Wear purple today in support of Fibromyalgia Awareness

Generally speaking I prefer to keep the context of this blog on the subject of vintage related topics with a peppering of events from my daily life mixed in for good measure, but today I wanted to take a moment and tell everyone about the fact that May 12th is the official (annual) Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. This year’s thought provoking Awareness Day slogan is “Fibromyalgia Affects Everyone”, which I think there is certainly a lot of truth to.



As someone who has battled this chronic, painful condition for several years now, I can tell you first hand what a challenge it is to face and also how drastically misunderstood and under-acknowledged fibromyalgia is (did you know 80 to 90% of those with fibromyalgia are women?). Moreover, I also know that sort of impact that FMS (as fibromyalgia is often abbreviated to) can have one a person’s quality of life and how drastically advances in patient care, medical treatment and better still a cure are needed.



While I’ve been writing about medical topics publicly since 2004 when I founded a website dedicated to helping people with a chronic bladder condition that I have (interstitial cystitis), I won’t go into great detail about what FMS here. Instead I’ll provide an small informational quote from the National Fibromyalgia Association on what FMS is and encourage you to take a few minutes today to read more about this condition – chances are at least one person you love, know or have met is coping with this FMS.

Fibromyalgia (pronounced fy-bro-my-AL-ja) is a common and complex chronic pain disorder that affects people physically, mentally and socially. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome rather than a disease. Unlike a disease, which is a medical condition with a specific cause or causes and recognizable signs and symptoms, a syndrome is a collection of signs, symptoms, and medical problems that tend to occur together but are not related to a specific, identifiable cause.

Fibromyalgia, which has also been referred to as fibromyalgia syndrome, fibromyositis and fibrositis, is characterized by chronic widespread pain, multiple tender points, abnormal pain processing, sleep disturbances, fatigue and often psychological distress. For those with severe symptoms, fibromyalgia can be extremely debilitating and interfere with basic daily activities.

One thing that everyone can do today to help raise FMS awareness is to sport some purple, as this lovely (and very spring appropriate) hue is the official representational colour of fibromyalgia. Weather you don a purple lapel ribbon or go full on lilac in a head-to-toe purple, doing so is a wonderful way to show your solidarity for those suffering from the painful affects of FMS.


{Polyvore set featuring vintage inspired purple pieces, entitled “Where there is love, there is hope” created by yours truly.}

Heartfelt thanks to those who wear purple, read up on FMS or do anything else to help bring awareness to this condition. If anyone needs more information or has any questions about FMS, by all means you are welcome to contact me and I will do my best to help.

Until next post, tender hugs to everyone.