1) Introduce yourself – Who are you, where are you from and a bit about yourself.
My name is Diana Sierra. I am from New York City, the city that never sleeps. I’m 26 years old, married to my best friend and I have two kids (Justin, 6 years old and Scarlett, 3 years old). I’m a supervisor of front desk at a pain management doctors office. I love trying new things, although I don’t have a specific hobby. My family is my world, I am very family oriented.
2) What illness/condition/disability do you have? What symptoms did you experience and when did your symptoms start?
I have Fibromyalgia. I had my daughter on Oct 28, 2015. After two months I decided to get the depo shot, because the pills weren’t working for me since I would forget to take them. Right off the bat I started to feel a lot of anxiety! Nothing that I ever felt before. Anxiety to the point where I couldn’t function. My GYN said it wasn’t the depo and to see my primary care and let them know I am feel anxiety.
I couldn’t get to my primary doctor for a few weeks and in the mean time I was a wreck with nonstop headaches, tired to the point that I couldn’t stay up to take care of my kids, crying spells, nauseous, wrist and ankle pains and muscle pain like I was coming down with a fever. So when I got to my primary doctor, he told I had postpartum depression. This was the first I ever heard of depression so I believed it and took the pills he gave me. The pills made me worse.
I went back to my primary doctor and told him I felt worse. He gave me a referral to see a psychiatrist. I called to make an appointment & they said they don’t have any for two months. I was miserable and within those two month I visited two hospitals for severe headaches, chest pain and shortness of breath. According to them I had anxiety. So I started to google depression and anxiety and all the symptoms I experienced came up so I believed them.
Getting a Diagnosis
Then it was time for my psychiatrist appointment. They evaluated me and said I suffer from a panic disorder so put me on a new medication and told me I’d feel worse before I got better. After four days on the new medication I started to feel suicidal, the feelings came out of no where. I told my husband and mom and they took me back in to the psychiatrist who changed my medication again.
At this time I felt like my life was never going to be the same. I was such in a dark place not understanding how all these symptoms were depression. After two month on the new medication I only felt like 30% better and 30% wasn’t enough for me.
I then went to see a Rheumatologist where it took about seven months to get a diagnosis. Initially the diagnosis was undifferentiated connective tissue disease, which from my understanding was a diagnosis for the unknown. It can turn into RA or LUPUS etc. My anxiety was consistently high all the time, analyzing every symptom to report to my doctor so we could get a diagnosis and after seven months I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
3) What was it like getting a diagnosis? Were doctors good/bad? Did it take a long time?
It took almost two years to get a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. I learned a lot about the medical field that I would never have believed unless I lived it, which I did. Doctors do not know everything about the human body. I feel we are guinea pigs to them, they are learning as we learn. Listen to your body, take care of your body, it is the only thing keeping you alive. I did feel better after being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, my depression and anxiety got way better, since I know that this isn’t cancer and isn’t going to kill me tomorrow.
4) Had you heard of your illness/condition/disability before you were diagnosed?
No, I had no idea what auto immune disease was at all.
5) How did your diagnosis make you feel?
I was happy to have answers. I wanted to be able to give a reason why I am hurting or in pain, it is because I have Fibromyalgia.
6) What treatment did you have? Were there any problems? Did it help?
I am on Plaquniel, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, they have helped. I still have bad days but it’s manageable.
7) Did family/friends/colleagues take it seriously? Did they support you?
At first my whole family was clueless and were trying to help me find out what was wrong. It did hit a point where we weren’t getting answers and they began to think I was crying wolf or that depression really did cause all these symptoms and started to say I was depressed. I had to do a lot of pushing myself away from them and listening to my body. They started to come around I got diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and was put on my medication.
8) How does your illness/condition/disability affect your life?
Fibromyalgia doesn’t let me be the overachiever that I am or a perfectionist. I want to be able to food shop, do laundry and clean my house on one day. Instead these tasks are spread out throughout the week and sometimes I can’t do any of them. I wanted to work a full time job and finish school but realistically with two kids, I stopped school after graduating with my associates and I am a part time supervisor in a doctors office. However it has taught me to just relax when I’m having a bad day and enjoy everything second when I’m having a good day or moment.
9) What is something you wish people knew about it?
I wish people knew how much I push myself to get up every morning. How much I have learned to appreciate the littlest things and to not let anything ruin my days.
10) Anything else you’d like to share about it or your experience?
No
For more real life stories about living with Fibromyalgia see Catherine’s story –
https://whatapain.co.uk/fibromyalgia-gaslighting
For more information about Fibromyalgia see:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/fibromyalgia/
