First Day : Fibromyalgia Rehabilitation Program

Well I have had a very exhausting day. I left the house at 9:15 am and arrived at down at Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills late, 15 minutes later then I should have. I checked in at the main office of The Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Rehabilitation Clinic. Yvonne, the program coordinator quickly gave me a 2" binder, introduced me to the two other women I will be going though the program with and escorted us to the Physical Therapy Department. After a quick rundown of the PT portion of the program, we were given our "homework" for the week. We were then instructed how to do stretching that will help us in the morning and through the day. The stretching exercises are very simular to what I have been doing in Yoga. After 1 hour with the physical therapist we were given a 45 minute lunch. The next specialist we saw was the Occupational Therapist. This is where the 2" binder comes in. It contains logs for me to chart my sleep, fatigue and pain and more "homework",. This portion also lasted 1 hour.
Next we were given a 10 minute break while waiting for the Psychologist. This is where it got tough. When the Psychologist started talking about the the mental toll Fibro has on it's sufferers I started to cry. It was so surreal to hear another person say outloud what I have been feeling for over 5 years. The loss that is felt due to your life being so different, the pain of lost friendships, the feeling that everyone thinks it's all in your head, the depression...well I could go on and on. This portion I believe will be my least favorite. Well there is homework for Psycology as well but it is "Take Time For Yourself" time. I can deal with that.
Friday will be my individual appointments with each specialist.
The program work like this, 3 one hour group appointments every Wednesday for 6 weeks and 3 thirty minute individual appointments every Friday for 6 weeks.
I'm actualy worried that I will not be able to accomplish anything with the Psycologist because I will be crying the whole time. I'm not sure if the crying is relief because someone understands or because I'm scared that I will have to reveal all the bad feelings I have been having because of this stupid disease. Either way I hope I will get some resolution.
Thanks for reading and if ypou have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. ~Debbee~