[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Actually believed it was all in your head. Years later, scolded for not getting treatment.”]

I’ve been in pain for a long time. Two years ago, when I went to the clinic because my asthma was out of control, the nurse practitioner noticed I was in pain, poked me, and told me I had fibromyalgia. I hadn’t realized my pain was anything out of the ordinary. We messed around with antidepressants for a while trying to treat it, but when it didn’t work I wasn’t terribly surprised or disappointed. I’ve been told all my life that it can’t actually be that bad and to stop complaining about it.

Fast forward two years when a sudden inability to keep pressure on the brake pedal at a traffic light made me go to another doctor to discuss my low back/leg pain. He told me it was probably a slipped disc, referred me for x-rays and sent me to physical therapy. 

The physical therapist was astonished that out of everyone I’ve seen, he was the only one to notice that my joints are all hypermobile (which was causing the nerve pain in my back). He called my doctor…who then scolded me for not seeking treatment for a problem I didn’t know I had.

Sure, tell me it’s all in my head for most of my life and then be shocked I wasn’t aware my joints were actually dislocating. That makes perfect sense…