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 affects the emotional and the emotional affects the physical, they cannot be separated.
Since most of the answers here are from three years ago, they cannot be judged in terms of validity as much in the scientific and medical communities can change in three years. Nonetheless, a common thread among many of them is their reference to stress, depression, and other maladies often caused by trauma.
As to the suggestion that genetics may be a cause, I think medical research will find, if it hasn’t already, that any connection to genetics is related instead to family dysfunction and the extent to which that may lead to a person being more susceptible to experiencing PTSD in situations that might not trigger PTSD in others, but even that is a stretch.
In the final analysis, I think research will find that FMS is not caused by genetics.
I had the hallmark symptom of FMS feeling bruised all over within weeks of the trauma-triggering event without knowing what it was, but it was 14 years before I awoke one morning with full-blown FMS. The intervening PTSD that lasted nearly all of that 14 years was so intense, both physically and emotionally, that, if I did have FMS sooner than that, I wouldn’t have known it.
I believe, instead, that it wasn’t until the severe PTSD (finally diagnosed in year 9) began to subside that FMS made its appearance. The following describes what I believe happened internally. It’s what makes sense based on all the things I was experiencing physically.
With trauma, the “fight-flight-freeze” response is triggered which releases adrenalin, but when this release of adrenalin continues for too long, the body/brain forgets how to turn it off.
As a result of this disruption in brain chemistry, the neurotransmitters become confused and end up super-sensitive, so the sensitivity to pain that some mentioned as a possible cause doesn’t cause FMS. It’s one of its consequences.
It’s my understanding that over the last year or so, the medical community has come to believe that trauma is the cause, but, as was the case in my situation, the trauma-triggering event can precede the appearance of FMS by years.
Of all the drugs and other treatment options I’ve tried, low-dose Methadone has worked the best, eliminating the weakness that, after 20 yrs. with FMS, seems to trouble me the most. If I could remain in motion 24/7, I wouldn’t have much difficulty at all. Guess that’s why I end up staying up all night so often.
I’ve noticed that, though the FMS has gradually subsided over the years except for the weakness and inability to sleep more than 2–4 hours, a flare can be easily re-triggered by stressful situations.
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 tried an SSRI, but the side effects were untenable, and talk therapy seemed to work better. We kind of wrote it off to a lot of typical midlife stuff and arthritis, but my NP thought it could be fibromyalgia.
Fast forward to about four years ago. The merger at work resulted in me having been made redundant. I had gone through a financial crisis like many people during the economic downturn–drained my savings, lost my house, etc. I was an empty nester and had become the target of some parental alienation when my ex remarried. I had had to put one of my dogs to sleep, and my BF had broken up with me.
I had moved to Mexico, a traumatic event itself, where the COL is low, and I worked both at my own business and paid jobs from home and in San Diego to support myself. I had a big event in San Diego for my business that necessitated getting up at 3 am, driving a long distance, stressing about the border crossing, and stressing about the event itself.
Everything went fine, but two days later I could hardly walk I was so tired. I kept thinking I was coming down with the flu, but it never happened. After a bit of looking on the Internet, I finally decided I was likely having a fibro flare. It went away in less than a week, and I thought nothing more about it until about six months ago.
I had moved house for the fourth time since moving to Mexico. I had been through the wringer over the previous four years with unbelievable stress. Two banks had at separate times discontinued my ATM card because of general bank fraud here, leaving me stranded without money.
I witnessed the immediate aftereffects of two cartel hits. I found out one landlord was a gangster who had every unit in my building hooked up to my electric meter. He kidnapped one of my dogs (witnessed by neighbors) and dumped him outside of town.
After some similar experiences, as well as my car being hit three times without compensation, I was in another house, a little further south. It was arduous getting there because a freelance writing client (the primary line of work I had settled on to supplement my own business) had left for Europe for six weeks without paying her bill–thousands of dollars I needed to move.
