How Fibromyalgia Changed My Life

I have always been a very active person. I like to get up early to start my day, usually arising around six in the morning. I exercise each day with one of the many DVDs I have on file as the start of my day. Being OCD I cannot leave out of my bedroom without first making up my bed for the day. I get my bedroom totally organized before moving on to anything else. After my shower, I start breakfast and make sure everyone in the family has a good meal to start their day. 

I had a list of things I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to write books and share stories with other people. I wanted to plan parties, and cater events. I wanted to own a bed and breakfast. I wanted to be a cosmetologist and attempted to go to school three times before I finally reached my goal at the age of fifty-two, graduating in 2010 with an Associate of Arts degree in cosmetology. I have made all of those dreams a reality, except owning a bed and breakfast. I first got a job working in a chain hair salon located at the mall. I had specialized in the care of natural hair, and I knew unless I marketed myself away from the mall, I was not going to get a large clientele working at the salon. It was during that time that I began to notice a tightness across my shoulders while working. I also would experience sharp and throbbing pains in my lower back, legs and ankles. I thought it was due to standing up long hours on the cement floor of the salon. I would just take some Tylenol for the pain and it would subside. 

In April of 2011 I opened a hair salon called Zuri Hair Studio. I was so excited. Another of my dreams was coming true! In May I signed up with a credit card processing company to process my credit card payments. Before I even received the equipment the company had taken nearly all of my savings from my checking account. I had checks bouncing all over the place and had no idea why until I went to the credit union and reviewed my account and learned who had taken my money. When I contacted the company they told me that it was processing fees! I ended up losing over $1350 to this company and only had the machine one month. I had to contact my landlord, the company I was leasing my salon equipment from and other creditors. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the North Carolina Attorney General's office, and an attorney. It was my hopes that the company would give me my money back without a fuss. That didn't happen. My landlord was very patient with me. She allowed me to pay her as I earned money so I could get caught up. Prior to this happening, I had volunteered to provide free hair care services to the young ladies that attended the Boys & Girls Club here in Winston Salem. A company that has a natural hair care line, whose products I already used provided me all of the products I needed to provide the service to the young ladies. I invested money into getting products that would assist me in providing a wider array of services to clients and I stepped up my marketing campaign so I could get out of debt and get back on my feet. Unfortunately, things did not work out that way. In November the landlord changed the locks on the space and refused to allow me to get my items out of the space. She kept my items and had a yard sale! I still owed the leasing company for the salon equipment and asked the landlord repeatedly to allow me to get my items out of the space because they were not mine. 

The pains I had been experiencing became more intense after this happened and I ended up going to the emergency room one night because I didn't know if I was having a stroke. Even thought my blood pressure was extremely high 210/180, I was not having a stroke. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I really didn't know a lot about the illness at the time of my diagnosis. As I read up on and researched it I learned so much more. I was always tired and could not sleep well through the night. My body would be racked with pain from my head to my toes. I was prescribed one pain medication after another, yet the way they made me feel was awful. I knew there had to be a better way to handle the pain. I decided to keep a log of the foods I ate and the times I had severe flare-ups. I began to eliminate foods from my diet that caused me severe pain. Stress causes many of those flare-ups and I really had to give this issue about the lose of my salon to God to handle. I just could not handle it. I went to see an attorney to see what I could do about this situation. I had not paid for my salon furniture and I still had to pay for it, yet it had been taken from me and sold. I had over $6,170 worth of equipment, and another $9,000 in product, tools, decor, and other items for a total of $15,000 and it was taken and sold when I only owed $2,500 in rent. 

This past year has been very stressful for me. Besides my children, I can't think of anyone that I can discuss this with who will understand what I am going through. I keep it to myself and just deal with it. I can no longer exercise daily, like before. Sometimes just being able to get up in the morning is enough...all I can do to make it happen. I can't make plans because I don't know how I will feel from one day to the next. I have to enlist the help of the family to help around the house more, but they don't do it fast enough for me. Sometimes I will try and force myself to do whatever it is that needed to be done. I participated in a sleep study so that I could get the med and get a good nights rest. I am so tired of this little chapter of my life. I know once this issue with the landlord and the credit card company is resolved, I will feel so much better. Until then I just have to pray and rely on God to help me each day.