Yes, you read that right. My good friend Marla and I have created our very own talk show! Marla is a certified RSD coach who suffers from RSD/Fibromyalgia/MS/Osteoporosis.
Our show's mission is to help others with any kind of chronic pain issue. It can be any kind of chronic life pain not just these listed. We had our first show on Tuesday. It went so well! We loved every second of it and the time really does just zoom by. It was soooo much fun! We ended up calling in and teasing some guys on their show. I haven't laughed that hard in years. They crack me up. We ended up shooting a 30 second commercial which is airing on their show for the next 7 weeks. Our show is available for download. We've had over 136 downloads in just 4 days! It's going so well. I hope everyone will come listen to us and Call IN!
Our show's info is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/winninglifethroughpain.
See you There!
Crystal
The Voice of Fibromyalgia
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
What is Fibromyalgia?
To me, that is a great and personal question. I have been fortunate to be hand picked to represent the fibromyalgia population. I have a destiny that I am answering and it is to serve others who have this illness in there lives. First off, I would like to define what Fibromyalgia is NOT:
1.Hypochondriac person-I think this started centuries ago when doctors could not scientifically explain why people of all ages hurt from head to toe and there was NO real scientific explanation why. Today, we are closer than ever to find a cause which may someday lead to a cure for millions of us who have this life issue.
2. It's all in your head-Really? Why do I feel it in my body, then?-I do not like the way this one has made me feel. This only a half truth which is the same thing as a well planned lie or excuse. The truth of this is, it DOES start in your head, in the brain. There is a theory floating around in the medical community that this could be a central nervous Disorder. That's just fancy smancy medical talk for the chemicals in our brain are too low. We also seem to have poor blood circulation from our body to our brains.
3. Laziness-I am not lazy, thank you. This fallacy comes from the way
fibromyalgia symptoms come and go at times. We tend to do every thing when we feel good and overdo it leading to another flare up. It's so important to find a happy balance. I'm busy in spite of this chronic pain. I own my own business, Babysit two toddlers under the age of 2, have my own kids ages almost 11,2,and 8 years old plus I'm a new radio talk show cohost.
I have two boys (the oldest and youngest) and one girl. They light up my world and make sure that I actually HAVE to get OUT of bed. I used to work as a certified nurses aide before the pain got too bad. I loved it. We had a saying on our rehab floor, The sickest people are the ones who refuse to get out of the bed. They usually died shortly after. Sobering thought isn't?
4.Just an excuse to be a drug addict-Believe it or not, I actually have heard this from friends and family. I don't use recreational drugs and personally, do not get high off the medicine. When your body "needs" a medication, it does not have an adverse effect on your body. It just numbs the pain sensation by sending the right chemical signal to your brain. It feels like I've taken every drug known to mankind sometimes. Having 7-8 medication changes in two years, four of those in the last 6 months, can be a little rough and extremely frustrating. I tried to live with out the meds and I just can't. The pain is that bad. With the combo I am on now, I am starting to really feel like me again.
5. You are just faking it for attention!-I can see why people jump to these conclusions. One day we are relatively normal, the next our house is trashed and we can't get out of bed or fall getting out of it. I have gotten stuck in the shower several times. My husband is such a sweetie he helped me out. We don't have a rail that I can hang on to. Remodeling our bathroom is definatly in negotiation right now.
I don't get any attention when I have flare ups. My family has learned to leave me alone during really awful flare ups. I thank them dearly for that one. Of course, that is a two way street. Sometimes each one of us needs our alone time.
So, What IS Fibromyaglia?