Then I come to find out that at this place, the property manager has been cooking the books on the rent and stealing from the landlady, who in turn, wants to kill me and take all my belongings–apparently a common practice of hers. (If you’re tempted to think I’m making this up, live for a while in Baja.)
I spent two weeks walking around with a knife on my belt, my Rottweiler, who BTW, protected me from an intruder in the middle of the night, always at my side. I had to pay $500 to bribe the guard to open the gate to let me out with my moving truck, my entire house packed overnight, knowing I had to go. I had the night duty officer at the consulate on speed dial.
I get to the new house, the one I’m in now, and I’m working like a dog writing web content remotely to catch up with the $500 bribe money and pay my new rent. The LL is cool, understanding what happened, I’m settling in, walking my dogs on the beach every morning, commending myself for surviving the last half-decade, and finally finding a nice place to live, like there’s some sort of karmic justice in the world.
And wham… I wake up one day, and it’s like I’ve been hit by a truck in my sleep. I can hardly walk, every joint in my body is on fire, and I’m overwhelmed with fatigue. This sort of ebbs after a month or so until I trip over a piece of PVC pipe lying on a restaurant patio and fall on both knees, one of which has had surgery for arthritis. Back with the pain… again…
I have finally only recently recovered from the pain of that fall, but I am left with crushing fatigue. I am grateful every day I can work from home as a writer, but I have put my other biz on hiatus and become a hermit with my social life. I have to believe that my fibromyalgia is primarily stress–induced (I could probably list 20 more things like the ones above), but there are clearly physical triggers as well. I wonder too if my arthritis didn’t predispose me somehow to it, or even the knee surgery I had to treat it.
There was also an aspect of stress/adrenaline keeping my fibro at bay when I basically couldn’t afford to be disabled and then my body kind of relinquishing when I could finally rest. I am menopausal, and I’m sure my thyroid/adrenal system is shot. I probably have some PTSD too from chronic fear over the last few years.
My weight has gone up between everything I have related above. I have tried to get Obamacare, but the system says I don’t exist, after numerous initiations setting up an account. It’s probably because I haven’t used a credit card in years, so my identity can’t be verified. The last time my ATM card failed, it took four tries before a bank could verify my identity to get a new one. It finally became more stressful trying to get health insurance than having the insurance would have been worth it.
I can’t untangle what’s what, so I try to treat the common factors by reducing stress, eating as healthily as I can, reducing alcohol and caffeine, and getting a good night’s sleep. I take a tiny amount of tramadol, which is available OTC here, thank God, as well naproxen and Tylenol for pain. Occasionally I take a small dose of Valium to knock myself out at night when I really need to sleep, which I don’t always do well, in spite of my fatigue.
I have stopped giving a flying flip what anyone thinks of me at this point, including family and friends who just “hmm hmm” me if I try to explain either my fibro or the circumstances that seem to have precipitated it.
If I could be granted a magical genie’s wish, I think I’d go back in time to make a million different choices to erase the physical and mental stresses that led to where I am today. The philosopher in me likes to think sometimes that I’ve been led down this path to make me a better writer or fulfill some other grand plan, but then I remember what it was like to run or have any sort of a normal life, and I don’t know. I don’t know if I would trade a Nobel Prize for this condition.
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 didn’t make any sense.
A couple of months of that and then the fibrofog came along with exhaustion and body pain, migraines, and other symptoms. I also was having a tough time in my marriage that ended in divorce years later. I kind of felt like my body was trying to tell me something my mind didn’t know yet.
It seems that something happens to someone-an an accident, a surgery, a sexual assault, anything that shocks and traumatized our bodies and minds, and our brains are never quite the same. It’s neurological, they have done lots of studies on that.
It’s been also considered to be an autoimmune disorder or a disorder like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis. It’s not given as much validity because it also seems to have emotional and mental components as well.
When you have fibro your brain gets easily overwhelmed, noises, feelings, stressors, physical pain that’s intense and doesn’t go away-then anxiety kicks in-not anxiety that’s just about worries-but your body feels anxious like it’s being attacked almost.
