WTF Happened-Part I?

How did I get here? Let's see if that can be summed up:

Girl with double major in English and German Lit, minor in Art History, who works for an estates lawyer and paints in her spare time, develops insane pain in her hands in 1990. The pain moves into her shoulder and shoulder blade.

Tendinitis doctor: You have carpel tunnel.
Carpel Tunnel doctor: You have tendinitis.

Girl must take winter quarter finals orally. Most fun oral exam: "Logic", and by most fun, I mean, one that makes one want to vomit.

Doctors conclude: Girl is simply a hysteric, unable to deal with the stress and pain everyone feels.
Girl decides: law school would be least stressful place to go.

Girl truly loves law school and makes it through somehow-swimming and lots of drinking may have done the trick at that point. Girl also tries chiropractors and acupuncture. Girl finds several acupuncture needles in her skull after third visit to scary dark Chinese medicine store, where they also make her drink dark, gloopy medicine. Girl decides to drink gin and tonics instead.

Girl moves to West Coast to be full time entertainment lawyer and full time girlfriend to drummer.

Girl studies for the Bar. Girl writes for five, six hours a day. Three days before said Bar, Girl's hand refuses to close around the pencil any longer.

Girl must cancel the Bar. The BAR. That test that was to determine the rest of her life. That test for which she had studied for eight hours or more the entire summer. That test that all her other classmates were taking.

Girl gets to, instead of taking exam to be lawyer, do physical therapy and wear a super attractive plastic cast on her right hand. A cast that does nothing to keep drunk idiots from bumping into her at shows.

Girl tries to get a minimum wage job at mall. Girl is denied. Girl tries to tutor. No one needs a tutor who cannot write. Girl's life is not going where she had imagined it.

Girl, finally, gets to type the bar and passes! Hallelujah!

Girl finds job at entertainment law firm which is 2.5 hours of driving away from boyfriend's apartment. Girl drives stick shift truck with no radio or air conditioner 2.5 hours each way. Girl is not happy. People who know Girl and must be around Girl are not happy.

Girl's new job is interesting and challenging, but Girl cannot understand what is going on with her pain levels. Her hand is working sometimes, but often times, her whole body is in such intense pain that she cannot focus on anything. No use going to another doctor, right? Girl is just a baby. Girl just can't handle what everyone else can handle and her hand issue? Well, no one knows, but it doesn't seem serious. Well, unless you call not being able to use it serious...

Girl continues like this for several years. She moves to new, even more interesting job. Girl does not want to be a whiner (but she knows she is, sometimes.) Girl just wants to do what she wants to do. She tries different nutritional diets, different PTs, different massages, different chiros. It's all random. She struggles to get by and tries to use voice activated software to substitute for her inability to write. It's the late 90s. Voice activated software was like Pac-man. It does not help, except in creating interesting automatic writing poetry.

One day, Girl's hand and back are causing her to be in agony. Friend suggests her chiropractor. Girl, in desperation, runs to one more chiro. This wonderful and kind man says the magic words to her: "You have fibromyalgia," and the sky opens up and the angels begin to sing.

What did the angels sing? Tune in tomorrow and find out...