It is a disabling pain condition. Physical symptoms range and vary from person to person. My personal symptoms started out as "growing pains" during childhood around 10 or 11 at the same time as my period. (Sorry to any guys who read the article, TMI, please forgive this is the real me)
It laid dormant into early adulthood. I had my fair share of traumatic experiences in life for several years. It is by the pure grace of a loving God I am here today. I'm living proof of his Word. He's healed and restored so much in my life. After having my second child, my little girl, I had a mental and emotional meltdown. I was extremely suicidal. People would harass me constantly because my oldest was sick and he had severe problems the first few years of his life. He's fine today with ADHD. He is turning out to be a remarkable young man and I'm so proud of him. I had severe depression after my daughter was born. I wanted to die. I tried and failed. I thought Man, I can't do nothing right, not even die! I went to MHMR and sought treatment. I was given some medication and therapy. My life started to get a little better when, my now exhusband who I was married to at the time up and left taking my daughter with him. My son and I were left with no home, no job, no place to go. Thankfully, my little sister got saved while this was going on. She helped me turn my life around which I am eternally grateful. She invited me to go to church with her. I had decided that it was NOT for me. I stepped into that church and I was literally surrounded by God's presence. I had not known that before. It was quite intimidating. I started attending regularly and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my life. I invited him to come live in my heart and guide me forever. I wish I could say it made my life a fairy tale with no problems but come on I do live on this planet with you. In fact, a spiritual war literally started. I kept getting sick off and on for the last 6 years. I had weird symptoms such as passing out on I35 with no wrecks or injuries,chest pains just like a heart attack,endemitreosis, losing all my weight. I was down to 99 pounds when I met my current husband, Derrick Dunn who I just adore. We dated, got engaged on my birthday 4 years ago. Two months before our wedding, I kept having weird and very sharp pains starting with my head and ending with my toes. I lived in Baird Texas at that time. I drove into Abilene once a week for a month and a half. I was finally diagnosed with fibromyaglia and advised I cannot take any human hormones because it messes with my thyroid. This is where my life gets to the current. I just got my medicines straightened out when guess what? I was pregnant with my third child. The pregnancy was a little rough off and on. It was rough when I worked as a CNA. I was sick most of the time and got huge. My baby kept trying to come early then changed his mind. He, James Isaac, was born on April 3,2006 7 pounds and 4 ounces. He is just a joy. He makes all of us laugh. He loves his bubba and sissy. They think he hung the moon. Bubba Dylan does pick on him though. After all, they are normal brothers. Never a dull moment around here. I couldn't work as a CNA anymore and got severely depressed. I was telling God what HE created me to be. It was the clay telling the potter what he should make. Yes, I know, that was dumb. I have a lot of those moments. I hope you do to. It is so much fun to laugh at yourself. I was diagnosed by 3 different doctors that I do have fibromyalgia. In the beginning, I was so determined to fight it, beat it, hide it. Now, I have accepted this is my body and I have to pay attention to it and modify my life just slightly. I take frequent breaks, relax and be in the here and now a whole lot more. This experience has led to some amazing things. Jesus has totally made me a new creature. I still have my core personality. My life is so much better now. I'm alive because of his promises in the Bible. Check them out sometime. He's got a blessing and gift so unique he can only give it to YOU. He is so waiting to bless you beyond your wildest dreams. I always knew that something great had to come out of the pain. I just didn't see what. My Rheumatologist (Bone, joint, muscle doc) suggested that I look for work I can do from home. I did after seeing some incredible stories on Good Morning America. To my surprise, I found a great match. I am a marketing executive for a health and wellness company. I don't have to stock, sell, or take orders which is nice. I work online and on the phone. That company led to me to a very special lady. Her name is Marla Martindale. We met online at Cafe Mom. She made a group for other marketing execs in our company to network, work on skill sets, chat, whatever it takes for others to start their business successful from day one. She looked on my profile and saw I was in the SAME town. We met for coffee and really just hit it off. We never talked about our personal lives before. We just opened up about our lives, challenges, obstacles, beliefs and have been talking ever since. Marla is a certified RSD life coach. She just opened up her business. She decided she wants to help other people with chronic pain issues and started her very own show on Blog Talk Radio. I have a link to our show on this blog. Please be sure and check it out! It is recorded and available for download until our next show on Tuesday. We had a guest appearance on Lip Service radio our first show. They had to no show due to technical difficulties that night. We decided to go and listen to the woodshed on Blog Talk radio. These guys are really funny. Check them out some time along with The Fake Buddy show and Greenlight Cafe. They were so kind as to let us plug our show on theirs and made a commercial. We have guests contacting us from across the ocean which is so cool. Our first 5 hours, we had 53 downloads. Then it was 70 something and now, it's over 100 downloads our second day. How exciting! : ) We hope you will call in and visit us. We are here for you.
