She had fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that made a cool breeze on her skin feel like fire and caused every part of her body to ache. After CT scans and MRIs showed no medical reason for her pain, Murphy turned to Dr. Jack Kevorkian for a final solution.

"When you start hearing there is no hope, no treatment, and no cure, over and over, you lose your will to fight," Murphy wrote in a eulogy that was read at her funeral. "What most people saw of me was a shell of what was going on inside."

What exactly was going on with Murphy and other fibromyalgia patients has long been a controversial matter in the medical profession. Many doctors thought that fibromyalgia was a mental health problem, with no physical cause.

Until five years ago, grassroots fibromyalgia groups were virtually chased out of medical conferences when they tried to spread the word about the syndrome. Now, researchers at the University of Alabama have uncovered proof that what patients like Murphy experience isn't a psychological disorder, but rather is caused by abnormalities in the brain and central nervous system.

Please take this pain away if only for a day,
For no one can see,
because outside we look so healthy,
we hide it from our friends and family.
But please believe us for the pain is very real,
and one day without pain, would mean the world to me.
No one understands what we go through,
only us, the chronic pain sufferers can see that this is true.
The Chronic Fatigue is worse again,
for you see it's 4:30 am as I write this down with my pen.
Another sleepless night awaits another painful day,
but there's not much we can do,and not much we can say.
Please help us find a cure, FMS and CFS sufferers need one for sure,
and when you go to bed tonight please say a prayer for me,
that tomorrow will be the day,
a day that is pain free.

Poem written from the heart, by:

If you have any of the following symptoms:

• Waking up in the morning feeling unrested.

• Irritable Bowel syndrome. Anxiety attacks. Plantar Faciatitis. Stiffness.

• Pain all over your body or in certain "trigger points" of your body.

• A feeling of spaciness or forgetting things.

• Being clumsy and dropping things.

• Please see your doctor and go over your file...
It took a while for a diagnosis on me but I'm so glad that I had the doctor I did, who was very patient with my complaints and after going over my file, finally came up with a proper diagnosis.

The following links will help you to understand more about this disease.
Please visit them to be more aware of this debilitating disease.