There’s lots of research on sensory overload and fibromyalgia showing that it’s a real physical symptom. Nerve endings are more sensitive and stressed causing random pain. Other syndromes and illnesses can happen with fibromyalgia making it all more complicated.
Depression is common, not just because we’re sick and exhausted and hurting which would be enough reason, but because it’s similar chemicals involved and parts of the brain as well.
I was part of a group for fibromyalgia and over 350 women responded about sexual or other types of abuse they’ve had and that they consider that trauma the beginnings of their fibromyalgia. It was the stress, the PTSD, and the emotional upheaval of abuse that started it for them.
They’re making progress on diagnosing and doing lots of research on it all, but because everyone with fibromyalgia is different, has different symptoms, other illnesses, different ways it started makes it hard to say definitively what causes it. We can only guess or make inferences right now.
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 in.
That said, here are things that have been mentioned as issues and causes: Epstein Barr virus, car accidents or other trauma, surgery, a disorder of the gut biome, hypothyroid, POTS. I can tell you my own disease progression: it started with IBS in my 20’s. I was working in ICU, a very intense, high-stress job.
In my 30’s I got married and worked in a doctor’s office and my health improved. Then around 40, I was having muscle problems. I had bronchitis twice in 6 months, with 10-day courses of augmentin (a broad-spectrum antibiotic) each time. The muscle trouble worsened to the point I asked my Dr for a course of physical therapy.
I did the Wharton stretch method, which helped. I walked a lot and got about 90% of my health back. Then I started bleeding very heavily with my menses and had to have a hysterectomy at the age of 44. I got worse again. At 46 I was in a minor car accident, broadsided at a stoplight when I had the right of way.
I wasn’t cut, and I didn’t break any bones, but it put me into a fibromyalgia crisis, where all my muscles spasmed, and I had a nerve pinch down my left arm that lasted a month. I found a book at that time called Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction. As a result of reading it, I went to a physiatrist who diagnosed me with fibromyalgia and said, “ I can’t help you”.
That was devastating! I’d never heard of the disease, so I went straight to Barnes and Noble and bought a book, which said basically,” You hurt like hell, no one knows why, and learn to live with it” Over the years I’ve learned to get off sugar and gluten, but a little dark chocolate is ok.
Eat organics when possible, particularly meats, eat lots of raw veggies and a moderate amount of fruit. Keep exercising and stretching, but gently. Walking, Pilates and tai chi are good. Swimming is only good in a warmed saltwater pool. Take probiotics for your gut. Get your thyroid levels for both T3 and T4 checked.
Adrenal stress goes along with this disease. It can cause you to leach potassium which will make you feel exhausted and make your heartbeat irregularly. I supplement prescription-strength potassium daily. I also supplement magnesium malate, vitamin B12 SL, and Omega 3 fish oil, and I put flax oil in my fruit and veggie smoothies.
I tried Cymbalta, Prozac, Plavix at different times, and found them not to be helpful. My strict diet is what keeps the pain away. I’m usually at a level 2–3, which I can bear. In the beginning, it was at 5–7, which is hard to live with. I hope you figure out what helps you. Good luck!
Fibromyalgia is primarily a neurological brain disorder. It is seven times more likely to strike women than men, and it doesn’t matter what nationality you are. The hypothalamus part of the brain acts as a circuit breaker/fuse box for the rest of the brain and body. It’s like the battery for the entire body.
There are several things that typically cause Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to manifest, but basically high amounts of stress are what cause the hypothalamus to blow its fuse, creating a host of neurological problems, like hormone imbalances, increased pain sensitivity, fatigue, and “brain fog“.
Essentially, you’ve got a dead battery that won’t hold a charge, which is why so many people experience debilitating fatigue. The blown fuse can happen in an instant, and you get no say in if or when it happens.