1.Hypochondriac person-I think this started centuries ago when doctors could not scientifically explain why people of all ages hurt from head to toe and there was NO real scientific explanation why. Today, we are closer than ever to find a cause which may someday lead to a cure for millions of us who have this life issue.
2. It's all in your head-Really? Why do I feel it in my body, then?-I do not like the way this one has made me feel. This only a half truth which is the same thing as a well planned lie or excuse. The truth of this is, it DOES start in your head, in the brain. There is a theory floating around in the medical community that this could be a central nervous Disorder. That's just fancy smancy medical talk for the chemicals in our brain are too low. We also seem to have poor blood circulation from our body to our brains.
3. Laziness-I am not lazy, thank you. This fallacy comes from the way
fibromyalgia symptoms come and go at times. We tend to do every thing when we feel good and overdo it leading to another flare up. It's so important to find a happy balance. I'm busy in spite of this chronic pain. I own my own business, Babysit two toddlers under the age of 2, have my own kids ages almost 11,2,and 8 years old plus I'm a new radio talk show cohost.
I have two boys (the oldest and youngest) and one girl. They light up my world and make sure that I actually HAVE to get OUT of bed. I used to work as a certified nurses aide before the pain got too bad. I loved it. We had a saying on our rehab floor, The sickest people are the ones who refuse to get out of the bed. They usually died shortly after. Sobering thought isn't?
4.Just an excuse to be a drug addict-Believe it or not, I actually have heard this from friends and family. I don't use recreational drugs and personally, do not get high off the medicine. When your body "needs" a medication, it does not have an adverse effect on your body. It just numbs the pain sensation by sending the right chemical signal to your brain. It feels like I've taken every drug known to mankind sometimes. Having 7-8 medication changes in two years, four of those in the last 6 months, can be a little rough and extremely frustrating. I tried to live with out the meds and I just can't. The pain is that bad. With the combo I am on now, I am starting to really feel like me again.
5. You are just faking it for attention!-I can see why people jump to these conclusions. One day we are relatively normal, the next our house is trashed and we can't get out of bed or fall getting out of it. I have gotten stuck in the shower several times. My husband is such a sweetie he helped me out. We don't have a rail that I can hang on to. Remodeling our bathroom is definatly in negotiation right now.
I don't get any attention when I have flare ups. My family has learned to leave me alone during really awful flare ups. I thank them dearly for that one. Of course, that is a two way street. Sometimes each one of us needs our alone time.
So, What IS Fibromyaglia?
