It's strange that two of my son's have problems with pain. Neither one of them have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia...yet. The oldest one has small lumps about the size of my thumb. There are maybe 14 of them in various places on his body. He's only 32 years old. Anyway the doctor originally and still thinks that they are lymph nodes. I'm trying to get my son to get his teeth fixed. That is one of the first things the doctor that diagnosed me told me to do. Of course my son doesn't believe me. I tried to tell him how bad my lymph nodes were at the beginning. It's better now. I guess because I don't push so hard. I get more rest and eat healthier food. I also use a variety of non-medication techniques for the pain. Hopefully he will get it before long.

Fibromyalgia Pain

I sit here and try to think about what to write about. All I can think of for the past several weeks is all the times that I am in pain. I was at a training and the only thing I could think of the whole day was how much pain I was in. The only reason I didn't leave is that my employer had paid alot for me to be there. I learned that day around the pain. Another day I hurt I decided it was because of the weather. The only problem with that is that there is always weather coming or going. That struck me as funny that day. I laughed around the pain. Another day I had a meeting to go to. I didn't think I could walk that far. I told a co-worker I could go if she would come get me and drop me at the door. I wanted to go. She didn't want to bring me with her. I missed a meeting around the pain. And life goes on. I learn despite the pain. I laugh through some pain. I miss something because of pain. I guess that's just the way it goes. What do you do to get through it? I really want to know.

Firbromyalgia and My Future

Some days I just can't keep it together. I just panic because I hurt so bad. I know it's going to go away. Some days all I can do is call a friend and laugh. We were both having bad days. The what are we going to do days. We both love our jobs but some days just can't get there. So this is the plan. Whoever feels best is going to wheel one of the office chairs down the ramp to get the other one. Haha No wait we have another plan. We are going to start saving our pennies so we can buy electric wheel chairs. I'm going to have to save harder so I can get one sturdy enough to ride to work when my car dies. We have a friend who rides her wheel chair all over towm. lol Maybe we can get recliners for our offices... I'm working on a prayer chain. Really. Oh my the silly things we can think of. How about you? What silly ideas have you thought of to deal with your fibromyalgia or any other disability? We have to keep laughing.

So I'm still a bit freaky about the hair loss. I'm not really sure it is connected to the Fibromyalgia but it seems like it. I've only been taking the Biotin for a few days so I don't really know much about whether it's helping or not. I was freaking out bad this morning. Eventually if I have enough bald spots they are going to connect. My friends are helping me come up with ideas about what to do. Of course right now I can hide the spots with the rest of my hair. One of my friend's said she has another friend that shaved her head at some point. Then she got a wig. A wig sounds hot but if I didn't have any hair I guess it would be cooler. My friend also said another friend would just wear a scarf around her head. I suppose a hat might work too. I'm going to lose my mind over this. After all the things I have come up with to work around my Fibromyalgia, now this. Another one of my friends suggested asking at the clinic for a referral to a dermatologist. I saw one years ago so I'm going to work on that. Eventually. When I can work up the energy. Ok enough of this pity party. The Biotin is going to help. I know it.

So another wrinkle in my relationship with Fibromyalgia is my hair is falling out. I'm a bit freaky about that. It started about a year a year and a half ago. A patch of hair about the size of a quarter fell out one evening. It sort of fell out in chunks. Not to gross you out too much but it makes this funny little noise when it comes out. Anyway it came out in chunks the root and all of it. I told several of the doctors I see at the clinic I go to at our local university. They really don't seem too concerned about it. One of them did mention I should get some Biotin and reduce my stress. That was about the extent of any thing ANY of them told me. I checked with a couple of pharmacies I deal with and neither one knew what Biotin was. I had forgotten about it. Well here we are now and another quarter sized patch has fallen out. Roots and all, with the creepy little noise too. A friend picked my up some Biotin. Come to find out Biotin is actually a B-vitamin. So I'm trying it. I'll let you know if it helps. Does any of the rest of you have problems with Fibromyalgia and hair loss?

Fibromyalgia In the Mornings

I did something to help me with my fibromyalgia that I have been thinking about for a long time. As I have mentioned before I am still working. This in part is due to the fact the agency I work for works with families that have a member with a disability. They allow me to flex my time. I can make up calls and activities with families after hours and on the weekends when I need to. I can therefore come in late when I do not have appointments. Morinings are sometimes rough with the fibromyalgia. I have a hard time getting dressed. I feel like I sleep but as soon as I'm up I hurt and I'm stiff. Even my medication doesn't help, especially lately. Well I like coffee. Alot. I finally went to the store on one of the few days I could work up the energy and ignore the pain and got a programmable coffee pot. So now I have a new 'new' routine when I get home. After bringing in the dog, I make sure she has food and water out. Then I figure out what I plan to eat and get some water to put by my chair. Once I sit down I hurt so bad I may not be able to do this later. Before I sit down I set up my new coffee pot. The first day I didn't do so well. I woke up and there was no coffee. The past two days have been much better. I also find that smelling the coffee wakes me up if the alarms did not. I'm still late but not as late. I guess the different smell eventually gets my attention. Do you have any little tricks to help you get up? Let me know.

Today is a rough day. I forgot when I did the post a couple days ago, another one of the problems I'm having is periodic fevers. I had one last night and I woke up with a swollen mouth. I missed church because I felt so bad. Sometime this afternoon I took an ibuprophen. 800mg of ibuprophen is really my drug of choice. Most days it make me feel so much better. Unfortunately it also seems to make me retain fluid and slowly but surely my blood pressure goes up. So I don't take it that often. I think the inflamation is causing the fever and the hair loss. Oh yeah that started again too. I have another spot about as big as a quarter. It's been easily a year since I got the first one. I guess these are all the joys of fibromyalgia. Today is just one of those days. On the whole thigs have been good...

Changing Locations

I moved. That was problem one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. It's definitely one of the roughest things for my Fibromyalgia. I didn't realize how set in my ways I had become. The new place has more steps and they are steeper. In the beginning that made me hurt more. The furniture sits on the floor differently. I was just in serious pain for the first month. I'm in my third month in my new place. Slowly things are getting better. I still hurt alot and had to rearrange things at the house so they worked a little easier. I moved for alot of reasons. I had lived in a country town to raise my last three children. The last one turned 18 years old the end of last school year. He was starting college in the neighboring city. I also have one daughter with Autism and two of the three grandchildren living in the city, Lake Charles, that I am now in. Then I'm getting older and my daytime job is here. So I moved. I hope I don't regret it. I haven't so far. Anyway, that's my update for today. I will try to be more diligent about blogging about my efforts to deal with Fibromyalgia.

Dealing With Pain From Day to Day

Sometimes with my fibromyalgia I have pain in various parts of my body. Although I do believe in taking medication I like to try as many other remedies as possible. Generally I try these techniques or others before I get to the point I try medication. .

One of the places I can experience pain is in my legs. This isn’t necessarily pain from the trigger points. I have learned to look at several things, that sometimes. I just forget about when I feel that pain.

The first thing I look at is what position I am sleeping in. This is probably the easiest solution. If I am not in the correct position I may not hurt the next day. If I continue to sleep in the wrong position I will start to hurt though.

My best position is on my side with a pillow between my knees. The pillow allows my hips to be distributed evenly and I sleep much better. I have friends with fibromyalgia who sleep with a body pillow as it allows their hips and shoulders to be even.

The second thing I do is try to pay more attention to what I am eating. I do love sweets. A little on and occasional basis is ok but sweets every day make me hurt. When I realize I am doing this I stop, I also become diligent about adding a little protein to my diet. Every three hours I have something, a boiled egg or cheese stick if nothing else.

The other thing I have successfully tried is a over the counter insert in my shoes. I have had particular success with the gel inserts. They help me correct small problems with my posture that have caused me pain.

Finally I reflect on when I am feeling pain. For instance sometimes I feel pain after I engage in some low impact exercise. If this is true then I need to and do spend some more time warming up those muscles. Again very gently warming them up with something like a slow walk.

Of course medication is always something I can turn to when my fibromyalgia pain is too overwhelming but these are several of the techniques that I might try first. It sometimes takes me a couple of tries to figure out what will work. Other times I feel no shame in going directly to medication.

New Description

I haven't felt like posting for awhile. It just gets like that.

I did hear a lovely description of fibromyalgia the other day. It was described as a condition where the pain fuse has been blown. That's exactly what it felt like to me.

I went from a period where I could successfully handle pain to not being able to handle it. I took pain medication but an occasionnaly tylenol was nothing like what I was and still do have to do every day.

What did suprise me was the list of co-occuring disorders. Let's see, it was fatigue of course, thinking problems (fibrofog), dry eyes, dry mouth, sleep disorder, irritable bowel and irritable bladder.

Wow, I have several of those. Although I knew one went with the fibromyalgia, I never even considered the others.

I'll have to think about it some more. What do you think?