Fibromyalgia Research

Often I research Fibromyalgia in hopes to find any new information or treatments I haven’t tried before. Today I ran across an article listing some aggravating symptoms. One of the first listed was chest pains unrelated to the heart. Maybe the squeezing spells are truly a symptom. All I know is the spells I have are very painful and exhausting.

http://www.fmnetnews.com/fibro-basics/symptoms/aggravating

Another interesting article on symptoms and treatments:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000427.htm

So far, I haven’t run across anything new other than the information about the chest pains. Still, I am hopeful one day something will be of true value to me or someone else. I just don’t see how it is possible to stop the muscle pain. The pills work for a while but when they wear off, the pain is still there. If I take them too often, they don’t work unless I take more and that is not someplace I am ready to go. I’m not particularly happy to be medicated every hour of every day. Most times that means my brain can’t function. (Heaven knows I have enough problems there without any help… haha)

 

Another Squeezing Spell

After an hour of sleep from 2:30 to 3:30 this morning, I was abruptly awakened by another “squeezing spell”. The last time it happened I took my combo and within 30 minutes, it stopped. Not this time.

Lord, I wish when one of these spells happen they could hook me up to a diagnostics machine. If I could just explain in detail what happens maybe they could figure out what is causing it and exactly what it is! They just come without any warning so to catch it as it is happening would be difficult.

The doctors can’t seem to figure what it is but feel it is another Fibromyalgia symptom. The spells began in June 2012 as a weekly event and now come at least two or three times a week. Some are worse than others. This has been a bad one.

It started with excruciating pain around the thyroid then burst into my arms. The pain is like what I would expect to be with a heart attack. It feels like someone has hit my throat with their fist. I can’t keep my arms still because the pain is so intense; like someone has grabbed hold of my arms and is squeezing them so tightly the blood supply is being cut off. Then, indigestion and nausea started with a tremendous amount of uncontrollable belching. Usually, I break out in a cold sweat and often diarrhea but that didn’t happen this time.

After two and a half hours, it is beginning to ease a bit. It has completely drained the life from me. I am so thankful I don’t have to try to function today.

 

COPD

 

 

Fibromyalgia Symptoms ~ What Are Yours?

 

Snow ~ We’ll See

It’s almost 5:30pm and 60 degrees. That can’t be a good thing in January. In about four hours that number is expected to drop over 30 degrees and light snow is heading our way; so they say. Kind of hard to believe and I have my doubts the snow will make it to Central Alabama but we’ll see. Here is a look at the future radar…

I don’t know what I would do without my precious brother. He went through the firewood I have left and carried what was still good to the porch for me this morning. There is probably enough to get through the next couple of days but after that, I guess for the first time in my life I will have to buy firewood. We have always cut and split our own. If I hadn’t given away so much over the past few years, I would still have enough for this winter at least. Oh well. At least I had it to give when someone needed it.

Everyone be safe. Stay warm and watch out for black ice!

 

Little Things

Like so many little things in our lives we take for granted, proper hygiene is hard to maintain when your back doesn’t want to hold you up, but for the first time in four days I managed to take a shower. (Disgusting, yes but what do you do when you can’t get out of bed?) Drying my hair was easier than the shower or putting on my clothes. I think the socks were the hardest but, I think I am beginning to come back to life.

It all started on Monday when I took the Christmas tree down, boxed it up for another year, then put it on the top shelf in the laundry room with all the other Christmas decorations. (It was heavier than I thought. I wish I had just left it standing in the corner after I took the ornaments off like I seriously considered doing.) That not only hurt my back but caused my hemorrhoids to become horribly inflamed, which put me in the bed for almost four days. One thing leads to another because being in bed that long caused the back pain to become unbearable and completely off the pain scale. The sharp, shooting pains in my lower back and down my legs have been so bad I could barely breathe at times. A hot sitz bath in Epsom salt helped tremendously with the hemorrhoids and pain. Thank goodness the Fibro and COPD haven’t flared while all this has been going on. I would welcome a bullet if I had to deal with everything at once! Some days that sounds like the easy way out anyway but not an option.