The hypothalamus has done a system-wide “shutting down” and tried to reboot, in an effort to protect your body and brain from further stress and damage. Like when you turn off your computer and restart it because using Ctrl +Alt +Delete hasn’t worked. Only, by doing this, the brain is permanently altered, like a computer virus that can’t be repaired.
A person can quite literally be fine one day and wake up the next morning feeling so completely different, and your entire life has changed because your brain no longer functions the way it used to. Many Fibro/CFS patients can pinpoint the exact day/week/month everything changed for them. The most common “triggers” fibromyalgia patients report are:
•a sudden traumatic event A house fire, abusive situations, physical attacks, etc. Similar to PTSD, or Dissociation disorders, the brain is trying to cope and process the additional shock and stress, triggering the hypothalamus to “protect” the rest of the brain by flipping a switch.
•an accident Car accidents, drowning, severe falling, etc. can cause the hypothalamus to be trying to “protect” by flipping the switch.
•medical or dental surgery Any time you have surgery, it puts the body under huge increases in stress, because cutting into your body sends the brain “we are under attack!” signals.
•pregnancy Because of the drastic hormonal shifts, joint stress, depleted vitamins and minerals, and the physical trauma of the birth process, pregnancy creates so much stress that for whatever reason the mother’s body just can’t handle it. Fibromyalgia develops during pregnancy or soon after birth. For many women, their Fibromyalgia symptoms and Chronic Fatigue are ignored as simple “hormone shifts” or ” new mommy fatigue”, when in fact her body will never really readjust back to normal.
• high-pressure lifestyles/stressful jobs/major anxiety Workaholics, or people who don’t take enough time off, or just can’t relax and rest. In school-age students, the stress of studies, trying to get good grades, fears of the future, or even too many activities can cause an abundance of stress the body can’t handle.
For some adults, this means they get sick in the form of common things like high blood pressure, heart attacks, or stroke. Others can develop Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or other random “stress-related” illnesses.
Many people are able to live completely normal, energetic, and happy lives BEFORE these stressful, triggering events. Any of these things can cause the hypothalamus fuse to blow like a light bulb that goes out. Once that fuse blows, basically your “brain is broken“. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or what gender.
Even children and teenagers can (and do) develop Fibro and CFS, especially if they have had an accident, undergone serious trauma, or had to have surgery. Being young doesn’t automatically mean someone is healthy, even if they “look healthy”.
This can happen to anyone, at any time, and once it does, there is no way to change that. You can’t just flip the switch back to fix it. The hypothalamus begins sending the wrong signals to the rest of the brain and to the nerves, causing the super sensitive fascia, painful joints and muscles, sensitivity to touch, and intolerance to certain foods and weather changes, causing thyroid and metabolic changes, and cognitive disruptions.
Ironically, the brain’s fuse box blows in an effort to protect your brain and body from further damage because of the prolonged stress you have already been under. This is the chief reason why so many Fibromyalgia patients experience a “Flair Up” of pain and other symptoms when they are under high amounts of additional life stress, like family conflict or having to pack and move. Things like exercise and many mundane physical activities are just too stressful for an already constantly stressed out body, so these things cause a flair-up of symptoms.
The body is already so stressed out from whatever life has thrown at you and being in pain 24/7 that you just can’t handle it anymore. The “Flare Up” will force you to slow down and rest, even when you have things you need to do. This is why a Fibro/CFS patient can feel okay enough to go out and do things one day (feeling “normal”) and be utterly exhausted for the days or weeks after, in a “Flair up“.
Because Fibromyalgia is so physically debilitating, in this way your body is forcing you to rest and slow down, so it can make an effort to heal itself and relax. This is why people with Fibro need to take steps to simplify their life and be as stress–free as possible.
Medicine and Science is just now figuring this out, and it might take another couple of decades for them to agree on a treatment plan that will actually cure the hypothalamus and flip the switch back on.