It is a disabling pain condition. Physical symptoms range and vary from person to person. My personal symptoms started out as "growing pains" during childhood around 10 or 11 at the same time as my period. (Sorry to any guys who read the article, TMI, please forgive this is the real me)
It laid dormant into early adulthood. I had my fair share of traumatic experiences in life for several years. It is by the pure grace of a loving God I am here today. I'm living proof of his Word. He's healed and restored so much in my life. After having my second child, my little girl, I had a mental and emotional meltdown. I was extremely suicidal. People would harass me constantly because my oldest was sick and he had severe problems the first few years of his life. He's fine today with ADHD. He is turning out to be a remarkable young man and I'm so proud of him. I had severe depression after my daughter was born. I wanted to die. I tried and failed. I thought Man, I can't do nothing right, not even die! I went to MHMR and sought treatment. I was given some medication and therapy. My life started to get a little better when, my now exhusband who I was married to at the time up and left taking my daughter with him. My son and I were left with no home, no job, no place to go. Thankfully, my little sister got saved while this was going on. She helped me turn my life around which I am eternally grateful. She invited me to go to church with her. I had decided that it was NOT for me. I stepped into that church and I was literally surrounded by God's presence. I had not known that before. It was quite intimidating. I started attending regularly and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my life. I invited him to come live in my heart and guide me forever. I wish I could say it made my life a fairy tale with no problems but come on I do live on this planet with you. In fact, a spiritual war literally started. I kept getting sick off and on for the last 6 years. I had weird symptoms such as passing out on I35 with no wrecks or injuries,chest pains just like a heart attack,endemitreosis, losing all my weight. I was down to 99 pounds when I met my current husband, Derrick Dunn who I just adore. We dated, got engaged on my birthday 4 years ago. Two months before our wedding, I kept having weird and very sharp pains starting with my head and ending with my toes. I lived in Baird Texas at that time. I drove into Abilene once a week for a month and a half. I was finally diagnosed with fibromyaglia and advised I cannot take any human hormones because it messes with my thyroid. This is where my life gets to the current. I just got my medicines straightened out when guess what? I was pregnant with my third child. The pregnancy was a little rough off and on. It was rough when I worked as a CNA. I was sick most of the time and got huge. My baby kept trying to come early then changed his mind. He, James Isaac, was born on April 3,2006 7 pounds and 4 ounces. He is just a joy. He makes all of us laugh. He loves his bubba and sissy. They think he hung the moon. Bubba Dylan does pick on him though. After all, they are normal brothers. Never a dull moment around here. I couldn't work as a CNA anymore and got severely depressed. I was telling God what HE created me to be. It was the clay telling the potter what he should make. Yes, I know, that was dumb. I have a lot of those moments. I hope you do to. It is so much fun to laugh at yourself. I was diagnosed by 3 different doctors that I do have fibromyalgia. In the beginning, I was so determined to fight it, beat it, hide it. Now, I have accepted this is my body and I have to pay attention to it and modify my life just slightly. I take frequent breaks, relax and be in the here and now a whole lot more. This experience has led to some amazing things. Jesus has totally made me a new creature. I still have my core personality. My life is so much better now. I'm alive because of his promises in the Bible. Check them out sometime. He's got a blessing and gift so unique he can only give it to YOU. He is so waiting to bless you beyond your wildest dreams. I always knew that something great had to come out of the pain. I just didn't see what. My Rheumatologist (Bone, joint, muscle doc) suggested that I look for work I can do from home. I did after seeing some incredible stories on Good Morning America. To my surprise, I found a great match. I am a marketing executive for a health and wellness company. I don't have to stock, sell, or take orders which is nice. I work online and on the phone. That company led to me to a very special lady. Her name is Marla Martindale. We met online at Cafe Mom. She made a group for other marketing execs in our company to network, work on skill sets, chat, whatever it takes for others to start their business successful from day one. She looked on my profile and saw I was in the SAME town. We met for coffee and really just hit it off. We never talked about our personal lives before. We just opened up about our lives, challenges, obstacles, beliefs and have been talking ever since. Marla is a certified RSD life coach. She just opened up her business. She decided she wants to help other people with chronic pain issues and started her very own show on Blog Talk Radio. I have a link to our show on this blog. Please be sure and check it out! It is recorded and available for download until our next show on Tuesday. We had a guest appearance on Lip Service radio our first show. They had to no show due to technical difficulties that night. We decided to go and listen to the woodshed on Blog Talk radio. These guys are really funny. Check them out some time along with The Fake Buddy show and Greenlight Cafe. They were so kind as to let us plug our show on theirs and made a commercial. We have guests contacting us from across the ocean which is so cool. Our first 5 hours, we had 53 downloads. Then it was 70 something and now, it's over 100 downloads our second day. How exciting! : ) We hope you will call in and visit us. We are here for you.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Personal update
