When doctors diagnosed Joelle Palmieri with fibromyalgia based on all her symptoms twenty years ago, she felt relieved. After several years of medical uncertainty, she would finally be able to start managing this condition on a daily basis. But the road to treatment remained chaotic. Esther Salmona, Peggy Pinchart and Corinne Lepage also testify to this difficult journey. Stéphanie Ranque-Garnier, algologist at the APHM in Marseille, Nadine Chardhomme, nurse at the Namur pain centre, and Pierre Amatore, shiatsu practitioner in Marseille, give their definition of pain. Then, one after another, they describe the state in which they receive patients at the end of their lives, isolated, desperate, exhausted. Allopathic or alternative treatment can, however, begin. Esther, Corinne and Peggy smile at the thousand and one ways of coping, discussing their survival strategies, their ways out of crisis and relapses, and the avenues they are exploring, such as touch (Do-in), to reconnect their battered bodies and troubled minds.

Copyright © Joelle Palmieri and Virginie Jortay

Credits:
Excerpt from the documentary ‘The Pathways of Pain: Physiological Approach and Neurosurgery Implications’, Les Laboratoires Delagrange, 1981, CERIMES Archive
Excerpt from the documentary ‘Chronic pain: When symptoms become illness’, Geneva University Hospitals
Song ‘Ta douleur’ by Camille.

Links: The Unthought pain – Feminist autopsy of fibromyalgia, a ‘women’s disease’: https://joellepalmieri.org/2021/08/23/fibromyalgie-derriere-la-porte/

With: Esther Salmona (author, artist, landscape designer), Peggy Pinchart (communications and marketing strategy consultant), Corinne Lepage (actress, community educator), Stéphanie Ranque-Garnier, algologist at the Marseille Public Hospital System, Nadine Chardhomme, nurse at the Namur Pain Centre, and Pierre Amatore, shiatsu practitioner in Marseille.

Production team:
Writing, interviews and production: Joelle Palmieri
Editing and mixing: Virginie Jortay
Voice-over: Peggy Pierrot