As everyone else said, it does suck, but how it feels to live with chronic illness varies as much as people vary. People react to their new limitations, lifestyle, and the overall new “suckiness” of their life differently, based on personality, previous experiences, support network, mental health, and a million other variables.
I, for example, handle it really well. I’m 100% disabled. My autonomic nervous system doesn’t work properly which causes heart rate and blood pressure abnormalities, frequent fainting, inability to stay on my feet for more than a few minutes at a time, body temperature variations, inability to digest food normally, and a ton of other whacky symptoms. I also have fibromyalgia and migraines that can last for days on end.
Small, everyday activities that most people take for granted I have to plan in advance – things like getting dressed, taking a shower, or making food take planning, setting up workarounds, and recovery time.
Over time I have outfitted my apartment to be more convenient for me…placed furniture in such places so that no matter where I am I have something to grab on to, make sure there is always a seat within reach, put down extra rugs for padding if/when I fall, outfitted my shower and bathroom with seats and handles, etc.
I live alone, so these precautions are necessary. I am always thinking ahead about what I might need or what problems might come up. Right now I only need a wheelchair part-time, but what if I become constrained to it full time, how will I need to change my living arrangements? Am I prepared for that? How hard will it be? Should I start some early preparations now, just in case? I want to make a certain meal for dinner.
Can I stand long enough to prepare it? Is there any way I can split up the preparation to make it easier? Can I do part of the prep the day before and freeze it so I don’t have to do it all at once? Stuff like that.
Notice my answer focuses on action more than on feeling. That’s because that’s how I am. I’m not an emotional person. I don’t get caught up in the touchy-feely stuff and I don’t get upset that I’m sick. Shit happens.
There’s nothing I can do about it so I don’t see the point in being upset about it. I want a doctor that will fix me, not one that will give me sympathy or tell me it’s going to be okay. As I said, everyone reacts differently.
Many people with chronic illness, on top of all the things I’ve listed, struggle with anxiety and depression because it is hard to keep dealing with all these stupid days today struggles when you’re looking down the road of the rest of your life, years, and years down the line, and realizing it’s not going to get any better, it’s not going to change, that this is it, this is your life now.
Depression and/or anxiety can make getting out of bed hard for someone without additional health problems, let alone in someone who is disabled for other reasons as well. For me, at least, I’m not sad about it, I’m just busy. I used to be busy working. Now I’m busy being sick – constantly.
I’ve had it for about 29 years now. In a word—-Pain. Never-ending, constant pain. Your shoulder will suddenly start to hurt, which can last for a few seconds to days. That can happen in any part of your body. When it quits, it will start in some other place, again for only a few seconds to days.
One day I woke up, got up to go to the bathroom, and fell on my knees with horrible pain in both groins. I had to crawl to the bathroom. It felt as though I had sprained or tore both groin muscles, was that way for a week. I couldn’t go to work. All of a sudden it stopped.
It causes brain fog—forgetting things that used to be just automatic, sleep disturbances, your brain just will not shut up. You do stuff like put milk in the cabinet and cereal in the fridge, your wallet in the freezer, Go into the bathroom to pee, and all of a sudden you are standing in the tub, fully clothed with your watch and glasses on, frequently wonder if you have Alzheimer’s or dementia—-you test normal on all tests. The one that needs to be done is called the Stroop test. It actually takes us twice as long as “normals” to process stuff in our brains.
You can frequently get an incredibly intense itch—-anywhere, on me, usually my thumb or any finger or palm of my hand. And I do mean intense, To the point, you are screaming and wanting to run out into the street pulling your hair off and ripping your clothes off.
You need to put immense pressure, to the point of pain on the spot to get a little relief. It can last several very long, excruciating minutes to about 30. It seems days. I’ve put all sorts of stuff on it and taken Benadryl or anything else I can get my hands on. ( still do not know what has worked, if anything.