I started this blog one year ago with not much success. I wanted a site where my friends, business partners, future business partners, clients, team, family (not in that order of course lol) and I could discuss topics, issues,share life in general. I just got stuck and didn't know what to put on here. I am going to start with a story of my year last year. 2007 was a very difficult year for me. I was sick for most of it. I've had 7 medicine changes in one year. I won't bore you with all those details. I have not written about my struggles here or anywhere else much because I don't worship my illness, I worship my God. Now, the two have met and it's an awesome story I wanted to share with you today. The story starts7 years ago, I was in a failed marriage and had my second child. After she was born, I started being extremely depressed. I was totally miserable. My now ex-husband was diagnosed with diabetes. He got depressed. He refused to work and everything that went wrong was my fault and my sons. I tried to go to school to get a medical assistant license and had 4 more months to graduate. He walked out on me taking my daughter with him. I was left with an eviction notice, strange physical pain like passing out for no reason, chest pains, back pain and nowhere to live. I was extremely suicidal through this whole time. The state of Texas were going to terminate my rights because the situation was bad for my children. I called my family and thankfully, my sister took us in. It was to be a temporary situation but we lived together for one year and a half. We had our ups and downs together but it was a great time. During that time, I started going to a little church named Trinity Fellowship Church in San Angelo, Texas. They loved on me no matter what I looked like, what attitude I had, they helped in any way they could. This would start a whole new life for me. I went there and met my very best friend Jesus Christ. I would never be the same. I've had many bumps and twists in this journey. I got involved in children's ministry which I still do today. He has allowed me to dream big dreams because he is a BIG God. God just blows my mind each and every day. I'm glad he is my CEO. 6 months after being saved, I had horrendous side pain. I went to the doctor to get checked out. They told me I had kidney failure. They even went so far as to say that I needed to fill out my will and leave my kids to someone. I was terrified. My little sister was getting married. She offered to take the kids. I was angry because I wanted to be here when my kids grew up. I didn't receive that message. I looked that doctor right in the face and didn't move. He told me to come back in 3 days so we could start dialysis. They didn't know what was causing my kidney to do that. I told him I would come back after the weekend and be completely healed. He laughed at me. I didn't tell anyone. I went to church early on a Wednesday night. I was trying so hard not to fall apart. I started crying. My sister's inlaws came over and asked what was going on? I told them and I asked them not to tell our pastor. I wanted to see God heal me. There was an altar call that Sunday one day before my appointment. I went up with a whole line of people. As my pastor prayed that day, he went from one side running over to me. He started praying very passionately. He laid hands on me and anointed me with oil. He claimed that God was healing a left arterial bleed in my left kidney, he touched it and I felt the love of God flow through my whole body. I went back to that Doctor on Monday. He asked What did you do? I said I prayed and God healed me. He laughed said no, really what did you do? I prayed. A third time, "What did YOU DO?" I was agitated by this time, and said I prayed. He was shocked. He confirmed that my kidney was healed. I was so happy. Then, I had an ovarian cancer scare. The cells turned out to be noncancerous thanks to God. Years later, I started having migraines, total head to toe pain. I went to the doctor for several weeks due to weird pains in my head, neck, shoulders, legs, arms, knees. The doctor diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. I had to get off my birth control pills because they messed with my thyroid too bad. 6 months later, I was pregnant with fibromyalgia. Being pregnant with fibromyalgia was hard. I got severely depressed due to fluctuating hormones. I had to take a low dose of antidepressant. It worked. The last two months I was in pain and couldn't take anything. Labor was fairly normal. My little guy, James Isaac Dunn, was born April 3,2006 happy and healthy as he could be.He's still that way today. After I had Isaac, I was exhausted more than the other two times I had given birth. For 6 months, I got up every two hours to care for Isaac. It was hard. When I was awake, I'd cry because I hurt so bad. I never realized how it affected him until one day I laughed after being put on medication and it scared him. He had never seen his mommy smile. I got referred to a great Rheumatologist who is handling my care. I filled out a work at home request during that time to help financially. That started me on a journey like no other. I found a health and wellness company to work for I am very passionate about. Their nutritional products little by little helped me get moving and stay moving again. I'm so thankful for them. I had an 8 month remission of symptoms. I really thought I had received my total healing from the Lord but he had other plans. I was so mad when the pain returned and so was my doctor. He'd hoped we had found the cause of the illness. He put me on Lyrica which I was allergic to. We are now working on a combo to help stabilize my condition. I started working from home running my own business. I went to CafeMom to help find support from someone in our company to help teach me the ropes. Little did I know I was about to embark on an awesome adventure. I found a group on Cafe Mom that a lady named Marla Martindale created. We started emailing and really hit it off. We were unaware of what that was starting. lol.
