I am one of the five million Americans currently battling Fibromyalgia. But the drug often used to treat this disease – a drug called Lyrica made by Pfizer – is incredibly expensive and has serious side effects. Pfizer has made millions off of people with fibromyalgia, but they aren’t providing meaningful help for me and the millions of others battling this disease.

I was diagnosed in 1993 at the age of 15 with Fibromyalgia. I’ve been battling it for nearly 23 years. I have fought against the illness for years and years to accomplish my goals and dreams in life: I am married, I have two step-children (I’ve been unable to have my own biological children, due to the illness), and I’ve worked hard to attain three college degrees and two credentials in education. Unfortunately, in May of this past year, my body simply quit; my central nervous system went into rebellion, and as a result, I’ve spent the past ten months bedridden and housebound.

I have taken Lyrica consistently for about the last five years and have had weight gain, bloating, and blurred vision as a result. I am one of the lucky ones, however. Excessive weight gain, blindness, suicidal ideations, swelling, racing thoughts, etc. are some of the inexcusable side effects that go along with this medication.

The cost of Lyrica is also prohibitively unaffordable to many of us who battle against this illness. For most of us, Fibromyalgia will progress to a point where we are unable to work. Even with insurance coverage, the medication can cost upwards of $100.00 per month. That is excessive, when you consider the fact that this illness strips us of our abilities to work.

Despite these huge problems with Lyrica, Pfizer’s commercials and print advertisements for Lyrica portray people struggling with this illness as being able to continue as “normal” beings throughout life because of the assistance of Lyrica, which is not reflective of the realities of life with this illness. For most of us, who are at all positively affected by Lyrica, the realities of its effectiveness is more like being able to actually get into our beds in order to sleep at night, or actually being able to wear clothes for a few hours, because the Lyrica allows us to have some calming of the nerves. When our friends and families see the actors in the commercials attending carnivals and laughing and having fun with their families as if the medication takes away all of the symptoms of Fibromyalgia, they expect those of us that actually are fighting the disease to be able to achieve the same tasks/activities. This is placing further pressure on those of us combatting this illness, which puts us into further duress, which makes our illness worse.

Pfizer has made millions from people with Fibromyalgia taking Lyrica. Now, we want Pfizer to do three things for us:

1.) Make Lyrica advertisements realistic, if you have any advertisements at all

2.) Modify Lyrica so that the side effects are not worse than the disease

3.) Invest more money and time into research, to find better treatments for fibromyalgia.

We have lost so much, and we would love nothing more than to regain our health in order to again be contributing members of society. We are teachers, lawyers, law enforcement officers, doctors, criminal justice workers, students, nurses, audiologists, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, friends, and loved ones. We are so much more than our illness, and we so humbly ask that you would look at us as such as you consider where to do further research and how to further market and improve the medications that you manufacture.

Sincerest gratitude for your time and attention. Signed,

The approximately five million sufferers, over 18, who are warriors against this illness, as well as our friends, loved ones, and other supporters.