My name is Josephine and I suffer from Sjogren's Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. I was also diagnosed with Tendinitis.  For the past two years, I have been in constant pain every day and night.  Something always hurts or I get this bad itch that drives me crazy on different parts of my body.  I also get extreme numbness and cramps on my legs, especially on my left leg.  My eyes are very sensitive to light especially sun light.  My veins pop out on my arms and hands, and I have a burning feeling on them.  The burning feeling is very bad on my left arm and hand.  I get very bad pain on my thyroid gland.  Sometimes it becomes hard for me to swallow.  My nose gets very dry and it hurts every time I blow my nose.  Sometimes it bleeds just a little but I still bleed.  My ears drive me crazy.  It's very hard to explain because I feel an itch, dryness, and hurting pain all in one and it drives me crazy.  I wish I could go inside my ear to reach it.  I get very bad pain above my eyes and it goes up the side of my head.  It hurts so bad that I cry.

     Every day and night if it is not one thing hurting me, it is the other.  I feel so worn out and tired just to try to clean the house.  I feel so helpless and I just sit and cry.  I need help to comb my hair, going shopping, doing laundry.  I feel lots of stress because normal things that I would do by myself, I now need help to do and it is driving me crazy.  I feel so helpless that I just cry and get very angry for having this illness.  For the past 6 months I've been getting cold sweats in the night and sometimes in the morning.  When it happens in the morning, I vomit and then I feel chilled.  I sometimes get this dry cough.  I could cough for 5 to 10 minutes and then my chest hurts and burns badly.  

     I don't know if I will be able to have a sexual relationship with my fiance' because I was diagnosed with this illness after we were separated.  Now when he comes home I don't know what's going to happen and I get very very angry.  I feel so afraid.  This illness makes me feel like I am going to turn 90 years old and I'm only 45.  This illness is so hard to deal with because every day and night it affects me different.  So I feel very angry and I cry half of the time.                        
                                                                   
                                 Sincerely Yours,                                                                       
                                 Josephine