I Am Not Unique

I had been thinking about making a blog about my Fibromyalgia experiences, but with a separate Google account so it wouldn't be associated with my name at all since i don't want to publicly come out of the Fibro-closet. I thought I might call it FibroBlog, and I would make my display name FibroGirl, and i would talk about my Fibro experiences.

But fibroblog.blogspot.com and fibrogirl.blogspot.com already exist.

Not only that, but Fibrogirl was 26 (at the time she mentions her age in her blog), lives on the east coast, and seems to not want her identity known. I was 27 when my fibro began, I live on the east coast, and I also don't want my identity known. Furthermore, she named her fibromyalgia Agnes, because she needed a easy way to refer to it when she didn't know what was happening to her with all the pain and doctors etc.

As I read this, it sounded awfully familiar. Replace Agnes with Rachel and it's me.

She says she has no clue why she picked Agnes, it just fit she says. My mom points out it sounds like "agony," Mom is smart.

For me, Rachel was the first name that came to mind when, before I was diagnosed, my sister suggested I give it a name -- she meant like the name of a disease, i don't think she meant a girl's name. She suggested this because i didn't know what to call it, and i would say things like "whatever is wrong with me," or "this weird virus or whatever it is" etc. So I've been calling my fibro Rachel ever since. It's funny, because I actually really like the name Rachel, and I don't think I've ever met a Rachel I didn't like. But I really hate Rachel (my fibromyalgia).

Anyhoo, after discovering that my long-lost fibro-twin had taken fibrogirl, I thought I might use fibrogirl2 as my sub-domain. As of the date of this blog posting, it is still available. However, my sister suggested Fibrotastic, a word I believe she came up with as a result of conversation she and I had a few days before I decided to make this blog, when I said someone was "creeptastic," and she misheard and thought I said "freaktastic." We decided these were great words. I believe all of these wordtastic words was inspired by Scrubs.

Update: August 30, 2010
It seems that since this was written, wordtastic words have become quite the norm, and my explanation of the origin of my use of "fibrotastic" is no longer necessary. However, it does show that I might have been among the first few to be using wordtastic words, and I imagine I must be among the fewer for labeling them as such. Oh, I just googled, there are others using "wordtastic" but I think they are using it for other purposes and with other meanings. So, um, I'm still special and creative, or so I shall believe :-)

The original Fibrogirl's fibromyalgia and blog began a few years before my fibro started, but I didn't encounter her blog until the other day, i.e. after I (also) thought of fibrogirl, and long after I (also) named my fibro a girl's name.

I'm really disappointed about how unique I'm not. I guess this shows how humans are similar, especially when encountering similar experiences and situations, and that should make me happier since i find such things interesting.