Susan: I have to try to take the prescription sleep medication every few nights when the next day's schedule will be the lightest as I know that whenever I take it, I will have no energy and I will move and think even more slowly than in my usual fibro fog throughout most of the next day. This is the only medication till now that has helped the fibro pain which is all over my body. …an acquaintance with whom I used to spend a lot of time, told me that I am a klutz!!! I was very hurt by being called that as I am always so careful when I walk to try not to lose my balance.

…one of the accommodations the NYC Board of Education approved for me to work, I needed to have bathroom relief every 45 minutes. This meant someone had to either be in my classroom or come to it for me to leave the room. … The principal, who made it obvious she did not want to deal with my medical problems, told me that the other teachers who had to provide the bathroom relief made fun of me and labeled it "potty duty". I finally had to go onto disability as besides struggling to get through each day of the never relenting pain, fatigue, and the limitations from my other autoimmune medical conditions, I was tired, too limited in my ability to function, and too humiliated to continue to struggle. I worked for 16 years under these conditions.

Brenda W.: The disbelief and poor understanding of any of my medical problems came from my family and husband. … Only after I have…become wheelchair dependent and undergo care with a pain specialist have I gotten any positive recognition for what this painful and fatigued out life has been like.

I was…and now I am someone else.

Deborah Y.: Prior to my illness I worked full time as a Head Nurse Manager… I was also working on my Master's degree as a General Nurse Practitioner in the evening. Always a workaholic who enjoyed having it all, home family and career (single mom as well). After I became ill I was no longer able to work, lost my job, lost income, lost my house, my car, custody of my 5 year old son… and I could no longer manage. …I committed myself to fight for improvement in my life, go through the testings, medicine trials and whatever else it took to improve if not for me but for my children. I am fighting the social security gods for financial help (somehow they don't seem to believe how incapacitated I really am). I bite my tongue and read the denials through tears trying to understand they just don't know.

Janice M.: At the age of 48, I was a full-time Doctoral (honor) student and Graduate Assistant… when I was diagnosed with FMS. Because my professors were unable to understand why I did not look ill yet I could no longer function at the level they had become accustomed to, I lost my assistantship. A psychological evaluation indicated that I now had learning disabilities, including increased dyslexia and short-term memory loss.

Jean H.: Fibro MY What?

I am unable to go out to work. Play with my 2-year-old grand child. Go out shopping by myself, or do anything heavier than light household cleaning. If I do, then I am often confined to bed, and need help just to turn over. ... A kind vet would put an animal to sleep if he was unable to help the pain. Fibromyalgia sufferers are not pets, we are human beings, and deserve to be treated as such, with understanding, and to keep the hope alive...

Ramona S.-K.: I kept working full time for a large telecommunications company in order to retain medical benefits. I was on/off disability for various operations, and each time my recovery took longer than normal. My immune system continued to deplete. My pain increased. Employer harassment increased. I became too weak to fight to keep my job, yet I tried to keep up a façade that I could work it out. I was "constructively fired."