Meet
my Mom: Nancy BirdMy mom, Nancy Bird, is a 55-year-old wife and mother of four girls, raised in Western Pennsylvania, transplanted to Tulsa, Oklahoma about 17 years ago. She has been mostly a stay-at-home mom, though she ventured outside the home for work a couple of times over the years. She has spent her last 10 years caring for my nephews in her home during the day while my oldest sister works.Mother of Four Daughters...
Fibromyalgia Survivor
Mom has been experiencing pain of one sort
or another since she was in high-school. As she remembers it, it
all started with headaches, then pain in the lower back and between the
shoulder blades. This continued for many years, with more and more
problems cropping up, but with little understanding from either family
or medical professionals. According to Mom, two weeks rest was the
cure-all for any "woman" problem back then:
She started using asprin on a daily basis, then tried Tylenol, Advil, and anything else that came on the market. None of them worked. About 8 years ago, Mom started experiencing pain accompanied by dramatic swelling under her left arm, which "felt like a rolled up sock". This lump extended into her breast, and made her go to the doctor to see what was up. This began her search for a more complete answer to her medical troubles. She endured many, many tests, and was given a dozen different opinions and mis-diagnoses. She was put on different treatments, none of them working, and at the same time was becoming more and more limited in movement, and more and more subjected to daily pain. When her feet both became numb 'round the clock for months at a time, she was sent to a neurologist, and was finally diagnosed last year with FMS and Osteoarthritis."One of the worst parts of all this has been the same for me as most
women my age. Back in the 70's when most of the IBS and FMS really
started, every time I went to the doctor, I was told to take a vacation
and in two weeks I would be better. For women in their 20's, 30's, and
40's the medical profession deemed anything that did not show up on a
blood test or X-ray, had to be a hormone problem and all in our heads.
God only knows how many women ended up in divorce, suicide, or
mental hospitals because of this and were diagnosed as ''female''
problems. Two weeks rest was the prescription for almost anything
the doctors didn't understand. Plus the fact that this predominently
affects women didn't help matters any. " (Nancy Bird)
Read more about Mom's story:
