Which TV Network will tell our story of Fibromyalgia?
The media is a powerful tool, and utilizing it in order to made the public aware of fibromyalgia seems to be a very slow process. Oprah did a show on July 29, 1998 about "Diseases that Doctor's Miss Most", yet the word "fibromyalgia" was not mentioned once. Chronic fatigue syndrome was discussed, but making the public aware of fibromyalgia seems to be more difficult. Leeza and Extra both did small segments about fibromyalgia recently, and although shows such as these help all of us, there needs to be a prime time show which will devote an entire hour to fibromyalgia.
Having heard that 48 Hours is considering doing a show about Chronic Pain, I felt encouraged about the media actually presenting a show about what our days are like. However, after speaking to the woman at 48 Hours who is gathering information for the show, I was disappointed in the approach that they are taking. They are not going to do an hour's show about fibromyalgia, but rather they want horror stories of people with chronic pain. She could not say whether the term "fibromyalgia" would be mentioned or not during the show. I got the impression that they want stories of people living with chronic pain who have been treated poorly by physicians and insurance companies.
The format for 48 Hours is to show several lives during a certain time period, and usually it is of a nature that either shocks us, makes us think, feel, and become aware of important issues that occur in the world around us. Having an hour long show during prime time just about 48 hours of our lives with fibromyalgia would do more for us than a show with only horror stories of people in chronic pain.
People in chronic pain don't necessarily have fibromyalgia, and since their pain may be from other causes, it won't give the public a true picture of our daily lives and how we deal with fibromyalgia. In fact, it could even cause the public to be less empathetic towards us. Not all people with chronic pain have invisible conditions, and seeing someone crippled with rheumatoid arthritis is different than seeing someone who looks perfectly normal, yet who lives with more pain than someone who has arthritis.
20/20 is another prime time show which could do an excellent story about fibromyalgia, but I haven't seen them devote an entire segment to what we go through each day.
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