Faking

For most of my life, memories of my Mom involve her being in pain. She always was complaining of some ache or pain. When I was 12 or 13 I remember it getting really severe.

She went to her doctor. She told us he diagnosed her with fibromyalgia. She began treatment for the pain including new medicines.

A few years later she informed us all that she had been diagnosed with Chrones too.

And then my Mom got the internet. And suddenly every few months she was self-diagnosing herself with everything from post-polio to cancer.

Now after she has passed away, my sisters were going through her paperwork and have found countless doctors letters informing her that nothing is wrong with her. They basically told her it was all in her head. This is something the doctors have been telling her for years but she would not accept it. One doctor recently diagnosed her with Munchausen syndrome. That is basically where they invent illnesses to get attention.

That doctor couldn't have been more accurate.

The scary thing is my Mom had us all convinced for years that everything she had was genetic and we all could look forward to years of pain and misery. It is only in the last few years that we have come to realize it really was all in her head and there is nothing wrong with any of us. Finding those letters really helped us all feel better about our futures.