I'm 31 years old and live in Cincinnati OH. I was married to a wonderful man last fall in 2006 and I am so lucky to have his support. My favorite thing to do by far is to travel. I love meeting new people and experiencing new things. By trade I am a computer programmer and if I do have spare time I love to read, do crafty things such as sew, do needlepoint, puzzles, paint, decorate etc. read and listen to music. My husband and I do not have any children of our own but we do have 3 animals - a Yorkie, a Siamese mix cat and also a Cockapoo puppy who is btw the cutest!!!

A few years ago I became a Mary Kay consultant. Surprisingly I was actually quite a natural at this and enjoyed spending tme with different women and sharing girl time with them and helping them to not only look beautiful but also feel good about theirselves! I find it so amazing when you raise a person's self esteem by fixing something such as their skin or just allowing them to pamper themselves and know that they are worthy of such treatment you empower them to feel good about themselves and they start to fix the inside as well (if it was broken to begin with). I would love to be able to do this full time but it just isn't possible for me right now. I barely find the time to call my friends and family becasue of the pain that I am in moreless my customers!

I was diagnosed with FMS sometime around 2003 but suspect I have had it for much longer than that. Besides the fibromyalgia I have had whiplash 3 times and have herniated disks in the middle of my neck which causes much of my pain. Due to the FMs I have also developed TMJ problems, CMPS (cronic Myofacial pain syndrome) and insomnia. My pain does not totally define my life but it does make it hard to have a life at times.

I also had weight loss surgery (WLS) in 2004 and have lost about half of my body mass! Whoo Hoo. I turely beleive that this surgery was a life saver for me and without it I really would not have a life today. Thank you Dr. Fisher!!! I still have just as much pain as I had before the surgery but at least I do not mind being seen in public, I can walk around without trouble, am secure enough in myself to talk to others, and do not have as big of a risk of having a heart attack, stroke and other life treatening illnesses as I once did. I chose to have this done early enough in life so that I could have the hope of a life and possibly have children down the line.

The newest development in my life is that during a recent hospital trip to the ER I found out that I was severely anemic. The doctors beleive I have Iron Deficiency anemia due to not having the portion of my intestines any longer that absorbs iron and other things like B12 (which I am also low on). It turned out htat I only had about 1/3 of the red blood cells that I should have had in my body and had to have 3 units of blood transfused to me. I have had yearly blood tests and they always told me that I was "borderline normal" on things. I have been telling doctors for close to 2 years (basically since I came back from my honeymoon) that I did not feel right and I was always tired, hurting, sick, to the point that in the fall of 2007 I basically had a nervous breakdown and had to take intermittent FMLA (I've missed almost 3 months of work since then, it's now August 2008 when this was updated). The good news is that this anemia should be treatable with iron infusions or similar and is not the kind where my body is attacking itself etc. I am actually SO EXCITED to find this out because for the first time in years I feel hopeful that maybe we can get beyond always feeling sick and being told it is "just fibro" or "just asthma" or "just IN MY HEAD" and maybe we can finally work on fixing this!!! For those of you that do not know anemia & B12 deficiencies can cause everything from tiredness, to muscles aches, to depression, to headaches and insomnia, to brain fog, to forgetfulness, to rapid heart beat etc. I do beleive I have fibro but it's possible that these deficiencies have been making things worse!!! I'll keep everyone posted on this topic!