Fibromyalgia — Could I Have It?
So, yesterday, while everyone else was getting all hot and bothered about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death — something I took at first with a bit of cynicism since he’d already been killed about 4 or 5 other times this year — or busy calling their Congressman to learn just how dedicicated he or she is to the sanctity of marriage — I’ve kind of enjoyed reading some of the transcripts from the liberal bloggers with too much time on their hands who want to know if their Senators masterbate (I can’t believe I typed that, Mom) — I was considering what might be causing the pain in my legs and other muscles.I’m not a doctor. I find that most doctors like to treat symptoms. I know that even more doctors shy away from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is the one I kind of zeroed in on though. Actually, I really think a doctor should pay attention to me.
From Webmd:
Widespread, chronic pain—often described as deep or burning—is the most common symptom. This pain is more common in the body, hips, and shoulders, and it is rare in the hands and feet. It usually develops gradually and can interfere with even simple daily activities.
Other symptoms that commonly occur in addition to pain include:2, 3
- Fatigue that interferes with work and daily activities.
- Sleep problems (difficulty falling or staying asleep, waking up feeling tired).
Less commonly, people with fibromyalgia may have:
- Morning stiffness lasting less than an hour.
- Headaches.
- Constipation or diarrhea related to irritable bowel syndrome.
- Memory problems and difficulty concentrating.
- Anxiety or depression.
Fibromyalgia can sometimes feel like the flu. You may experience body aches, tiredness, and intestinal problems. The pain in your joints and muscles may be especially bothersome at night, waking you from sleep, or in the morning, when you may feel very stiff and sore. You may have trouble concentrating because of fatigue. Symptoms can last from days to months or years.
People with fibromyalgia have periods when their symptoms become worse and periods when they have milder or no symptoms. Flare-ups of fatigue and muscle and joint aches are common, especially following physical or emotional stress. Many people with fibromyalgia report that cold or damp weather, poor sleep, fatigue, stress, or overexertion makes their pain worse.
O.K. Hmmmm Widespread pain. Yup. The last three days starting in my legs and emminating up in my arms, wrists and hands. It hurts to hold anything, grip the steering wheel. I keep telling people that my legs feel like they would if I’d been running for miles — you know, that burn in the muscle? And sometimes there’s just a cramp in the thighs and calves like there’s a lack of oxygen from the marathon they think I’ve walked. My fingers feel swollen. My right wrist feels like I’ve been cross-stitching for days. My left arm feels like I’ve been leaning on it for a month. I can’t lift an umbrella without feeling the burn. And to think it started with night time leg twitches a year or so ago.
And I got fatigue. I’m exhausted all of the time. All I want to do is go home and rest but I’ve got to go home and do laundry and take care of the puppy and do chores. I feel like there’s no time to do the things I want to do because I never feel up to doing them.
And we all know I have sleeping issues. Even with the ambien, I’m up three or four times a night. And do I have to point out about the headaches, the chorinc headaches and migraines?
Plus, I’ve talked here and elsewhere about my rotating constipation and diarrhea, which I’d really rather not discuss again…and now I’ve also got acid reflux, which another website points out is a possible symptom.
I’ve often contemplated if I have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder because I seem to have a short-attention span and a wandering mind. I find it difficult to focus in meetings and I find it hard to remember what tv show I was watching between commercials even. I also have trouble tripping over easy words a lot of the time. I’ve been blaming it on the depression and the medication, but now I wonder.
Also note that anxiety and depression are on that list. Which came first I wonder? The chicken or the egg?
Anyway, it’s something to think about.
tags: fibromyalgia, wellness, al-Zarqawi
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on June 24, 2006 at 4:14 am
Cher said:
hi there.
I have fibromyalgia have had it for five years. It tends to take a while to get a diagnoses as the only way fibro is diagnosed is through a process of elimination. As you probably know the symptoms of fibro are widespread and can mimic other illnesses. As for your comment about the ” short attention span” This can also be a symptom of fibro look up ” fibro fog” in a serch engine, that should pull up some information for you.
It might be worth trying to find yourself a more sympathtic doctor. I went through 4 doctors until i received my diagnoses.
Hope this helps
Cher xxx
on August 3, 2006 at 2:57 am
sak said:
Well hate to be so bold and blunt but, Fibromyalgia is a bunch of crap. There is no blood test, x-ray or any other modern test that can prove or dis-prove this disease. I have worked in Emergency rooms for over 20 years and the many things in common with these patients is that they are all very dramatic; have psychiatric histories; Abusers of street drugs IE: Marijuana, cocaine, meth and all other street drugs; Are frequent flyers to the ER to obtain Narcotics for their alleged pain.
