Onlookers, even close family members, often fail to grasp the seriousness. At her administrative job, in the maintenance department of a local casino, Beatty senses that co-workers keep expecting her to bounce back, as if her condition is not chronic. Barreto was diagnosed in March, but believes her symptoms started appearing after she was injured in a car accident in 1994. She says she was forced to leave her job as a paralegal in late 1999 because her boss could tolerate neither her occasional fibro fog, nor her desire to lower stress by working from home. The author has fibromyalgia and specializes in treating it and related conditions.
Researchers theorize that trauma or infection can trigger fibromyalgia, but have no proof.
Dr. Mervyn Willard, a Las Vegas physician who is board-certified in family medicine, estimates 20 percent of his practice is fibromyalgia patients. FM is a demanding disease to treat, and 20 percent is more than full. To diagnose fibromyalgia, physicians use objective criteria. A tender point is a spot that, when pressed with minimal pressure, causes pain there. A patient, also, must have had continuous pain for three months.