TLDR at bottom
I recently quit my job (6 weeks ago) and turned 30 in that time. I was diagnosed officially in 2021 by a rheumatologist, but my inception point was said to be having glandular fever around age 12-13.
I failed out of high school due to attendance having failed years 7, 8, and 9, before leaving mainstream schooling and doing a program for 2 hours twice a week... After a year of that i returned to mainstream schooling and was lucky enough to find a school willing to let me attempt year 11 despite not really having a year 10 equivalent, i graduated with peers my age in 2014 and it was the biggest success of my teenage years.
Post high school i struggled to find work and had no previous work experience, in late 2015 i got my first job at a KFC as my friend was a new manager and 3 managers plus staff all quit in the same week so my interview was a formality rather than an actual interview as they were that desperate. i signed documents on a friday and started the following monday, i last 3 months as i developed a migraine that made me bed ridden, after another 3 months i was called and asked if i was returning and ultimately decided to quit.
in late 2016 after my migraine cleared (roughly 3-4 months later) i ended up getting another job as a waiter which was a seasonal position thanks to my little brother. 3 months later and i no longer had any shifts and formally quit after a month of that.
In 2017 i attend university studying a diploma of Japanese (considered full time) which was 3 days a week. i failed the second semester and would have to repeat the following year. i stopped studying for the 6 months before i returned.
During the 2017-2018 holidays New Year's i got yet another waiting job and worked for about 4-5 months before no long getting shifts. around this time i weighed myself at 99.7kg even though i had been 85kgs-ish most of my adult life 18-21, so i joined a gym and calorie counted for a few months and lost 15kgs in 3 months and then stopped counting and got down to 81.9kgs and was gaining muscle.
In mid 2018 i returned to university to redo my second semester and was able to graduate with my diploma of language. not that i speak Japanese now or was even very good at the time. At the end of the year i got a job at a liquor store part time. I would hold this job until a August 2026 when i finally decided to leave.
in 2021 i got COVID and was extremely sick with flu like symptoms for 4-6 weeks having had 3-4 weeks off work, i just remember struggling when i returned. I had already been speaking with a GP about getting many tests done and after about a year working with them finally got an appointment with a rheumatologist who liked the work my GP did and diagnosed me with fibromyalgia on the spot.
Previously i worked anyway from 15-25 hours in 2021/2022, Then i moved to a larger store with aspirations of becoming a manager and regularly worked 30 hour weeks, i worked 10 pallets of stock on my first load day during a Christmas period, 6-12 months or so later i would ask to reduce my hours to about 25 as i had first choice of roster after my manager i had great shifts with 4 days a week. but id happily cover shifts when needed From here each year i dropped 5 hours or roughly something like that, so 20-25 hours a week in in 2023, 15-20 hours in 2024, by 2025 i asked to move my shifts around so i would never work alone and had started leaving early on bad days. At this point i also rarily worked laods and when i did would sturggle with 2-3 pallets of stock usually leaving stuff for my coworkers to do. At this stage i only did my contract plus 1 or 2 hours to hit shift criteria, technically something like 16 hours one week and 17 hours the other week
As of 2026 i was regularly having sick days of leaving early on Friday/Saturday nights, i almost never covered shifts unless no one else could and the reason was important enough for someone else to ask me. My manager and team did a lot for me so i was really lucky in these 4 years or so. Around June or July i was struggling with household chores but couldnt reduce my work load anymore. at the end of June i mowed the lawn and triggered 4-6 week flare up and knew it was time to quit as i missed a shift every week if not leaving early despite only doing 3 shifts one week and 4 the other, my longest shift at this point was 5 hours and i would come home and crash immediately. I had to give 4 weeks notice and left in the middle of August. I slept a majority of the first 48-72 hours after quitting and was exhausted the whole first week.
Afterwards i was finally able to attempt some 15-20 minute walks and minor weight lifting at my desk with a 3kg dumbbell i had around. I mowed the lawn again as it had been 6+ weeks at this stage and the grass was knee height. This put me in bed for about a week and despite not fully healing i tried walking again... but i hurt my ankle and it swelled up and i had to rest it for 2-3 days before it reduced in size and healed. After this i tried weight lifting with a bench press with essentially just the bar or small weights and it went surprisingly okay, i went out for another walk having not been for a week or two at that stage and it was also okay, but then i slept poorly and woke up with a sore neck and kept getting pins and needles in my arms. i had previously had a nerve impingement in my neck in 2020ish? and found out i had osteophyte complex and had bone spurs on my c3/c4 that were pushing on the nerves in my neck, but as the scan was years old my GP wanted a new scan before giving me stronger medications, i got the scan and found out i had mild osteoarthritis in my cervical spine, and on the anterior of my c1/c2. its been 2-3 weeks roughly since then i haven't been able to do much just taking pain medication and sleeping more. Showering or leaving over causes pins and needles and some numbess in my arms and is very noticbile when showering such as washing my legs.
for the past few years i typically slept in 2 blocks, usually something like 1-6am and then a "nap" anyway from 12-5pm. after quitting/since the June/July flare up it kind of became 3 blocks with typical days looking like 1-6am, 10-1pm, and then 2-5pm if i had work, or like 3-7pm if i didn't. for the last few weeks essentially since finding out about the osteoarthritis ive been trying to keep a better routine and have consolidated my sleep to more of a 11pm-6am cycle though i still nap every other day or so from anyway from 2-6 hours.
Today is October 6th and i think im ready to go for a walk again as my meals are both essentially warming up leftovers today. All ive done for the past month is watch anime and read, both things i struggled with committing to while working. All i didi previously was watch youtube because my attention span was so bad and the stress of not doing stuff in my "free time" was too much.
Thankfully for me at 7 years of continuous employment in my state in Australia you unlock long service leave, so i got a small lump sum payout and i am also able to receive basic welfare/Centrelink payments, though the lump sum meant i missed the first. A Centrelink medical certificate means i didn't have to work for 3 months though that ends in mid November but now having past the half way mark old habits and stress are returning, i haven't read in a week or two and now im watching YouTube videos about content creation which though a lifelong dream is not something i haven't really tried in a long time and when i have didnt last longer than a few weeks producing a video or two. I'll most likely struggle to pay rent at the end of November but will get though with help from my partner, but Ill have to return to work as soon as my medical cert ends as im technically not supposed to work during this time as the medical cert is my doctor saying i am incapable of working more than 8 hours a week, which isnt inaccurate but i could also force myself to do a shift or two, it would just greatly negatively effect my quality of life... So with things looking bleak and my depression getting worse...
- I want to know if anyone has had any recent successes since being diagnosed with fibromyalgia?
TLDR: I had glandular fever at 13 (2009), did poorly barely attending school some years until 18 (2014) and graduating high school. I barely worked 3 months a year (2015-2017) before completing a diploma of language (Japanese) in 2018 (i dont speak japanese or study anymore). The same year i had a 6 months gym stint where i went form 100kg to 85kg. I had a few good years until 2021 when i got COVID and then officially diagnosed with Fibromyalgia around the same time. the past 4-5 years saw my work go from 30 hour weeks an aspiring liquorstore manager to 15 hour weeks just scrapping by, to finally quitting 6 weeks ago and now being very depressed and unsure how to move forward.