I know all about the symptoms, I have them all. When I wake up in the morning I am stiff for a long time, I ware out easy and by the end of the day I feel like I am going to die from exhaustion. Well ya want to know why this is, it is not Fibromyalgia. It’s called getting old so get over it! People have been getting old for thousands of years. We all have these symptoms eventually, some faster than others especially if you use drugs as a young person. So, get off your ass, join the rest of us with the same condition and become an active part of society, pay your taxes and quit being a burden on the rest of us by us funding your SSI benefits just because are getting old like the rest of us. I know some people reading this will be upset, but this is tough love and it is high time someone told these people that getting old is no fun for all of us. If you use drugs as a young person I hope you enjoyed them because now you are paying the price for your “HIGH”.
on August 3, 2006 at 10:35 am
n. mallory said:
Well, thank you, Sak, for your opinion. I’ve never used drugs. I don’t drink. I certainly never was part of the “party” crowd. I am an active part of society. I pay my taxes. I work for a living. I am not dependent on anyone and don’t intend to be.
I have a friend who has a FMS diagnosis for the last 10 years who has a full time job, teaches piano, works out at the gym 3x a week, caters on the side when she can, helps out babysitting with all of her neices and nephews, and has a social life…oh, and she’s a strict Mormon.
Maybe you should stop dumping everyone into one category and get over yourself.
on August 3, 2006 at 6:54 pm
sak said:
N. Mallory
It is nice to know that you do not do drugs. Anyway your friend is in the minority of Fibromialgia diagnosed person’s. Most people who are diagnosed are just what I said in the previous letter. This diagnosis is a crutch for doctor’ s to catagorized patient’s into a group so insurance can justify paying for medical treatment and medication. Ms. Mallory you do not even look 20 years old, I have been in the medical field for longer than that so ,live some life . Get into the medical field for 20 years , feel the frustration I feel with these “fakers” and get back to me when you are about 42 or so when you start feel these symptoms as I do . Then you will realize that these “Fibromyalgia symptoms” are just a part of the aging process. “We are but a flower, we sprout , we grow and we bloom then we wither” . We all age differently it is just the luck of the draw. I am sorry your friend is aging quicker then most and has been mislead into this “Fibromyalgia Diagnosis”. She probably has different problems such as GI tract, insomnia, tired muslces from working hard and all the other associated symptoms but, not Fibromyalgia which is a catch all phrase to clasify people with these problems. Like I said I have all of the symptoms of Fibromyalgia, yet I realize that I am getting old and I have already bloomed and now it is my time to wither. To tell me to get over myself is a little bit juvenille since you obviously have no experience in treating these patients and I have been doing it for over 20 years. God Bless you and your friend and when your aging process occurs embrace it and realize that God is there with you and you do not need a catch all cruch like fibromyalgia to get you through life.
on August 3, 2006 at 9:13 pm
n. mallory said:
I’m definitely closer to 42 than 20, but I’ll take the compliment since somene recently assumed I was my best friend’s 37 year old husband’s mother. I’m younger than him, by the way.
Since it’s clear you haven’t read many of my posts, I’ll say that I’m the daughter of a nurse and a father who never let me be sick a day of school even with 102 temperature unless the school sent me home. I don’t believe embracing illnesses and using them as crutches but I do want to treat the actual illness and not the symptoms. I do know people who make me think it’s all in their head which is why it took me so long to pursue this particular angle for myself and if you’ll look at some of the other posts, you’ll see that I’m doing so in a healthy manner, seeing a specialist who is testing me for a variety of ipossible illnesses — one of which I just learned from my mother appears to run in the family after all.
However, I don’t think fibromyalgia is a made up syndrome. There are just too many people who are suffering from the same symptoms at too early ages these days. More and more I wonder if it doesn’t have to do with changes in the increasingly poluted environment and the fact that medicine has screwed with Darwin’s system, allowing weaker genes to survive when they shouldn’t. More and more children are taking home lists to their parents of foods and items they can’t take to school because other kids are or might be allergic to them. Reminds me of that little kid in Earth2 who was pretty much allergic to everything and couldn’t walk on his own and had no strength but was probably just a product of a deterioration of life in general for mankind.
That said, you don’t really know for sure that fibromyalgia doesn’t exist. You say you worked in ERs for 20 years, but you didn’t say as a doctor. I’m not either, though I’ve worked for medical IT for 10 years. I will say that 30 years ago they said migraines were imaginary; some doctors still think that, but then someone experienced one while in an MRI and there was proof. Doctors still don’t really understand them though.
Heck, when the hospital I work at now openned over 150 years ago, there wasn’t much doctors could do for patients other than give them painkillers and wait. Look how far they’ve come.