Your whole body can ache, like the horrible flu. You feel tired—-beyond belief. You feel so tired you are scared to fall asleep because you are too tired to breathe. You feel like you just won’t wake up because you won’t be able to continue breathing in your sleep. There develop tender points on your body. certain areas that when touched are very painful.
My husband would bend over, place his hands on my knees and give me a kiss. Did it for years, all of a sudden, it started hurting, to the point I just wanted to haul off and slap him! He had to stop doing it, even though he was not applying that much pressure. There are more—-flare-ups, you are worthless when they happen. I think this is enough—-in short—-you do not want this!!
I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 1992, long before it was trendy and before many physicians even acknowledged it as a true medical condition. I was 16 and couldn’t understand how people could play sports, roll down hills, or perform any of a million other activities that they seemed to take for granted but I couldn’t imagine voluntarily engaging in, much less enjoying.
My Fibro journey has been a roller coaster. I have lost jobs because I couldn’t attend them regularly, or even remember to call in sick sometimes. I have crawled on my hands and knees to the bathroom in the morning because it hurt too much to put weight on some part of my body by walking. I have lost relationships because my partner believed it was all in my head or an attention-seeking ploy.
I have also traveled around Europe solo for four months, enjoyed a healthy romantic life, and held down jobs of surprising responsibility and physicality, most notably being a successful retail store manager for several years. I’ve been on dozens of medications, sometimes all at once.
Now I am 38 years old. I take Tramadol, a non-narcotic painkiller, anywhere from zero to four times a day. And that’s it, other than the occasional aspirin for a headache. I have a job I enjoy and am successful at, although I’ve left retail because it’s a hard routine to maintain without exacerbating the Fibro symptoms.
What is it like? It’s a day-to-day, and sometimes minute-to-minute, thrill ride. You never know if you’ll be able to keep plans or lift your leg high enough to get in the shower or remember your pet’s (or husband’s) name. You might develop a limp for a day or a week because of a random muscle spasm or shooting pain down one leg. You just never know.
You can let it rule your life, or you can choose to roll with the punches, make the necessary adjustments to your activity level depending on your symptoms at the moment, and move on. Fibromyalgia gives me Exhausting, Frustrating, Difficult, Painful, Embarrassing, and Limiting.
In the spring of 2008, my fibromyalgia (technically fibromyalgia syndrome or FMS) was destroying my life. I couldn’t move without crippling pain. I would move in small increments like going to the bathroom or switching from the bed to the couch. I needed help getting to appointments. If my ride’s car didn’t have soft seats, I was in agony.
Sometime that summer, I was prescribed Lyrica. It wasn’t the first thing I tried, but it was the first thing that helped. It made a big difference. I did a little bit of housework, a little bit of caring for my kids, and I could get myself to appointments.
I lived like that for years. I got Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) after a long appeals process. A couple of times, I tried to be productive and return to school or get a job. Both attempts failed.
In 2012 or 2013, I began physical therapy for the FMS. Fortunately, they started me in a therapy swimming pool. That way, the exercises weren’t “weight-bearing.” It did add a little bit of resistance, but really it was less than holding a 1 pound weight. I started with 5 minutes of exercise – plus after I got out of the pool, they would stretch my legs gently.
I don’t remember how many months I continued with them. I think it was close to a year and a half. They added two minutes a week at first. Later, they added five minutes a week. With the added minutes, they added exercises. I was much stronger when they finally started having me work on the land. Eventually, I could exercise for 30 minutes weight-bearing. At that point, they discharged me.
With all this exercise, something very nice happened. The constant widespread pain declined. It was still pretty bad when I was discharged, but not agonizing. I also disagreed with the discharge because I still couldn’t do a lot of basic household tasks. The fact was, I still wasn’t as strong as the average couch potato.
At home, I kept doing the exercises. I really liked the reduction in pain. Then, I got a virus and I was sick for a week. The FMS symptoms worsened to the point that I couldn’t do the exercise routine anymore.
