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My FMS Story~
When I was a senior in high school I had a burning desire to serve the Lord. The summer before my senior year I taught VBS, 5 Day Clubs (backyard Bible clubs) etc... with Child Evangelism Fellowship. I went to camp for a week as a camp counselor and the Missionary’s that were there for the week were on furlough from the country of Chile. We talked a lot that week about C.E.F.’s Summer Missionary Program. That is where teen’s from across the United States apply to work overseas with Missionaries who are on the field for a summer. If accepted they must do as a regular missionary would do and travel to different churches to raise support. I was very excited about this program and after talking to the missionary’s about it and praying about it I decided that I would apply. I was accepted to go to Chile! It was the summer of 1983. After traveling to every church in the area that would have me and raising almost $3,000 , I had to go to Warrenton, MO to the main CEF headquarters for training for 2 weeks. While in MO I was bitten by a tick. I had NO idea what it was! I was changing clothes one day when I realized that there was a bug attached to my back. I quickly grabbed it and pulled it off, very repulsed! I didn’t realize then that that little bug would quickly change my life forever after. I put it out of my mind and didn’t think any more about it. Life was too full and exciting with so many new things to learn and the excitement of going overseas for the first time in my life. I was the only one in a group of I think 22 teens who had to wait two weeks before going so that I could graduate from High School. Everyone else went to Christian Schools and were already done. My school did not end until June 22 and my parents wanted me to walk with my class. Those two weeks were torture. I was exhausted after the training and also received a second typhoid fever shot. The night I graduated I was sicker than I can ever remember being up till that point! My arm was swollen 2 inches wide by about 4 inches long where they had given me the shot and was burning to the touch. I also had a very high fever. After graduation I went to an all night graduation party with other seniors who were involved in a local Youth For Christ. I stayed about an hour and called and asked my Dad to pick me up! The next morning at nine AM I left for Chile! My first day in Chile was chilly! It was over 90 when we left the US and less than 30 when we reached Chile... brrr! That afternoon I was standing too close to the kerosene heater at the missionary’s house and caught my flared skirt on fire. I still have the scar on my leg from it.
After arriving in Chile I was exhausted all the time! I could never seem to drag myself out of bed! I was worried and the missionary’s must have thought I was very lazy! I could not explain it, to them or to myself. Never in my life had I had a problem with fatigue! All through Jr. High and High School I had baby-sat constantly till 2,3 and sometimes 4 am then would get up and go to school and not have a problem with being tired! I was constantly on the go and had never felt fatigued before. Then the vomiting started and I was helpless to stop it. Many nights I sat by the commode all night long. It got so bad that another missionary lady took me to a Dr. who said that I had a spastic colon. He gave me some medication and that seemed to help some. After returning to the States I was still exhausted but figured that it was due to the long summer and getting ready to go to College. I was only home for 2 weeks before leaving for a Baptist College in Ohio. The fatigue stayed VERY intense while I was there. I repeatedly slept through my first and sometimes my second hour classes every morning. We had a dorm inspection three times a week and had duties that had to be done before inspection. The Dean of Women would become very disgusted with me because I was still in bed when she would inspect. I always got up and did what I needed to do for the inspection but would usually fall back into bed exhausted after that. She assumed that somehow I had not done my jobs even though they were done (I’m not sure if she thought that my room-mates had done them or what.) One day she actually pulled me out of bed and told me to get to class and stop being so lazy. I’ll have to admit at the time I agreed with her about me being lazy! I’d always been a hard worker my whole life and now I was sleeping my life away. The vomiting started back at that time and a Doctor put me on baby food! YUCK! But it was all I could keep down and at times not even that. Finally in December, about a week after the incident with the Dean of Women, I was rushed to the Emergency Room very dehydrated. My friend Robin, from my home Church went with me and promptly fainted as they were putting an IV in my arm. I was in the hospital for a week and had all kinds of tests done but they just could not figure out what it was. At Christmas break I stayed home and did not return to College. I figured that I was not going to get anywhere sleeping through College, what was the use!
I got through life for the next 9 years except for the fatigue. I went back to College in Ohio for another semester in 1988, then transferred to a College in Indiana in the summer of ‘88. (Which is where I met my wonderful hubby : ) Then when I became pregnant with my first child my hips started going out of place on me and I couldn’t walk at times the pain was so intense. My OB, not knowing what the problem was, put me on bed rest- the worst thing! I ended up having to have a C-Section after 29 hours of induced (he was 16 days overdue) back labor. I survived that but then about two years later I was having excruciating pain that was unbearable. I woke up one morning and told my hubby- I NEED to see a Dr. So off I went. They did some blood work to test me for Lupus and also did a pregnancy test- yes I was pregnant with #2! The ANA came back a low positive and I was then sent to a rheumatologist. He told me after examining me that I had something called fibromyalgia. I was stunned. I had never heard of it before, but at least it wasn’t all in my head! I began reading everything that I could get my hands on, which wasn’t much! I also had an extremely difficult pregnancy. It became neccesary for me to use a wheelchair if there was any walking involved (even for church), and I needed to use electric carts to grocery shop. My OB advised me to have another cesarean due to the constant pain, he and I both feeling like enough was enough. Three months after my second child was born I again learned that I was pregnant. I was devastated at first. My hubby did not have a job, our car was not working and it was the dead of winter! I cried and cried feeling like I just couldn’t handle another baby at that point, then God allowed me to almost lose the baby twice ( I miscarried my first and third babies) and I really got to thinking. I may not have been ready for another baby but I certainly didn’t want it to die. I got a change of heart in a hurry! Things got better (they always do : ) and after our third was about 3 months old we moved down South. We now have a fourth (and God willing last) baby. (We have 2 boys aged 5 and 3, and 2 girls aged 2 and 1). Fibromyalgia has changed my life in many ways. I’m thankful for the lessons that it has taught me. I feel like we can use bad things that come into our lives to make us bitter or better. I choose to use it to make me better. If there’s a way that I can help someone else who has it, then it makes me feel like the pain is somehow worth it. (DON’T ask me in the middle of a bad flair if this is how I feel though ). I now feel like Lyme Disease may have been the start of all of this. I just recently put 2+2 together and realized that the start of my symptoms coincided with the tick bite that I received in 1983. I have also been diagnosed with IBS, TMJ, Tendonitis, Bursitis and Benign Hyper Mobility Syndrome in my hips.
My favorite Bible verse is: Jude 22 ~ And of some having compassion, making a difference.
Valerie
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