A detailed guide to understanding Fibromyalgia symptoms, early warning signs, and how they are diagnosed.
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on”, Robert Frost My friend has become my guru for updates on research regarding pain. I take hope because of her personal struggles with the issues surrounding living with acceptance in lieu of catastrophizing. Daily pain is exhausting, depletes our energy, and leaves us with a sense of hopelessness. Each new symptom (and there are many) can be like taking one…
“My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery-always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud”, Virginia Woolf To live a life in a state of high anxiety, boarding on panic is common among those of us with fibromyalgia. We anticipate pain, fatigue, muddled thoughts, and a myriad of other symptoms almost every waking (and sleeping!) hour. It has become a habit that often seems unable to be broken and…
I have had Fibromyalgia since mid-2006, acquired during a long bout with a viral infection in my central nervous system. I used Neurontin, Percocet, Cymbalta, and Lyrica in the following 4 years to manage my pain. While on Lyrica I slept a lot and ballooned up like a, well, balloon! I did get off of Percocet, though, and had no pain. Despite that wonderful result, I went off Lyrica and back to Neurontin, using Tramadol…
“When anxious people anticipate something bad about to happen- such as being confronted with creepy pictures of snakes or spiders- their right frontal insulas go into overdrive”, Blakeslee and Blakeslee Many of us with fibromyalgia can remember childhood as the beginning of a lifetime of fear, and anxiety. Since there might have been a significant childhood episode that triggered this dis-ease called fibromyalgia, it stayed with us while other troublesome events in our lives piled…
” When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig”, Leonard Cohen As I have been limping along these past few months following hip surgery I began to have foot pain, a condition I had never had before. I was speculating about the cause. Too little walking of late? Plantar fasciitis? Shifting from soft sponge shoes (GoWalk) to sneakers that are heavier? Shuffling after the surgery? The…
“I base most of my fashion sense on what doesn’t itch”, Gilda Radner There isn’t anything more comforting to me than cloth that is soft and soothing. Mostly, it is cotton that gives me a feeling of being in a cocoon. Since the most popular blog on this busy website is about itching it has brought to mind the ways in which we can reduce the itching and scratching (the “Itchy & Scratchy Show” from…
“What’s in a name?”, Shakespeare The nomenclature of Fibromyalgia can be known as: “Central Sensitization”, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”, “Cycles of Over-Exertion-Relapse”, and “Chronic Fatigue Disorder”, and now a new term: “Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disorder”- all with the same characteristics. What’s to be done so that we can explain ourselves to others while so many labels of these invisible syndromes abound? In fact, do all these terms mean the same thing? Are they bio–psycho–social in…
” Early in life, I was visited by the bluebird of anxiety”, Woody Allen Anxiety is the root cause of fibromyalgia, particularly at an early age, or even in the womb. So, how is one to overcome the early stages of this deep-seated emotional characteristic that those of us with fibromyalgia struggle with on a day-to-day basis? Even more significant: how do we explain to others that the challenges of life-long anxiety cannot be overcome by…
” The biology of pain is never straightforward, even when it appears to be”, Lorimer Moseley I thought I knew it all: fibromyalgia is a constant hyper-arousal of the central nervous system and all the symptoms that evolve from that disorder. But recently I met with an internist who held my hand’s palms upward and told me she would have known I had fibromyalgia just by looking at my palms which are pink! I have…
” Patience is a conquering virtue”, Geoffrey Chaucer So, the hip replacement happened almost three weeks ago. I had hoped that when I took my first step post-operatively I would not have pain. So many people told me that would happen. I should have known better. Of course, there is still pain. It is too soon for me to know the nature of it. Is it fibromyalgia? The scar? The hip itself? I thought I…