It wasn’t at its worst. I decided on a plan. I chose a YouTube exercise video for beginners. I picked one that used the whole body and seemed to be a true beginner level – for average people. In order to make it possible for me, I started with the first 5 minutes of the video.
I did it every morning. After a week, I added a minute. I kept adding minutes in small numbers week after week. When I was finally doing the whole video, I felt better all the time again.
In 2015, I decided that I could manage a part-time job. I did a job search, which is a story in itself. August of 2015, I began working 15 hours a week. The job involved some walking and some stairs, which worried me at first.
The walking and stairs turned out to be a good thing. Don’t get me wrong; it hurt to walk and climb stairs. But they were absolutely necessary to my job. And since I care about work ethic, I did both with a positive attitude. My symptoms improved further.
When I was laid off in 2016, I was ready for a job with 30 hours a week and some activity. A year later, I went to 40 hours a week and more activity. Last fall, 2018, I increased my activity again. When I had a smartwatch (I recently lost it), I learned that I’m walking about 9000 steps most days.
The difference is profound. I still have a ghost of pain all the time, but it’s not a problem. I seldom notice it.
If I get too much activity, I will feel it. It’s horrible. But since I started working, I’ve gotten more and more careful to monitor my activity. I’ve become aware of the way a muscle feels when it’s starting to reach that point. That means I don’t have problems often.
I have to avoid NSAID class medications except in emergencies. For some people with FMS, they increase symptoms. These include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and everything related. The safest way to check whether you have this issue is to take a dose of aspirin. It will be out of your system in 2 to 3 days. If it does make you worse, you won’t have to suffer for weeks.
Of course, in case of a heart attack, I would take aspirin as directed. A couple of days of extra pain doesn’t even matter at that point.
The over-the-counter pain medicine that doesn’t hurt is acetaminophen (often called Tylenol or Paracetamol).
Wrist Stuck is a condition that typically involves fibromyalgia pain. This fibro wrist stuck diagnosis can have many different manifestations. The fibromyalgia wrist stuck is generally considered to be centered around a heightened sensitivity of the veins system stuck, especially in the arm pain. Many people with fibromyalgia experience multiple wrist symptoms including:
While the cause of wrist stuck in fibromyalgia is not yet fully understood, many theories about the condition include its onset being triggered by different stressors. These triggers may include mental stress, having weight lifting causes, and other general medical health problems.
The main symptom leading to a diagnosis of fibromyalgia wrist stuck is damaged veins pain. While all-over pain is common, the pain can also be more localized. It can be located exactly in the wrist joint of occasional or constant.
Other symptoms, such as numbness and tingling with fibromyalgia are also caused by wrist stuck, may be confused with veins damage conditions that affect the arms and hands. Often, the numbness and tingling of fibromyalgia are not to the same degree as we see with other veins damage conditions in the arm. It also does not always follow the typical patterns of veins and nerves in the limb.
Therefore, a careful sensory exam is needed to help find the actual cause of hand numbness or tingling. Special nerve testing (EMG/NCV) can help to clarify the causes of the wrist stuck symptoms in the elbow, forearm, or hand and can help determine whether the symptoms are coming from veins and nerve problems.
There are no common tests, such as x-rays or blood studies, to diagnose fibromyalgia wrist stuck pain, or the disease in general. The diagnosis is made primarily by physical examination and a review of all fibromyalgia arm symptoms (movement pain, weight lifting, veins damage, mental stress, sleepy hand problems, mental fogginess, arthritis problems, etc.).
The diagnosis can be confusing because people with stuck wrist fibromyalgia can also have other conditions in the arm which are unrelated to the fibromyalgia diagnosis, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
There are no surgical treatments for wrist stuck in fibromyalgia hand pain or arm pain, but other conditions present at the same time may benefit from surgical treatment.
Arthritis specialists (rheumatologists) may assist with the diagnosis and management of wrist stuck in fibromyalgia. They may recommend medications, activity/exercises changes, and other treatments to help with the symptoms of wrist stuck in fibromyalgia.
