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?

Four Effective Tools to Deal with Fibromyalgia

Many times I get a flare up of my Fibromyalgia if I am under stress. One of the things I have had to learn to do is develop and use tools to deal with the stress. This ability developed over time. It was not something that happened right away.

Talking out about the stress and emotions I felt helped. We all know that flare ups of Fibromyalgia do not necessarily wait until the second Tuesday for the support group. I had to find another way of being able to do it. Ideally a way I could talk to people in the middle of the night if I had to.

One of the tools I was able to use was list serves, chat rooms, and social media. It does not seem to matter what time of day or night there is someone there willing to talk. Of course I still had family and friends I could talk to but people online were more accessible at times.

Another type of tool I had to learn was to look at my own self-talk. People routinely get into the habit of thinking or talking to themselves negatively. We all use self-talk, we just need to learn to use it effectively. This takes some effort as it just seems to be easier to talk negatively.

A third tool that I used was meditation or prayer. Either one seems to work it just depends on your preference. Being able to give your pain, stress, and emotional to God or your higher power lets our minds rest and relax.

A fourth tool can be yoga or mild exercise. I definitely did not feel like exercising when my Fibromyalgia was in full swing. The surprising thing is that just a little exercise seemed to give me a little endomorphin rush. It made it a little easier to get through the day. As one friend told me, some days I just had to move what little bit of my body I could.

Many people with Fibromyalgia report that they know they are stressed or emotional but just say it is ok. Essentially they are denying themselves their need for help. That alone creates more stress. For myself it created more severe Fibromyalgia flare ups.
Now many times when I am in pain I realize I am stressed or emotional about something.

I have to make myself stop and deal with it in some manner. Fibromyalgia may be chronic and, at least at this point, incurable. We can learn to manage our lives and emotions to reduce the effects.

Keeping Warm with Fibromyalgia

I saw some recreational vehicles in the Walmart parking lot last night. It reminded me of my Fibromyalgia. I imagined that the occupants were people who had come here from up north. I imagined what it would be like to travel and live like that.

One of the things I wish when it starts to get cold is that I could winter in a warmer climate. Then I remember that I do live in a warmer climate. In Louisiana we have short winters and long summers.

I tend to hurt more during the winters. During the summers I am cranky. I do not like it when it is hot. Some people think that the winters here are more painful because it is a wet cold. I tend to think wet cold compared to temperatures below freezing are not really a comparison that is helpful.

My main goal is to keep warm. Keeping warm seems to reduce the Fibromyalgia pain. I have a pair of hunting socks to wear at night. Although it cost a little less than ten dollars for a pair of socks it was cheaper than the compression socks I started out looking for.

Those hunting socks are certainly warm too. They helped keep me warm all night. Unfortunately by morning they also made my calves of my legs hurt. I will have to remember to take then off sometime during the night.

I also use the disposable heating pads during the night. The name brand is Thermacare. I really do not buy the name brand though. I buy the cheaper off-brands. They are designed to lay and gently stick to the area that hurts. For me, my shoulders almost always have Fibromyalgia Pain so that is a good place to start.

I use them for that type of pain. I also move one around on various parts of my torso. They keep me warm when I am achy all over. The heating pad also lasts longer than it says they do on the box. Sometimes they last as much as four times longer. Maybe the name brand would last longer than that.

My fibromyalgia pain also responds to hot baths. I keep a box of Epsom salts around for the bath too. Epsom salt baths are recommended by licensed massage therapists after a massage. The salts draw out toxins that have been released by the massage. I also hear that coaches tell their players to use Epson salts after a work-out.

These are just a few of the things I do to help with the pain during this time of year. Except summering farther south, I just dream about that.

Newbie Advice

Someone asked me what I would tell someone newly diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Here is what I came up with:

'You know how you are feeling right now? It gets better. At first being sick with Fibromyalgia is creepy and scarey. At first, before I knew what I had, I felt out of control. But it got better. I got better at managing the pain and the fibro fog.

I got better at hiding it when I felt really bad and had to go to work. I still hide the pain alot. I figured out other ways to get things done. You will too. I know you can do this.'

I hope and pray you take this to heart too!

The theory that Fibromyalgia is a retrovirus has sparked a lot of discussion among myself and my friends who have it. It would be nice to have a medical test to tell us and the world we have it. Even though it is generally accepted that Fibromyalgia is real, I still get those looks.

Better yet it would be nice to have a test for our children. I routinely try to get my children to eat and do the things that I do now so the Fibromyalgia will not be triggered in them. It seems like I have had this all my life but definitely after I had to evacuate for a hurricane.

Many of my friends tell me of trauma in their life that seemed to trigger the Fibromyalgia to a disabling extent. Many of them tell me they have had some of the symptoms and problems since childhood too.

Even if Fibromyalgia is a virus or even if it is not, we still need to do those things that work for us. Journaling what we eat or what stresses us helps us find the things that make it worse. Learning to relax and teaching our children and friends what we learn helps.

I firmly believe that I got Fibromyalgia for a reason. It is a reason I do not know or understand, but I believe everything happens for a reason.