I started working at age 13 yrs old. Yes 13! I started working in a resturant as a car hop/waitress. Back then they paid no attention to age. My mother needed help with bills so, after school I went to work to help out. Once I got out of school I went to business school to become a bookkeeper. Yuck! It paid pretty good but, I hated being put into a room all by myself. I went from that to racing cars in a round track. I enjoyed it but, there just was no money in it. I took a job driving a gasoline tanker truck in W,Va. mountains but, the bad weather in those mountains just were not for me.

I then went to credit companies as a cashier (finance companies) I did that for about 3 years and then went to work for olan mills as a sells operator. Then I got married stayed home for awhile and decided we needed more money so, I started working for a place something like a walmart. This is where I got my back hurt real bad. During my time there I fell onto a concrete floor after falling from a top shelf about 15 ft high. landing on my back! I was out of work for 8 months and lost the use of my arm for awhile. During this time I was in a car wreck and it caused me to be paralized for 4 years on my right side.

Later with drs. help I did go back to work at a mental health place driving people to dr. appointments. That was about 4 years. Then for 4 years I did interior decorating for bazaar home fashions. I did alot of climbing and hanging curtains, and doing window desiging. I fell a couple of times there but, nothing real bad. I was just getting older now and little falls were starting to add up.

I finally had to stop working do to my mom having a stroke and i took care of her. She was 190 lbs and lifting and taking care of her did not help things. She has been gone now 7 years. The last couple years of her life I had to put her into a nursing home I just could not care for her anymore.

I do think all the falls and damage to my back and spine had a lot to do with my spine problems now and perhaps brought on the fibromyalgia too. They don't know for sure if fibro is acctivated by falls or damage done to the body do to accidents or car wrecks and etc. however, they are not rulling it out.

This is why I am asking you all. What types of jobs did you do? Did you ever hurt yourself on the job? If so, how? If not then what type of jobs did you do like heavy lifting, lots of repetitive work like piece work, things like this. Let's see if perhaps we might find out what they have not been able to do.

Tell us your story! Lets compare work, exercise, life style and etc. to see if perhaps this disease we have can be activated by these things. See could it be like TB? We can all carry the TB virus in us but, it might not ever activate unless our imune system gets low. I didn't know that until my grandfather died of TB. The dr. said he probably had tb for years and when his potassium level got to low the TB was activated and it killed my grandfather. Could fibromyalgia be like TB in this way??????

lets hear from you all

brenda

I havent worked any really physical jobs in a few years, but there was TREMENDOUS difference for me between when I taught part-time and when I worked full-time in social services. I was also a full-time grad student when I taught, so I dont think it had as much to do with the amount of time I worked as the type of work. I spent some time in Child Protective Services and that was when I first started experiencing symptoms. I took a year off, doing the teaching and grad school thing and while I still struggled, it was never as bad. Then, before I was dx, so I thought maybe I was over it all, I went back to social work as a Forensic Interviewer (interviewing children about sexual abuse). After a few months, it hit all over again, worse than ever.

So for me, it hasn't been related to physical activity (although I cant say it wouldnt be, I just havent had the experience to relate), but its definitely been related to the level of stress in my jobs. Unfortunately, I love social work and what I do, so Im not altogether sure what direction Im going to go in long-term.

I guess injuries can make the fibro worse in some cases but, not the cause of it. Wonder if others have had this same problem???