My case is not particularly bad compared to many, so I try hard to be grateful it isn’t worse. Fibromyalgia evolves with life, usually constantly piling on and adding to the list of symptoms. Once in a great while, a problem might scale back or go into remission. I had bad migraines consistently approximately 3 days per week for 30 years, but those have since tapered off and now are only a few per year.…
Traditionally, rheumatologists do the testing to find fibromyalgia. That is because originally, nobody knew what fibromyalgia was and they assumed, as it was linked to pain in joints and muscles, that it should fall under the department of rheumatology. So, in a lot of countries, they are still the ones that do the testing. The way you test to see if you have fibromyalgia is in two stages: the first one is the clinical diagnosis,…
The pain of fibromyalgia is real and the patients need help. The most frustrating element for fibromyalgia patients is that some healthcare providers think it is a “fad disease” and that erodes the doctor-patient trust that is so essential in treating patients with painful conditions. I will highlight a few points about fibromyalgia in plain English without any medical terms so that patients and families with no medical background can understand it. Click here to…
People with fibromyalgia often describe their symptoms as a flu-like infection that doesn’t go away. It leaves you exhausted and unable to think or find the right words (symptoms of fibro fog). Many people with Fibromyalgia are exhausted to the point of collapse. No amount of sleep is refreshing or restful, and often the muscle pain keeps the person from getting any sleep at all. Symptoms can be debilitating and often the patient feels as…
After 27 years of service, decorated U.S. Army Brigadier General Becky Halstead (Retired), the first female West Point graduate in U.S. history to command at the strategic level in Iraq and Afghanistan, decided to retire after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia – a medically unexplained syndrome affecting the muscles and connective tissues. Currently, the disease affects as many as 12 million Americans and has been reported two times as prevalent in deployed veterans. “Agonizing pain, debilitating…
The brief answer is that in 2002 I was 33 and I took up running again after a four-year absence due to a ruptured disk that needed surgery to fix. When I began to run it became a real joy in my life. It was a mind over matter hobby that helped me to discover how far I could push my body and learn to listen to it at the same time. During my running…
When people ask, I explain Fibromyalgia (“FMS”) as “experiencing pain where there’s no injury.” This is why it’s so difficult to treat. Based on my experience, and that of about 50 other people with a connection to FMS that I’ve questioned over the years, I have believed for many years now that it is caused by trauma – physical trauma, like a car accident, or emotional trauma, such as a bad divorce, because the physical…
About eight years ago, I went to my OB/GYN as I was experiencing some mild fatigue and joint pain. I had had a 20-year career as a dancer and had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. I was having some anxiety about work and had been through a recent breakup, but we looked at physiological causes anyway and ruled out lupus, RA, and Lyme disease. When my anxiety about an impending merger at work became worse, we…
I’m not an expert with medical credentials but I can answer as a survivor who’s found her own peace with this crazy illness. It seems there’s a genetic factor in some people that some sort of trauma-physical, mental, or emotional-sets off or triggers fibromyalgia. My fibromyalgia came after a hysterectomy and the following emergency surgery to remove my infected hemorrhaging ovaries. I was on the mend when I started having severe stomach problems (IBS) that…
This is the 64 million dollar question. I wish I could answer it but fibromyalgia is complicated and so are its causes. However, I will say that I’m sure it’s connected to the evil quad that is causing so many people to be sick these days: antibiotic use, too much sugar in the diet, a sterile, nutrient-free, toxin overloaded food supply (thanks to agribusiness) and bad chemicals in all the plastics our foods are packaged…