Chronic Monday: Another update on the NY Times article on fibromyalgia; if the effing eff word offends you, don't read this one

OK, now that everybody's writing about it, it's beginning to seem like just a lot of words. I'm going to let it go with a few choice excerpts from Rosemary at Sophy's Journal. Which is really hard because every word of her post is GREAT. I so get a charge out of every reading. I'll guaran-darn-tee ya, ya won't be bored by her "venting" letter to the author of the NY Times article!


Excerpted from Open Letter to Alex Berenson of the NYT, in regards to Drug Approved. Is Disease Real?

Fuck you. Seriously. It's not like those of us living with fibromyalgia get enough scrutiny already about whether or not we're "really" sick, or have to put up with crap all the time from doctors who call us drug seekers and insurance companies who don't want to cover our medications or the government who won't give us the benefits we direly need and rightly deserve or anything. What we really really needed was some asshole who didn't do his homework and clearly has a strong bias on the subject to publish an article in the health section of the New York Times calling into question whether the illness we suffer with every day is even real.

She really has a way with words.

Yes. Fibromyalgia is fucking confusing right now. No one knows for sure what it is or what causes it or why it affects the people it does or how to universally effectively treat it or if a cure is possible. And that sucks. But it doesn't fucking mean it doesn't fucking exist. There was a time when no one knew what diabetes was, when no one knew what caused pneumonia, when no one understood why people caught colds, or how to treat cancer, or if a cure for rabies existed. That didn't mean those illnesses weren't real, and the confusion around fibromyalgia doesn't mean IT isn't real, either, capice??

So eloquent, don't you think?

Fucking HELL you fucking GENIUS - the whole fucking point of new medications like Lyrica is BECAUSE all of these other meds DON'T fucking work for us and we're finding more and more that fibro is probably a neurological issue and so we're trying out drugs that effect our neurological systems instead of continually dumping more and more less effective opiates and crap into our bodies.
Do you not have ONE FUCKING CLUE?!?!

And Pfizer, take this!:

Do I think Lyrica is the cure-all of the Fibro Masses? Fuck no!
Do I think Pfizer is an evil corporation that would market holy water as the cure to cancer if they thought it could make them a buck? Fuck yea!

And in conclusion:

Does ANY OF THAT have ANYTHING to do with the fact that fibromyalgia is a real, and really serious, illness that plagues millions of people and deserves to be treated seriously??!

I'll let you draw the FUCKING conclusion on that one.

Rosemary, you're my hero.

Be sure to read Rosemary's letter in its etirety here. There's also a "more reasonable sounding" letter at the end of the post, that Rosemary sent to the NYT.


Remember, anyone who would like to respond to the article, "Drug Approved. Is Disease Real?" that was printed Monday, Jan. 14, 2008 in the NY Times, can send comments to the Public Editor at the paper, Clark Hoyt, who is driven by what readers care and complain about, at public@nytimes.com or call (212) 556-7652. You also are encouraged to send a copy of your comment to News Department at nytnews@nytimes.com and the Managing Editor at managing-editor@nytimes.com.

Identify that you are responding to the Jan. 14, page 1 article on fibromyalgia and include your name, city, and state, and give a brief description of your experience with FM. At the end of your e-mail ask that the editors at the New York Times publish a quality article on fibromyalgia.