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Meet, FMS Disability Advocate, Don Powell: Part 1

© Tamara Peters

Don, please tell our readers a little bit about yourself - anything at all you'd like to share.

I'm 6' 2" 200lbs. well muscled and look like you'd picture your classic Greek God on Mt. Olympus. Let's see, I drive a Rolls because with the Fibro, it's hard to get into the Ferrari these days.

Seriously, I'm a 43 year old man who has been married to his second wife for 5 and 1/2 years. I have had Fibro since the fall of '95 and been disabled by it since Sept. of '96. I met my current wife about a year before the symptoms started so she got to watch me fall apart and has stayed with me all through it. She has two sons by her former husband who are now 19 and about to be 15. I have no kids of my own. My wife and I struggle on what she earns and her child support...I am still trying to get SSDI.

I have a very severe case of Fibro with all the nasty symptoms that entails. Pain killers do me no good. I don't sleep very often nor very well, etc. I have 9 doctors of various types...the ones I see most often are my Rheumatologist and my Psychiatrist. My medical coverage is expensive and borderline decent when compared to others.

In addition to the Fibro and it's related disorders, I am clinically depressed...as many Fibromites are. I am also bipolar which many know as manic depressive. My shrink says the Fibro helps control my highs...which is a good thing because it makes me less of a danger to others...but it makes my lows lower which is a bad thing because it makes me more of a danger to myself.

How does fibro affect your quality of life, and your relationships with your family and friends?

Oh boy... Let's see...Fibro and my quality of life...before Fibro, I got up every morning with somewhere to go and something to do...usually working and driving a car to get there. Now I get up and other than getting a lazy teen off to school, I have absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to go. I don't work...can't. Don't drive a car...can't.

I used to love playing mostly basketball but softball and some bowling with friends and co-workers. Now I don't do any sports and I have no friends or co-workers. My closest pre-Fibro friend lives 900 miles away. Most of the "friends" I have now are cyber-friends. The few I have who are "live" are a handful of disabled activists.

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