A Tokyo woman with fibromyalgia is sharing on social media her experience of remaining undiagnosed for over a decade despite her persistent symptoms, highlighting challenges faced by an estimated 2 million patients in Japan.<\/p>\n
She is calling for greater awareness and understanding of the disease characterized by severe pain throughout the body and public support for those suffering from this often-misunderstood illness.<\/p>\n
Many fibromyalgia patients are struggling because their symptoms are not easily recognized, leading to a lack of understanding from people around them.<\/p>\n
Reina Serikyaku, a 30-year-old certified care worker, first noticed something wrong when she was a first-year student at a junior high school on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture.<\/p>\n
She had sudden chest pains during class and was taken to hospital by ambulance. A\u00a0blood test and an electrocardiogram did not find any abnormalities, however.<\/p>\n
After she moved to Tokyo for further education, the pain spread throughout her body. Despite visits to countless medical facilities, the cause behind the symptoms remained unknown.<\/p>\n
One doctor dismissed her concerns, telling her not to worry about the pain because it was just her imagination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis hurt me most as the doctor seemed to deny that I was sick,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
Gradually, Serikyaku stopped seeking medical help.<\/p>\n
The turning point came about a year and a half ago, when she was finally diagnosed at a medical institution that specializes in fibromyalgia\u00a0\u2014 more than 10 years after her initial symptoms emerged. Her husband introduced the facility to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve finally made it to the starting point to face the disease,\u201d Serikyaku said.<\/p>\n
Fibromyalgia is diagnosed based on widespread pain and other factors while other diseases with similar symptoms are ruled out.<\/p>\n
The Japanese Society of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain has compiled a list of about 130 medical institutions staffed with doctors who have received training related to fibromyalgia. But the facilities are not located evenly across the nation.<\/p>\n
Patients continue to face challenges even after diagnosis. Some find it difficult to work and therefore face financial difficulties.<\/p>\n
A petition seeking necessary support for patients with fibromyalgia and other conditions was submitted to this year\u2019s special parliamentary session. Serikyaku was among those who gave their signatures for the petition.<\/p>\n
Many people from around the country contact Serikyaku on social media for advice and consultations, with one of them saying, \u201cI can\u2019t find a hospital to diagnose me,\u201d and another complaining, \u201cMy family doesn\u2019t understand my condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was also lonely until I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia,\u201d Serikyaku said. By sharing her own experience, she hopes to help others access the medical care and support they need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tokyo woman with fibromyalgia is sharing on social media her experience of remaining undiagnosed for over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54103,3007,11352,8,17,9326],"class_list":["post-84989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-fibromyalgia","tag-health","tag-hospitals","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}