Why Don't Any Celebrities Have Fibromyalgia?

I had a strange and riveting dream the other night. When I woke from it I was confused and unsure what it meant. Maybe I had been watching Project Runway recently or something. But anyway, I was at a small little store, very posh and high end, with Heidi Klum and her business manager. Ms. Klum was launching a skincare or cosmetic line and they were trying to recruit me for a sales manager position at counter. I was torn, for this obviously represented a fabulous opportunity, while at the same time the panic and dread of going back into cosmetics was overwhelming. I have laid down that part of my life and moved on to something new. This blog, this cause, this. So I explained I no longer was a makeup artist or retail executive, I created an awareness campaign for Fibromyalgia, suffered from the debilitating condition myself, and was pursuing a career as a writer. Heidi turned to look right at me. In her clipped German accent she said, "You have Fibromyalgia? Don't worry dear, we will get you over that real quick." When I woke up I reviewed the dream in vivid detail, trying to make heads or tails of it. Dreaming is your unconscious filtering through your conscious, in my opinion. So what did it mean? Where had it come from? What was I to glean from this? 

And then I got to wondering why so many people have Fibromyalgia, yet we never hear of celebrities having it. Part of me wondered if it was simply access. A doctor did not tell them nothing was wrong with them when the initial round of tests came back clean. Or if so, they consulted a different doctor. They did not just settle with being told they were "just depressed" and dismissed with a prescription for anti-depressants as far too many of us are. There were more tests taken, they dug a little deeper, specialists were consulted. Or perhaps it's the wealthy who can afford functional medicine*, which is what might be needed to get control of a chronic non-terminal pain condition. They struggle for a short period and then recover enough to resume somewhat normal living. So I did a little research. The only three I could come up with that actually used the word "Fibromyalgia" were the singer Sinead O'Connor, the soap star Susan Flannery and a singer from the '60's named Rosie Hamlin I was not sure I had never heard of. Everyone else used some variation of the term "chronic pain condition". George Clooney had spinal fluid coming out of his nose at one point, Marcia Cross suffers from migraines, Paula Abdul was rumored but again that "chronic pain condition", and an addiction to prescription meds, was all I could really find out about her. Oh and a plethora of pro-football players suffer from some pain ailment or another. To that I wanted to say no shit Sherlock. 

Then I came across a group that wanted to just pick a celebrity spokesperson to get the word out. That is not how it works, I thought to myself. The celebrity has to have the ailment to be a spokesperson for it. You don't just pick someone out of the clear blue because you feel like it and petition them to take up our cause! Do you? Maybe you do. Susan G. Koman's sister wasn't a breast cancer survivor herself, was she? So what to do, what to do to get the word out... A celebrity spokesperson would be wonderful publicity, but there just don't seem to be many that have it. Or do they too keep quiet about it because it is still so disrespected, medically and socially? Would it screw up their professional or personal lives like it does ours?

Well I can tell you from my end over here I am doing as much as I can. And I see a whole lot of other people proudly supporting the cause with their Fibromyalgia Crusade bands and tee shirts. People are giving out our postcard left and right. I even have some friends who have their doctors giving them out! People that were silent or embarrassed or insecure about having Fibromyalgia are now speaking up, demanding collaboration and results from their doctor, forgetting about the people that don't offer compassion and support. That is HUGE! I am upgrading our website, still gonna get myself on youtube one of these days and yes, we are going to harass the government with a letter campaign as soon as I can get to it. So I guess we are doing the best we can. As the Fun House reached 2,000 strong and this blog nears its 50,000th hit, we are doing a bit more than the best we can, we are kicking some Fibro booty!

Thanks for joining,
Leah

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*Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care. Click this link for more information.