Wondering if I Showed Symptoms of Fibromyalgia in Childhood

Remember back when you were in school and had gym class? The topic has come up several times over the past few years and each time it does I am reminded just how much I always hated gym class. Most recently, hubby and I were talking about it when the Olympics were on. We would catch some pole vaulting or hurdles or whatever and I would ask if he had ever tried it. He hadn't but the schools I went to had all that stuff and we were forced to do it all in class. 

I truly had a deep hatred for gym class and there were many reasons for it.

1.  I hated that everything was a competition. We were constantly competing to the fastest or strongest. Winning was all that mattered. The only thing I was the best at was being flexible. I was always super flexible. Unfortunately, that is not something valued in gym class. 

2.  I hated that we were never given much actual instruction or enough time to develop any real skills. Sure we got to try pole vaulting but we only had about a 1/2 hour to spend on it. We were told to run with the pole, secure it in the small slot and use that to jump over the bar. Sure, yes, but it's not actually that easy. We would then spent most of the time in line waiting for our turn to try it. We would maybe get to actually try it 2 or 3 times during that 1/2 hour. Unless you are just one of those people who were naturally good at everything (those people were annoying) that wasn't enough time to get the hang of doing something like that. 

3. The part I hated the most was that everything hurt. Hitting the ball with a bat hurt my hands, kicking the soccer ball or being kicked by people missing the soccer ball always hurt, catching the football hurt, running hurt my head and my side, crashing into to high bar hurt... Because everything hurt, I was always fearful and tentative in the way I approached every unit because I didn't want to be in a pain for the rest of the day. As you can imagine I was always picked last when teams were chosen. 

THE POINT

During a recent conversation with hubby about the various ways I had to suffer through I had an interesting thought. What if the pain I experienced was different from what the other kids were experiencing? After all, nobody thinks being kicked in the shin feels good but it didn't prevent anyone else from going full strength into a herd of flailing legs attempting to make contact with a ball. My legs would hurt for days after just one such encounter. 

Maybe this was an early symptom of a developing fibromyalgia. Maybe I always had fibromyalgia but it slowly progressed over my lifetime. It wasn't like I was adverse to physical activity as a child. Quite the opposite. I loved to play outside, go for hikes, jump around, dance. I was very active and energetic but gym class was a regular nightmare up through 10th grade when it stopped being mandatory.  

I wonder if any of you with fibromyalgia ever experienced something similar?