Hey Janers, nice to meet you.  Ok, about me, well, I'm 30 years old,
from Texas, not married, no kids, with two cats.  I have a BS in
Environmental Science and Biology and a minor in chemistry and a
Masters degree in Environmental Science with my electives (thank God)
taken in pre-med and other biology classes.  I was diagnosed with
fibromyalgia in January 2003, my hands were not working correctly, then
I was ok until after my father's death in Feb. 2004.  I was an
Environmental Investigator for the State of Texas, and had to quit my
job in Sept. 2004 because I could hardly walk.  The doctors couldn't
help me.  I spent most of my inheritance on doctors and pills and herbs
and then moved home and found some new doctors and finally got
diagnosed last December.  The Lupus made sense, my blood work had just
started showing strange things last summer.  I have pretty bad
arthritis in my hands and all my joints, my left knee buckles at
strange instances for no reason and I almost fall, and I always fall at
home for no apparent reason.  I'm usually in a pretty good amount of
pain but falling jars every joint.  My back is very bad, I have spazms
in the top and bottom, and had the steriod shots done last fall which
helped but I also have a herniated disk between L5 and S1.  (Aren't you
regretting asking me to tell you about myself right about now? ;))

But, I'm doing better.  My pain lady put me on a special diet and I've
dropped over 30 lbs from the 90 I gained becasue of the meds, and I'm
getting out more and that makes me feel much better as well.  And the
diet has cut the pain tremendously.  Everyone keeps telling me I look
better.  I've also been notified that I have Anti-Phospholipid Antibody
Syndrome, which I'm sure some of you are familiar with, that threw me
for a loop because I had already learned alot about that from a woman
that lives here who has exactly what I have.  She's almost died several
times, been in comas, lost two children to miscarriages, barely carried
all of her children and one she has passed the phospholipid onto.  Me,
being sick, 30 years old, with no husband, no boyfriend, no kids,
yeah... like any of that will happen now!  Oh well...

I hold out hope that soon I'll find a miracle.  Or a miracle will find
me.  I'd like to go to Africa and help the foundations working for
clean water, that's my specialty.  I'm not trying to be Angelina Jolie,
I just think that maybe since that is the birthplace of the world maybe
there are answers to whatever you can't find anywhere else there.  And
besides, I did the Environmental Science thing to save the world.  ;)

Thank you for the warm welcome and interest in me and my health.

~ Krista