Woman finds strength in fighting fibromyalgia

Tag : titanium block

When Tina Atchison gets out of bed each morning, she wakes to apulsating pain in her hips.
By the time she's walking into work at the Juvenile Justice Center,her legs tingle and her knee joints ache.
After eight hours on the job, it's not uncommon for this Germantownresident to go home exhausted and collapse into bed, trying toblock out the throbbing, burning pain that's taken over most of herbody.
Unfortunately, this is a normal day for Atchison, who was diagnosedwith fibromyalgia a year ago after seeing a number of doctors whocouldn't alleviate the pain.
And while the pain does shackle her body, she's determined to notlet it imprison her entire life. She swims regularly at Hadley ParkCommunity Center and manages the pain with a cocktail ofmedications. Like anyone battling a disease, she takes it one dayat a time, hoping and praying for a long-term solution.
When it started
Four years ago, Atchison was an active mom to two pre-teendaughters.
"I was a caterer. I sang in the choir. I was very active inchurch," said Atchison, a Maplewood High School and TSU graduate."I was active in the kids' school activities. I was that one parentthat was always there, that the teachers could always count on. Ifno other parents were there, I was there."
But then she took a tumble down the small set of concrete stairs infront of her home, breaking her left ankle and the two main bonesin each leg.
"I also broke my neck but didn't know it at the time," Atchisonsaid. "I fell on my right shoulder, and it caused my neck to break,and I didn't even know it. I walked around with that pain for along time. I thought I had a pinched nerve. My two fingers becametingly and went numb, and it went up my arm. Eventually I couldn'tuse my right side. I looked as if I'd had a stroke."
In March 2005, Atchison had the first of three surgeries, whichtreated her spine by taking bone from her hip. Six weeks later,Atchison said doctors took the bone out and replaced it with pinsand screws.
"Then the pins shifted, so in 2006, I had another surgery,"Atchison said. "So they took them out, and took out the scartissue, and put titanium screws in.
"I was fine but I still had pain. I was still complaining of hippain, and basically they told me the pain was something I'd have tolive with, and I didn't think that was right."
Finding answers
Over time she tried a host of treatments that didn't work,including spine shots at a pain management clinic and a few roundsof very strong drugs. Tired of hurting with no relief in sight, shebegan researching possible causes herself.
At one time, Atchison worked for an insurance company processingmedical claims and had heard others claim they had fibromyalgiathat was triggered by a trauma to the body. Comparing her symptomswith those of the disease led her to believe that may be what shehad.
"I knew fibromyalgia did exist because I'd heard people say thesame things, and it didn't make me seem so crazy," Atchison said."You have doctors looking at you like you're crazy, or telling youthere's nothing wrong with you, and you start to wonder, 'Am Imaking this up?' But I knew I wasn't. I knew the pain was real."
And so did Dr. William Strickland, a neurologist who diagnosedAtchison and took on her treatment. While he said the causes forthe disease aren't specifically known, he believes the disorder isreal.
"There's a hesitancy (for doctors) to recognize it because there'snot a test for it," Strickland said.
Atchison said Strickland found several numb spots on her, signalingsome nerve damage in addition to fibromyalgia.
"In my experience  I'm in neurology  there's a fairly largeoverlap in fibromyalgia and neuropathic symptoms," Strickland said."(With those diseases) I see a lot of fibromyalgia-type symptoms."
Right now, Atchison's taking a combination of drugs that makes thepain tolerable, but she knows at some point she'll have to dosomething different.
"Your body gets used to the drugs, and eventually you've have to upthe dosage, or change the drug," Atchison said. "But you can't stoptaking it; since the drugs affect the spinal cord, you have to comeoff them gradually. This is not a cold-turkey disease."
But despite what would appear to be a bleak outlook, Atchison keepsa smile and a cheerful attitude to match. Swimming three times aweek and taking her medications make it a little easier to get outof bed each day.
And she hopes others who are experiencing pain will hear her storyand be motivated to become more proactive about their health.
" If you tell a doctor that you think you have something, and theytell you that you don't or they diagnose you with something else,then that's not the doctor for you."