I'm going to say it felt like I had the flu contantly without actually having the flu. Major hip pain and back spasams.

I also had major hip pain to the point of limping, my PCP finally sent me to an orthopedic dr., but he had no idea what Fibromyalgia was! My sister had it was the reason I mentioned it to him, so he sent me to a bunch of younger orthopedic Drs. Who knew what it was! I also began having widespread pain and the worst fatigue I've ever known! They put me in therapy immediately, went for water aerobics, hot tub therapy, hot wraps, massage therapy, all these together with a regimens of certain meds brought me back to life! That was in 1997, I have off & on, lived with pain & fatigue! A year ago, I went on a vitamin supplement regimine, changed what I ate, stopped drinking diet and regular cokes, now it's only water!!! Changed my life!!!!

I skipped the flu cycle went straight to the major symptoms:
Joint pain, restless leg syndrome insomnia,would not be able to tolerate anything that was not ultra soft next to skin, horrible fatigue instantly after any activity (thought it was do to the,2 part-time jobs with full-time job)
Only had 1full day off). At first before I was diagnosed in 1995 just pushed to myself to get everything done with my crazy schedule was a single Mom trying to help daughter with college. Would have to run home in between jobs to take a nap before each job.

I think what has worked the best for me has been the vitamins and supplements I take! It got me off a lot of meds! In Feb. if 2015 I began losing weight without trying! I am 4'11" and I weighed 142, have always been on the plump side! So in 2015 started losing weight and I told my PCP and she laughed and said Girl, I wish I could do that! So in 3 mos. I went back for checkup, told her I was still losing weight without trying, she said the same thing! August I went back and had lost more weight, again she said that's great, no tests or anything! I was happy to be losing weight but wasn't trying! One night I was putting lotion on my face & neck and found a lump in my neck! In Oct. I went back to her and she still wasn't worried about the weight loss, so I told her to feel the lump and tell me what it was! She felt and began setting me up with ENT FOR a biopsy of my thyroid! Yes, it was cancer! So this past Feb. 2016, I had a thyroidectomy and woke up and couldn't speak above a whisper! Thank God they got all the cancer, but I had no voice! Went to Vanderbilt in Nashville and there's nothing that can be done, both vocal cords are paralyzed from trauma! It's been almost 7 mos. and I'm barely talking! I'm told my voice will come back eventually! I pray it will! In all I lost 30 lbs, I get strangled, choked, and deal with a lot of stress from it! Recently, I've had for the last 4 mos. horrible back, hip & sciatic pain! Have tried every kind of rub and ointment I can find! Also going to chiropractor! It's gradually getting better! I think I've also been dealing with some fibromyalgia too! I stopped all my vitamins after my surgery so we could get all my new meds plus 6 BP meds all going again! I am diabetic, but well managed, very high BP, inherited,. Drs. Could find no cause for it going so high during and after surgery, 215/98.....anyway, I'm anxious to get back on my vitamins! Oh, since my vocal cords are still paralyzed I have to take all my meds with applesauce or yogurt to keep from choking! I am fighting a lot of fatigue, but the sciatic pain is kicking my butt, literally!!!!!

I had lots of varied symptoms much like I do now, hip pain was the worst and still is, headaches, dizziness, feeling faint, stomach problems, poor memory, depression, anxiety, poor eyesight, sleep problems and exhaustion. To be honest I don't know how well I really dealt with these things before the diagnosis, I was a bit of a mess but I had already noticed that lack of sleep made everything ten times worse, so I concentrated on getting as much sleep as I could and relaxing as much as I could. The best I could manage was to try and control the severity of any one issue. I went gluten and dairy free for a long time which helped me greatly and really reduced a lot of the problems I had to something far more manageable. I think I'm going to have to get disciplined again and go gluten and dairy free again...!