María Dolores.

Thirteen years ago María Dolores never stopped. Like so many other women, she not only worked in the family business but also took care of the house and her two children. In María Dolores’ words, everyone in her family was «so healthy» that they even cancelled the health insurance they had taken out until then.

It was then that the protagonist of this testimony, aged just 42, began to suffer pain when she simply went to get a glass. «The first thing I did was to go to a traumatologist who took X-rays and MRI scans, but he didn’t tell me anything about fibromyalgia. To this day I understand that he himself must not have been very well informed about this illness», explains María Dolores, to whom the specialist prescribed muscle relaxants.

It was a very bad time when the patient tells us that she could not even bend down to put on her socks. «One of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, apart from muscle fatigue, is insomnia, and of course, the less you sleep, the less your muscles rest, so it’s like a vicious circle in which you only get worse,» she says. «In those days, I was like the living dead. Fortunately, an acquaintance saw me looking so bad that she recommended me to go to Clinalgia, taking advantage of the fact that they had just opened a clinic in Murcia,» she explains.

«When I arrived at the clinic, I was so depressed that I didn’t even want to talk. It was my husband who answered for me to Doctor Hidalgo, who started to examine me by touching my pain points,» says María Dolores. When she and her husband asked the doctor about the causes, he pointed out that, as in many other cases, stress was one of the main reasons. «I have always put a lot of responsibility on myself and Dr. Hidalgo told me that I had to learn to say no,» says this woman who, apart from starting to treat herself with ozone therapy, began to attend therapy with a psychologist from Clinalgia to work on this issue.

Since her illness was discovered, María Dolores has become involved in associations such asAFFIRMA (Asociación Murciana de Síndrome de Fatiga Crónica y Fibromialgia) and attends Javier Hidalgo’s conferences whenever she can. «I love the way he explains everything, knowing that not all of us are doctors. He is also an incredible human being. I have even called him when I had an outbreak on a holiday, when he was on holiday, and he treated me the same as always,» says the patient, who then goes on to say: «I was no longer a person. I had dark circles under my eyes, pain… until Dr. Hidalgo saved my life».

This patient now continues to go for maintenance and can lead a normal life, being careful not to overexert herself. «Of course, Javier is very honest with me and I trust him completely: I only have injections when necessary,» says María Dolores, who bids us farewell by reminding us that 12 May is World Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Day.
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