When you're not alone, it doesn't hurt so much.

I was browsing through all of my Fibro relating sites on my facebook news feed, thinking I needed to find some more information to share with you all. It's fine to share what living with this is like, but I need to educate myself further on my conditions, so I can help the rest of the world understand Fibro better. So, I found a video that's basically a commercial for a pain doc in California that is really making a difference for his patients, but the two things that really stood put to me and made me want to share the video with you all is that 1) it talks about what Fibromyalgia really is. The muscle and neurological facets of Fibro are discussed briefly, but in a way that make it really real. And 2) he (the doc in the video) discusses the importance of having a network of friends and family for pain patients, and this is what I really want to touch on for this post.
Having a chronic condition, especially something related to pain, could make it very easy for the person suffering to end up quietly struggling away with his or her disease alone, in their house. On bad days, it's hard to get out there and interact with the rest of the world. No one means to 'forget" about their loved ones, but we all get busy with our day to day lives....and the next thing you know, you haven't talked to a friend in weeks or months. I think it's especially important for pain sufferers to keep a close knit group of friends and family around them. The emotional support really does make the bad pain days easier to bear through.
I know that with all of the new, fast-paced technology of the world we live it that it's so much easier to be impersonal and we live with our electronic leashes (i.e. cell phones) and behind a keyboard. Some of my very good friends I have never actually met in person because I game with them. We talk over the computer through voice programs and our characters meet up in World of Warcraft and go kill monsters together. We know a lot about each other's "real lives" but we'd never know one another on the street. 
But all of the crazy technology that surrounds us has a good side too. Chris sent me a tweet the other day that just said "I miss you & I'm thinking about you. life is crazy for us all right now, so we need to remember to check on __". She's my girl, I loves her, and I love that in the middle of her crazy life of moving into a new house and starting a new job, she can stop and think about me and just fire off a quick tweet that makes my day. I love that we can share news, good or bad, and have our loved ones stop wherever they are, and reply to us via tweet, text, facebook wall post, or email that they are overjoyed for our good news or hurting with us for our bad news.
Fibro patients really need this support. We're just now being recognized as sufferers of a real disease, even though there are still plenty of people in the medical field that love to tell us we're nuts. If we find a doctor a compassionate as this one in the video below, and we have our friends and family, that's really the best medicine!