Yesterday I had a discussion with a surgeon who assured me that in the last 10 years doctors have actually learned something about what causes IBS and how to actually treat it other than playing with your diet, whereas 10 to 15 years ago, they would assume anyone with stomach trouble that they couldn’t diagnose would be lumped into that category and be given either a low-fiber bland diet or a high-fiber bland diet depending on their theory.
So…who knows what research will say in the next 10 years? Maybe the people diagnosed with fibromyalgia today will be further separated out into more divisions. Maybe someone will develop a test. Wasn’t there just an article in the paper about someone in Britain who officially died of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Isn’t that another one of those illnesses that people think is all in the head too?
I think it’s easy to lump all the bad you’ve seen into one group and then generalize and say that everyone is like that, but I don’t think that’s the case. I’ve been meeting a lot of good, supportive people online who have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia who’s goal it is in life is to live and to help each other do so through advice and support. These are people who want to work and want to have families and live as normal as possible. Those are the people that inspire me the most.
on March 21, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Sheila said:
I just encountered Sak’s post from August 3rd 2006.So even though Sak may never read this, I am so infuriated that I have to write this. I have worked doing chores from the time I was old enough to do it. By eight I was loading wood for the winter into my dad’s truck. I was working full time by age 16 and have worked ever since. I pay my bills, my taxes. I have good work ethic and morals. I am not given to drama or displays of any kind. In fact, I would be more likely to HIDE discomfort from those around me. I’ve had fibromyalgia for 5 years (it took 3 to diagnose it). I am not a street drug user or a prescription addict. It’s because of people like YOU that I get treated like a druggie when I go into the hospital (which happens about twice a year) for extreme pain that won’t resolve with my regular prescribed medication. Believe me, I would rather stay at home in the middle of the night than to drag myself to the hospital to be treated that way. Bottom line, you don’t know me, you don’t know what it’s like to have fibromyalgia and you are a bigot. KMA!
on March 23, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Rene' said:
sak
” pay your taxes and quit being a burden on the rest of us by us funding your SSI benefits just because are getting old like the rest of us.”
First of all, no one pays your ssi benefits for you. The $$ you get for ssi disability is $$ that you yourself have put into your own fund. I know this because my oldest son’s father died and the only way he gets $$ for his fathers death each month is because his father worked and paid in to that fund himself. It works the same way with ssi disability. So before you climbed up on that high horse that you are apparently on you should have done some homework. Also,”It’s called getting old so get over it!” You write this in your answer but then you turn around to tell N. Mallory that “to tell me to get over myself is a little bit juvenille.” Wow sak, it seems that you may not suffer from fibromyalgia, but you definately suffer from something. I believe it is called, ummm…A better than thou, know it all, non compassionate attitude. Maybe there isn’t a lot known about fibro, it’s symptoms and it’s causes, but just because modern medicine hasn’t yet uncovered the mysteries, doesn’t mean that everyone who has been diagnosed with it is faking the pain. I have been dx’d with it and refuse to accept the dx because I believe there is an underlying issue that needs to be uncovered. But until the docs can get the answers for the patients, we have no choice other than to trust what they are telling us. I do not take pain meds except when nothing else works, but it IS a very disruptive set of symptoms that has sent a lot of ppl to doctors and if you have been dx’d with fibro then that means you have been to the docs over and over with the same set of issues, and many times for years and years before the dx. If I just wanted pain meds I would complain of something like back pain or migraines. I hope these symptoms and the mental anguish of “just not knowing” what is wrong with you never creeps up on you. It is a very sad thing when you can no longer do the things you once could, when your children want to know why you can’t come out and play football or tennis any longer, and the only thing you can tell them is that you have fibro, and when they ask what it is , all you can tell them is that, “Well honey, it is a made up disease. It is all in my head.” I am just doing this for attention and pain killers, or at least that is what I am told. I am sure there are some out there who have jumped on the “fibromyalgia bandwagon” but for those of us who are in genuine pain it is horrific to be slammed into the category of addicts and mental cases. Get a heart, and a little compassion. Personally, I would rather lose a leg than to have this stuff. I guess then you would believe. It’s just sad that there are such mean, cruel ppl in this world.
on May 17, 2007 at 9:27 am
lynda clifford said:
sak sux - he may work in e.r. but his job title is probably meaningless just like his opinion
on July 10, 2007 at 5:10 am
RN with Fibro said:
Functional MRI has shown that fibromyalgia sufferers interpret pain signals differently. There’s also increased substance P in the spinal fluid of those with fibro.
Sak needs to lose his/her license if not willing to treat pain. It is time to change jobs AND spend some time reading recent research.
As a nurse manager, I know burn out when I see it. One classic symptom is lack of compassion - not a good thing in medical professions.