Rainbows in the Darkness

Doctors Respond to NY Times FMS Article

If you, a family member or friend struggle with fibromyalgia, we encourage you to respond to the front-page New York Times article, "Drug Approved. Is Disease Real?" that was printed Monday, Jan. 14, 2008. Please send comments to the Public Editor Clark Hoyt, who is driven by what readers care and complain about, at public@nytimes.com or call (212) 556-7652. You also are encouraged to send a copy of your comment to News Department at nytnews@nytimes.com and the Managing Editor at managing-editor@nytimes.com.

Please identify that you are responding to the Jan. 14, page 1 article on fibromyalgia and include your name, city, and state. Feel free to include in your response a few of the valid points made by the experts and ask at the end of your e-mail that the editors at the New York Times publish a quality article on fibromyalgia, its pain and symptoms you struggle with daily.

In addition, please send a copy of your e-mail to the Fibromyalgia Network at voice@fmnetnews.com so we can understand and enjoy your response, too.

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is havingtrouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Some of you may know about the place I'm talking about. Probably, most of you don't.

Dang, this is longer than I thought it was. I'm going to LJ Cut it.

( Down the river from Baton Rouge... )

Sleep apnea affects about 5% of the US population, but 80% of people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it and aren’t receiving treatment. Since it’s National Sleep Apnea Awareness week, I thought it would be a good time to share some facts about untreated sleep apnea.

• Untreated sleep apnea causes high blood pressure


• Without treatment, sleep apnea doubles the risk of stroke


• Untreated sleep apnea is related to diabetes and obesity

The good news is that CPAP treatment dramatically improves the health and quality of life of people with sleep apnea. There are other treatments as well as surgical intervention available, but by far, CPAP/BiPAP is the most non-invasive. There is a portable CPAP in development that will be available soon, as well.

Visit The National Sleep Foundation for more information about Sleep Awareness Week activities and Sleep Apnea Awareness Day (Thursday, March 30th).

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I have Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and sleep with a CPAP at night or when I nap. I firmly believe that it was my disordered sleep, from years of shift work and sleep apnea, that led to my developing the other physical issues I have, which include depression, hypertension, overweight and fibromyalgia. Though I am now being treated for OSA as well as my other problems, I'm sure I would be more functional today had I been diagnosed a decade earlier. I encourage people to find out if they have a sleep disorder, or if they live with someone who does. If it hadn't been for my spouse's alertness, I probably would not have known that I didn't just snore, I stopped breathing in my sleep. Now, with my CPAP, I don't snore, and my apneic periods are much less frequent.

Hi folks. I'm still alive, have not been able to get in to doctor yet and have put off ER because I have no insurance and hate ERs. I am afebrile, still in pain but holding until I get to MD appt Friday unless things devolve... we're only a few miles from the hospital. Mani and Mother want me to go. I just know that if I'm subacute when I get there, they may not take me seriously, no matter how many days I've been in pain. Yeah, I'm cynical. I'm a nurse. Keep sending energy, you're keeping me functional.

Here is the Katrina Comment...

I want to make a strong remark from looking at my FL... my glurge radar is going crazy. I would be *extremely* reluctant to post any "firsthand account" sent around in an emal or posted somewhere without a face on it, even if it seems to have some sort of credibility. I have seen over the years far too many of these things turn out to be scams. You can usually tell that they are scams because of their tone and their drama. That is all I am going to say about that, the truth will out. Maybe they are real, maybe they aren't. But don't bet your life savings on something you get in your email or can't verify. If it was me, I wouldn't waste my energy getting angry about something that may not be true. I certainly wouldn't forward it to everyone in my address book. I've seen so much of this kind of stuff on the Net, so much of it came out after 9-11, remember? You can go check out Snopes for the stuff that turned out to be fake during the aftermath of that. So take it with a grain of salt. People are trying to stir you up, and if they succeed, that is their mission accomplished. Just like those emails with the "lost child" or somebody wanting postcards or other urban legends like tampons with asbestos and supposed medical warnings signed by fictitious people with real looking credentials. There will be a lot of urban legends and conspiracy theories arising from this, it is how people cope, by theorizing. So like I said, discretion is the better part of valor. Unless you absolutely know that the stuff that is being passed around is from a real person, a credible source, that it is properly attributed, etc., don't spread the meme. Think before you post or forward; be a good journalist in your blog and verify, verify, verify. Rumors and gossip don't help anyone, and just because it's in print doesn't make it true. I've seen legitimate papers print urban legends before and then have to recant because they didn't check their sources properly.

So, who knew that MRIs were so dangerous? I sure didn't. It's not the side effects or anything... it's the magnets themselves!

NY Times Article

To see more "flying objects" in MRIs, go here!

Got a link to this article today. I can't begin to tell you how it elevated my mood and gave me a feeling of connection.

No, never alone.

Aching for Love, Giving Birth to Soul

We all have our own paths there, and I do believe I can find the path that leads to a place where I can live fully and without pain.