Most of Alabama is expected to feel freezing (or below) temps for the next few days with wind chills possibly reaching below zero. (If I had enough firewood, I would do my best to keep a fire going but I don’t so I see a huge electric bill for January.) I think there is even a mention of snow in our forecast for late tomorrow night and early Monday morning. Living in Central Alabama that means the bread and milk are probably gone from all the stores by now. (That’s just part of being in the south and yes, a big joke by everyone when the “S” word is mentioned.)

Gotta turn on a faucet to drip so the pipes don’t burst in the guest house…

Times like this I miss my Daddy so very much. There were so many little things he took care of that just don’t get done any more. He always made sure the outside faucets were wrapped for the winter and the water turned off. Not just our house but my brother’s as well — and my grandmother’s when she was alive. He took care of me for thirteen years. Then the last two he just couldn’t do what he wanted. As long as we were working together the pain was bearable, for both of us. We were a good team. I am so thankful I was able to return the care and love he gave to me. I miss someone taking care of those little things. It’s tough being a single woman and having to do every little detail alone especially when your body won’t allow it… whew! Enough of that! I’m depressing myself!

Now the Fibro has kicked in. All I did was clean out a couple of bowls of leftover food from refrigerator, throw away the food, and wash the dishes; and clean the litter boxes. My muscles have tightened like rubber bands and are on fire. If it wouldn’t hurt my back again, I would go back to bed and just stay there! *sigh*

 

Happy New Year

Since I can’t find anything to talk about other the pain I have experienced for the past several days, I will wait until I have something more worthwhile to say. Hope this doesn’t last much longer.

Happy New Year everyone. I pray that 2014 brings us all less pain and happier days.

 

A Day of Pain

Maybe tomorrow I will feel like writing. Pain pills have helped for a while but not lasting very long at all. Every time I cough, the pain comes back but thankfully I haven’t been coughing as bad as the past several days. It’s been a rough day. Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Good night friends. I hope you all rest well.

 

If I Had One Wish

The past few days my muscles have been so weak I barely have the strength to walk to the bathroom. (Maybe taking the ornaments off the Christmas tree caused this flare-up or maybe it’s the cold, damp weather. Who knows?! … I just hope I can get the tree down before New Year‘s Day.)  If I had just one wish I think it would have to be for this nasty disease to go back to the pits of hell where it belongs. I’m sure if you suffer with Fibromyalgia you know exactly what I am talking about. If you don’t I am so happy for you, but please educate yourself before passing judgement on something you don’t understand.

Not only has the Fibro kicked in hard and heavy but so has the COPD. Everyone around me has been sick with respiratory infections of some sort so I have tried to stay alone and in my comfort zone. (I did go to my brother’s for Christmas dinner but didn’t give any of them hugs — except for him — for making my Christmas so special.) It’s hard to keep the germs away when they are flying all over the place. It doesn’t take much for a flare-up. I just hope this doesn’t turn into pneumonia; not sure the usual antibiotic is working this time.

One of my Fibro friends just posted this image and I had to share it here. I completely agree! It is nothing like the commercials… Lyrica, Cymbalta or any of the other hundreds of drugs on the market for Fibromyalgia don’t seem to help me in the least. In fact, they tend to make the symptoms worse as well as bring on thoughts of suicide. So, I choose to suffer through it. Maybe one day something will come along to make it tolerable for me and without side effects. For now, I will continue with pain meds and muscle relaxers.

 

Fibromyalgia Changes Everything

Fibromyalgia changes everything and everyone around you. Living with it is one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. One day may be livable while the next five days aren’t. The article in the link below describes the challenges of dealing with this nasty disease. If your doctor doesn’t understand or won’t acknowledge that Fibromyalgia could be the source of your problems, find another doctor!

“A person with Fibromyalgia may be able to clean the house, go shopping and do yard work on Monday, but on Thursday they may not even be able to get out of bed.”

http://www.fibromyalgia-treatment.com/nothing-easy-about-it/

Today we have 100% chance of rain in Central Alabama and it has done just that all day and is expected to continue until tomorrow morning. My joints feel like someone is driving nails in them and the muscles in my back are so weak they can barely hold me up. I woke around 3:30 this morning and need a nap but I know that nap will turn into several hours then I will be up the rest of the night. Think I will try to tough it out…  *sigh*