Despite fatigue and pain, Sarah fights to highlight ‘fibro’ condition

By Mary Dennehy

SARAH Jane Yeates is in pain 24 hours a day, everyday. From the moment her alarm goes off each morning the 34-year-old Tallaght resident is faced with the painful struggle of getting out of bed – even though she may have managed to get two hours sleep.

Last year Sarah Jane was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition which affects the soft tissues of the body, resulting in widespread, constant chronic pain and fatigue – alongside related symptoms including sleep depreciation, muscle and joint pain, speech impendances, confusion or forgetfulness (fibro fog), irritable bowel, migraines, depression, anxiety, sensory issues and reduced physical function.

However, despite living with this painful, debilitating disease for which there is no known cure, Sarah Jane has started a positive mental health campaign – which she hopes will give a voice to those living with this relatively unknown disease.

Sarah Jane told The Echo: “Fibromyalgia is a hidden condition, it’s invisible and I want to make it visible – give silent sufferers a voice.

“When I was diagnosed last year I had never heard of fibromyalgia.

“I’d try to explain my illness to my friends and family and they can’t comprehend it – I don’t look sick, so they don’t think I’m sick.

“Trying to explain it to work is nearly impossible. My life has changed drastically, and the worst thing is it’s changing and I’ve absolutely no control of it.”

While Sarah feels she has no control over where fibromyalgia will take her, as the medical profession is still researching the root of the disease and its progression, she fully believes she can make a difference to the mental health aspect of the disease – with many people with firbomyalgia experiencing emotional distress, including anxiety and depression.

“Physically the way fibromyalgia attacks the body and the lack of sleep, fatigue and not being able to work or do the things you used to do, all contribute to feelings of depression and anxiety”, Sarah Jane said.

“My life has totally changed – sitting on a chair, and being confined to that chair, on a night out because you can’t dance anymore is hard.

“There are days when I feel like I can’t go on, but on these days I think of the good things around me, there is so much bad but so much positive as well.

“I think of what makes me happy and I might go to my sisters for the day and hang out with her kids or go for a walk.”

She added: “I thought why not turn all of this negativity around and do something positive with it.

“Why not raise awareness [of fibromyalgia] like people do for all of the other illnesses. Invest all the knowledge I have learnt regarding my illness into something.

“I think a positive mental attitude can make days a little easier and help people with fibromyalgia in dealing with the hard days.”

Alongside supporting other people with fibromyalgia, or ‘fibro heads’ as Sarah Jane calls them, the Killinarden resident believes that awareness of the disease needs to be raised among the general public – in the hope that people will be more understanding of what a fibromyalgia patient goes through.

“I have created a Facebook page and a live video-blog on my snapchat so people can see the real-time life of a ‘fibro head’…which I hopes make this disease more visible.

“Better public understanding will support people with fibromyalgia and will have a positive impact on their mental health.
“I hope that my campaign can help those living with fibromyalgia…and what can be done to help alleviate the symptoms, helping them to manage their illness.”

Follow Sarah Jane on her Facebook page called Kick Fibros Ass, where other fibro suffers can “share their stories and feel the support”.

There is also links on the Facebook page to Sarah Jane’s Twitter and Snapchat accounts.

For further information on fibromyalgia visit www.fibroireland.com or www.arthritisireland.ie.