to me… It has ruined my life. Since I was so against prescription medication to begin with, I refused to start taking it again just to ease the withdrawal so I just suffered through it. My mother and sister had to take turns coming to take care of me for about two weeks. I had never felt so hopeless in my entire life. I was always the one people turned to to get things done… Nothing stopped me from something I set my mind to. Well, those days were over. Now I have gained about 20lbs and most weeks I barely leave the house except to go to the doctor and buy groceries. It's like an alternate universe. I used to be one of those annoying people who absolutely loved to work out....it was one of my favorite things that has now been completely stripped from me. It makes me sick that all this has been from taking that drug for 9 weeks.
A rheumatologist diagnosed me with severe withdrawal that had triggered fibromyalgia and inflammatory arthritis – at 34 years old. He put me on an extremely high dosage of hydrocortisone for a month, and that helped, but you can't take that on a daily basis… It has to be tapered down so it was not a long-term solution. After that he didn't really have any answers for me and his office staff treated me like crap so I stopped going.
My mom has fibromyalgia and I had found her a holistic doctor that she had been seeing for about a year so I started going to him. He is a great guy, but the results were extremely slow, even now. The super severe effects of the withdrawal from the Cymbalta lasted two or three months, but I still have extremely bad days and the last time I took any of that medication was July 9, 2013. So I have to see my fibromyalgia doctor once a month and I have to go to a pain clinic once a month for medication. There is no rhyme or reason to it-I have good days and bad days and you never know what to expect. It is infuriating and makes it next to impossible to commit to anything. It is a very helpless feeling.
So around March of this year I had a drastic change in my financial situation, and coincidentally shortly after that I started to have gallbladder symptoms. Knowing that if I had to have surgery, there is no way to be able to tell what to expect because of my situation and medication that I take on a daily basis. I wanted to try and avoid surgery if it was at all possible. So I spent a couple months having every test possible done to make sure it was my gallbladder and I didn't have the surgery for the wrong reason. By the time the scheduled surgery rolled around, it was almost an emergency situation. That happened at the end of June of this year. It took more than a month to recover from that… I was in the hospital for four days for a procedure that should have been outpatient because they could not get my pain under control. From the moment they brought me into the recovery room until I left that place, it was a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
So needless to say, I have fallen behind on my bills and if any of you knew me at all, you would know how unbelievably difficult it is for me to ask for help, but I'm running out of options. My mother told me about the gofundme website and honestly, I was shocked that there was such a site out there, where people would just donate to all these different causes out of the goodness of their heart just to help some stranger in need. If she were able, she would take care of everything for me, but that's not the case, so I am telling my story with the hope that there are some people out there who are in better situations than I am right now and have the means, and desire, to help. Words cannot express how appreciative I would be...any amount, no matter how small, would be wonderful. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and know that anything you decide to give will not be taken for granted.
Thank you,
Asheley
Organizer
Asheley Ryan
Organizer
Smyrna, GA
