new to the group

   i am new here and have just recently been diagnosed with fibro. i am a 47 yr. old male and until last year i was very healthy. i was a member of a specialized police force team. running, lifting weights  at the start of each shift, then chasing the bad guys at night. once a month i served with the air force reserves. now i am jobless cause the police department fired me for not being able to perform my duties and the reserves is giving me  a medical discharge. the funny thing is tht two years ago i started going back to church after having turned my back on God for 20+ years. when i came back to the church with my work schedual i was unable to attend but a couple times a month. i prayed to God that He would find a way fo me to be more involved with church. TA-DA now i can spend as much time as i want. LOL

    going from being a VERY active person, to now,  having to monitor myself as to not over do it.  has been a challenge. i've accepted this and don't have too much problems dealing with things. i DO how ever have a hard time coping with the "fibro-fog". memory loss and the lack of concentration bothers me the most and it has been getting so bad as of lately that my doc had a MRI done to rule out MS. (will find out later this week) and if it is MS then well i guess i will go to the other forum. haha.( i will say good bye to yall first)

    was reading earlier about folks having low energy. mine was due to low vitamine D, doc gave me a once a week v-D pill and my energy is back up, but the down side is that i usually don't have the strenth or i am too sore to do anything and all that "extra" energy makes me restless. 

   this is a good site and the people here seem to be real nice. its good to talk to others that know just how you feel and what you are going through. when some-one asked me once what was wrong with me and i told them they said" isn't that a lazy persons disease". nice to know that this is the opinion of what people think of me. "walk in my shoes for a day"

   any way here i am and my prayers are with everyone on this forum. 

I do things that help with memory.  I play bridge against my computer, crossword puzzles and other games help, too.  There is a wonderful book that I read many years ago and is still being sold called The Memory Book by Harry Loryane and Jerry Lucas.  I use many of their techniques and it helps me a lot.  Here is a link to it on Amazon just in case you are interested in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/dp/0345410025

Also, here is a fun link to show you that you are not alone with fibro fog.  Could give you a few chuckles.

http://webspace.webring.com/people/fc/cfsdays/follies.htm

Be sure to read Fibro 101...the second thread on the forum.  There are links to good info about fibro and you will learn a lot about this illness here.  Good starting links are called Symptoms, What Else Could It Be, and A Thorough Explanation of Fibromyalgia.  You just might see yourself there. 

If it turns out that you have MS, you can still post here.  We have many of the same symptoms as MS and this is a far more active forum so you might get more responses here.  You can do both forums, too.  So, stick around!

I'm looking forward to getting to know you better.  Don't hesitate to ask questions because we are here to help you.  Hope to hear more from you soon.

Sherrine