Fibromyalgia and chronic pain support thread

[Mahjong]

Hey Vee! Im so glad hes home now with you guys! Wish i lived closer to drop off meals to you! I hope you guys never go through that again xx

[Berrie]

Reducing my norspan and it sucks. My knees ache at the end of the day like I've ran a marathon!

[Mahjong]

Hugs Berrie! I forgot my meds for 3 days this week and fell into a heap last night

[ICanDream]

Can I ask a question for those with fibromyalgia, do you suffer constant chest pain and the feeling of palpatations? I have fibro and whenever I raise the chest pain they put it down to that but it's starting to really bother me and making me feel nervous.

[OurLittleBlessing]

Hi ICanDream,

Have you ever looked into the gluten connection with fibromyalgia? If you are interested some googling will turn up heaps of information.

I am recovering from a fairly severe case of chronic fatigue syndrome, and I credit dietry changes for a lot of the benefit.

I am now eating a very basic diet of meat, fish, vegies, fruit, nuts & seeds. No alcohol and I finally have ditched the coffee!

It probably sounds horribly restrictive, but the opposite is true because it is giving me my health and my life back.

PM me if you want to chat more.

I wish you all the best

[ICanDream]

Hi OLB yes I did the whole gluten free thing for 12 weeks and it made no difference. I went and had some breathing tests which showed an intolerance to fructose and sorbitol so I did a 12 weeks (was only supposed to be 8 but I gave it longer) and it had no impact on my fibro or my bowel issues. I stuck to it religiously too. Thanks for the idea though.

[heartstringz]

Hi everyone, hope you don't mind me joining this thread.

As far as I know I don't have fibro, but I do have chronic pain.

I've had chronic neck pain (which leads to daily headaches) for the last ten years of so. I've never really had a diagnosis, most doctors just think I should go home & take a panadol . However, people do seem to think that it is muscular - probably posture-related and maybe from wearing the wrong size bra for many years.

My headaches vary in intensity, some days they are so bad that I wish someone would just knock me out. I find it hard to do my job often, especially on days they are really bad. The headaches generally get worse as the day progresses because my neck gets tighter & tighter.

I've spent hundreds & hundreds of dollars going to doctors & specialists and got no answers. I've also tried physio, massage, chiro & osteo with no success. I have had some success with accupuncture and this did seem to work for a while, at least initially. However, last time my neck was really bad and I went back for a maintanence session, it made my neck/headaches worse for about six weeks until they finally got better. So now I'm not really keen to do that again, so I'm out of options.

I spent about four years literally living on nurophen so that I could function, but when I read about the effects of long-term use I decided I didn't want to take it anymore. Plus we were thinking about starting a family and I wanted to learn to manage it without it. So now I basically live on panadol - I usually have to take two with breakfast, two with lunch & two with dinner every day. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. Oh, and my heat-pack on my neck almost constantly when I'm at home.

I just wanted to know how you ladies deal with your pain when looking after your children. I mean, some days I can barely walk around the house cause my head is pounding so much - I don't know how I could look after a baby. We are currently waiting on our PGD workup but now I'm considering putting the whole thing on hold indefinitely as I just really don't have a clue how I would be able to look after a baby when I can barely function some days. I'm devestated at the thought that this pain has destroyed something else I wanted to do with my life (be a mum) cause it has ruined so many other things. I just really don't know what to do anymore.

[Mahjong]

Hi Heartstringz,

Thats terrible youve had to join our group, its not fun is it

Have you looked into natural therapies for the pain. I found living on Voltaren tablets was going to be more harmful thank good so looked into natural supplements for the joint inflammation and pain.
Krill oil is terrific, it reduces the inflammation on my joints and then helps reduce the pain caused by it.

Hope that helps

[heartstringz]

I will have a look at some natural therapies, Majong, but not sure if I can use them - I tried magnesium at the suggestion of someone but it gave me diahorrea (I also have IBS issues so have to be really careful).

Any advise as to how I can work through a bad headache? Given I get them almost every day it makes it really difficult to even do things as simple as housework. I made the stupid mistake of enrolling into an online course, thinking that I'd be headache-free long enough to do it. Obviously it was wishful thinking because they are back. Almost every day I end up with a headache so I'm finding it virtually impossible to get the course done. It's making me really angry & anxious and I'm lashing out at everyone because of it.

Also, we really want to go away on a camping/hiking trip, but there won't be any access to microwaves for my heat pack etc and I'm really anxious that I'm going to spend the entire trip with a headache. It also makes it hard that I have to take panadol with food otherwise it makes me really nauseous, and if a headache hits in the middle of a hike after we have eaten our lunch, I'm not really sure that some dried nuts & a few lollies will really cut it as far as food to take a panadol with. Therefore I'll be really anxious about taking it in case I get nauseous.

I've given up on ever finding a cure for this problem but it's really hard to manage because it dictates so much of my life! Eg, we went to a sports shop today & they had an indoor climbing wall there - I really wanted to have a go but I knew there was no point because I was guaranteed to set my neck off.

If I could find a way to work through the pain I would be much happier cause I could do the things I wanted to do (even if I did have a headache). Maybe it would be less enjoyable due to the headache, but at least I'd get to do it. I feel like I'm spending my life sitting around favouring my neck & never doing anything cause I ALWAYS hurt myself. I don't want to die having never done heaps of the things I wanted to do just cause of my stupid neck & never-ending headaches.