She went to my cafemom profile page and found out we lived in the same town. We decided to meet for coffee. We hit it off and start talking. We do have a lot in common. She has RSD,fibromyalgia, full body Osteoporosis,and MS. She has become the only certified life coach in the world. She has decided to do her own talk show on BlogTalk Radio. Very cool. She called me up and asked me to be her first guest. I thought Cool. We did our first show two days ago. We have zero experience folks. NONE. We used our marketing skills we have learned from our company. We use free advertising anywhere we can make a friend and make a way. We were excited we had 3 listeners. We have found out that we actually had 12 and there were some celebrities that want to listen silently until they are comfortable to come out of the woodwork and be on the show. Very exciting. We did not do a test show at all. We just went live. It was so nerve racking but a blast! We shared our stories and went over what Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy was. Check out the recording. We got 53 downloads in 5 hours our first day! Yay!!! : ) We have scheduled more shows and even have a guest from Australia coming on the show. People are coming up all over the place. It is fun. We did a guest call in on a comedy show and shot a 30 soundbite for the show promoting our show. Thank you WoodShed Crew! Love Ya! It was a hoot! : ) We were up to 79 downloads as of 5pm yesterday. We are so thrilled! We are hoping to get a primetime slot to reach more people. We are hoping to raise awareness that these conditions are real. We want research funded, a cause found, and more effective treatments with less side effects. We hope to be on TV talk shows one day. : )
Please call in and show us some love!
She went to my cafemom profile page and found out we lived in the same town. We decided to meet for coffee. We hit it off and start talking. We do have a lot in common. She has RSD,fibromyalgia, full body Osteoporosis,and MS. She has become the only certified life coach in the world. She has decided to do her own talk show on BlogTalk Radio. Very cool. She called me up and asked me to be her first guest. I thought Cool. We did our first show two days ago. We have zero experience folks. NONE. We used our marketing skills we have learned from our company. We use free advertising anywhere we can make a friend and make a way. We were excited we had 3 listeners. We have found out that we actually had 12 and there were some celebrities that want to listen silently until they are comfortable to come out of the woodwork and be on the show. Very exciting. We did not do a test show at all. We just went live. It was so nerve racking but a blast! We shared our stories and went over what Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy was. Check out the recording. We got 53 downloads in 5 hours our first day! Yay!!! : ) We have scheduled more shows and even have a guest from Australia coming on the show. People are coming up all over the place. It is fun. We did a guest call in on a comedy show and shot a 30 soundbite for the show promoting our show. Thank you WoodShed Crew! Love Ya! It was a hoot! : ) We were up to 79 downloads as of 5pm yesterday. We are so thrilled! We are hoping to get a primetime slot to reach more people. We are hoping to raise awareness that these conditions are real. We want research funded, a cause found, and more effective treatments with less side effects. We hope to be on TV talk shows one day. : )
Please call in and show us some love!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
