Western medicine provided no more clarity for Rina Ong when she started experiencing similar pains. “It felt like someone … stabbing my knee,” described the 31-year-old, who also broke out in hives all over her body.
She sought medical advice, but 18 negative blood tests and one clean nerve examination later, her doctors insisted that she was in the pink.
“Maybe it’s in your mind,” several doctors even suggested to Daisy Chia, who grappled with brain fog, mood swings, lethargy and incontinence in addition to chronic pain.
“(One doctor) sent me back with nothing, not even painkillers,” recounted the 54-year-old, who kept wondering, “Am I getting crazy?”
“Clara”, 25, who declined to be identified, knew for a fact that the only thing she was “faking” was the amount of pain she chose to tell others she was suffering.
Such is the nature of fibromyalgia: invisible to the eye, undetectable by tests and confounding to medical professionals, yet painfully real for those who endure it.
Four individuals opened up to CNA Insider about what living with fibromyalgia is like and how they came to terms with their chronic condition.
WATCH: Living with chronic pain that even doctors don’t believe — This is fibromyalgia (12:39)
