In past posts, I’ve written about feeling ill-equipped to handle the role of spouse, the (still ongoing) process of learning that I can’t fix everything, and just being there for my loved one. Those are all key components of becoming the best you can be as a partner, spouse, relative, or friend of a loved one who suffers from a chronic illness such as Fibromyalgia. However, some days are just tough… Click Here to Visit…
Fibromyalgia Pain
A comprehensive look at Fibromyalgia pain, its symptoms, triggers, and effective strategies to manage and alleviate discomfort.
How to Explain Fibromyalgia Pain to a Doctor
Fibromyalgia ranks among the most puzzling and common chronic pain conditions. Fibromyalgia pain moves around from one area of the body to another or it seems to be everywhere at once. We experience several different types of pain. The intensity of the pain also changes. It can be very difficult to describe fibromyalgia pain to others. We often feel misunderstood and disbelieved. It is hard for people who do not have chronic pain to understand…
Allodynia: Fibromyalgia Skin Pain
Do you experience pain from a simple touch? Do you cringe when someone goes to give you a hug? Do these simple gestures result in excruciating pain? Skin pain is another one of those fibromyalgia symptoms that just doesn’t seem to make sense. This type of pain is called Allodynia and is usually felt as a burning sensation. Allodynia is believed to be a hypersensitivity to stimuli that would normally not cause pain. The pain…
What Fibromyalgia Symptom Do You Resist The Most?
There are basically two ways to deal with Fibromyalgia: accept it or resist it. We start out fighting against it. We push ourselves. We resist. Eventually, we realize resistance is only creating more suffering for ourselves. We begin to accept things are different now. Our life has changed. Fibromyalgia is not going away. We have to look at our situation realistically. Our old life is being replaced by a new life full of limitations. Click…
Managing Your Fibromyalgia Pain Safely
People with fibromyalgia are usually prescribed pain relievers, sleep medicines, antidepressants, muscle relaxants, and anti-seizure medications to help with their symptoms. These medications all come with risks and side effects so they are just as likely to do harm as to help. In this guest post, Marco gives us some tips to treat fibromyalgia pain safely. How to manage fibromyalgia pain safely Fibromyalgia is a very distressing disease, and very challenging to treat. A vast…
New criteria proposed for diagnosing fibromyalgia
“The tender point test also has a gender bias because men may report widespread pain, but they generally aren’t as tender as women. Fibromyalgia may be under-diagnosed in both men and women because of the reliance on 11 tender points, and also due to failing to account for the other central features of the illness,” said Katz. Additionally, due to the confusion regarding the tender point test, the authors note that most primary care doctors…
Fickle Fibromyalgia: My pain flare stories
Venturing out of my abode got me thinking about fickle fibromyalgia pain. Recently I have been thinking about the variety of FM symptoms because some of them overlap with chronic migraine symptoms such that I don’t know which is the cause… such as vertigo; migraine-associated vertigo or FM-related vertigo, or the balance problems and even the sensitivity to sound and light. The thing is FM came first and migraines later and then chronic migraines so…
Can hypermobility increase pain in Juvenile Fibromyalgia syndrome?
Pediatric Rheumatology Online Journal, 2012, states Juvenile Fibromyalgia (JFM) is correlated with 40% of children and teenagers who also have benign hypermobility (HM). In fact, in adults hypermobility is an often seen comorbid condition. Pediatric Rheumatology, however, undertook an observational study to see if hypermobility affects the pain experience of adolescents with juvenile fibromyalgia. It must be mentioned that juvenile fibromyalgia is a relatively new area. Often the reason it took people a decade or…
100 Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
There was a site that had this and I had linked to it on Tumblr but it is gone. So I had to hunt down someone who found my post and posted the whole thing in a forum. Anyway, it is around but I’m posting it here so I will not have to hunt it down to reference it. Now we all know the major symptoms are the widespread pain, but our pain isn’t just…
Fibromyalgia Life may be tough, but so are you
Life with one or more chronic illnesses is tough. Life with chronic pain is tough. Life, whether you are chronically ill or not, is tough. But I have news for you! You are tougher!!!! Yes, that is right. I know that there are times when you don’t feel tough. I also know that there are days when you truly lack physical strength, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t tough. As long as you are…