Chronic pain is increasingly rampant today.However, chronic pain and chronic diseases are often invisible. In many cases, there are no plasters, visible rashes, or nasal discharge involved.Those who suffer from chronic pain often appear “normal”, perhaps a little more fragile or sad than average.I suffered from chronic headaches for four and a half years and chronic hip pain for two and a half years.He often seemed depressed, disinterested and angry, when I was simply in…
Everyone has had a tough morning, there’s no question about that. Sometimes, it’s difficult to get out of bed. Occasionally, we all toss and turn and don’t get a refreshing rest. We wake up exhausted, grumpy, and feeling generally awful. Now imagine waking up every morning feeling like you didn’t sleep even though you know you got your eight hours of sleep. You feel like absolute garbage, but if you’re like me, you work two…
Anger is a very common emotion, particularly for people suffering from fibromyalgia. It is a natural, human reaction and yet it doesn’t get an awful lot of attention as a side effect to chronic pain. It’s one thing to accept our anger, but it’s another to let that anger consume us and let it impact our lives and the lives of others. It can be difficult to draw that line when you feel enraged by…
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. It is a condition that results in chronic widespread pain and tenderness all over the body. So what exactly does that mean?“Chronic” means that the pain lasts a long time, at least 3 months. Many people experience fibromyalgia pain for years before being diagnosed. “Widespread” means that it is all over the body. However, many people with fibromyalgia feel their pain in specific areas…
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS) and fibromyalgia are two very closely related disorders that often get mistaken for each other. RSDS is more commonly known as “complex regional pain syndrome. When the two disorders meet in one person, life can become very difficult and painful. While there are treatments for both disorders, understanding their differences is important in helping you make sure that the source of your pain is diagnosed correctly as the treatments for…
What Is Chronic Pain? Pain is a complex phenomenon made up of physical, mental, and social components. At a basic level, the ability to perceive pain has helped people survive throughout the ages. Without feeling the uncomfortable sensation when you touch a stove, which causes you to remove your hand, the heat from the stove would end up causing far more damage to the cells in your hand, than it did before you felt the…
Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and interstitial cystitis (IC) — a painful bladder condition — frequently occur together. Women may be up to 10 times more likely than men to develop it. Having IC alone can impose a lot of restrictions on your lifestyle and, like fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS), it’s linked to depression. Also, like FMS and ME/CFS, IC can be difficult to diagnose, treat and manage. Some people have good luck with basic…
Breaking the Cycle of Appointment Fatigue in Chronic Pain Management Living with chronic pain means navigating a constant balancing act—managing symptoms, medications, work, relationships, and self-care. At the core of this juggling act lies an unspoken burden many patients face: appointment fatigue. This term refers to the emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion that comes from attending endless medical appointments, undergoing tests, meeting new specialists, and often, repeating the same explanations of symptoms without seeing long-term…
Having to go to appointments with my doctor here in Rhode Island, so we can again fill out the form for the state to confirm that I still qualify for a handicap sticker for me, causes a humiliating and heartbreaking feeling to have to be reminded that I have two incurable conditions. And yet, I have to get that signature to confirm that I am still dealing with this future. And then, when I am…
Fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome often go together. Because of the frequent overlap and some similar symptoms, they’re often mistaken for the same condition and, as a result, people with both are sometimes only diagnosed with and treated for one. That’s a real problem, for three major reasons: Some researchers use the name “chronic myofascial pain” (CMP) instead of myofascial pain syndrome because of evidence it’s a disease, not a syndrome. (A “syndrome” is a set…