Fibromyalgia, A General Talk About It

Fibromyalgia: So if you drink coffee it's bad for it. If you take a nape because you did NOT drink coffee it's bad for it. If you don't move enough it's bad for it. If you move too much it's bad for it. 80 of good tasting food is bad for it. Over the counter pain meds don't generally work well with it and doctors won't give you the good stuff anymore, not to mention Fibro sufferers tend to get used to pain meds fast and they stop working. Don't sleep well it's bad for it. Sleep too much it's bad for it. To cold it's bad for it. To hot it's bad for it. To dry it's bad for it. To hot it's bad for it. Basically if you get the right mix of everything once a year for a 3 or 4 hour stretch, you are doing good. BTW, I'd rather DIE than give up coffee.

Thing is 70% of the time I have not one idea why I'm flaring. I also flair in several ways, not just piles and piles of pain. Sometimes I end up itching all over to the point I literally can't sleep or want to take a belt sander to myself. Other times I have an upset tummy and am dizzy. The list is long.

Most of the time though it's pain. It will start in my neck and then move to my head (headache). It will move down my back and across my chest (wrapping around) from left to right. The it moves into my arms and legs. Most of the time I feel first hot as hell when this happens then later I feel cold as hell.

I do all the stretches and stuff I've been shown to do. I stay away from triggers for the most part. I do literally FORGET I can't have sugar now and then and I will end up paying for it for 2 days. This is the hard one, I remember all the other food triggers (there actually are not many) but sugar seems to slip my mind. More than likely because there is a craving for it that will never go away.

For eight weeks I had been taking CBD pills now. They worked like a dream for the pain until a few days ago. Well like a lot of things for pain, my system got used to it and it stopped working. I used to have a doctor that would try ANYTHING to stop the pain, well I have tried most industrial pain meds and my body got used to them very fast, faster than it is safe to keep upping the dosage.

I've also taken one mount rounds of many other kinds of medication that is good for some Fibro sufferers. Only one of them worked for a while and it took the pain away for about three months then like hitting a wall just stopped working.

Every night about 10 pm I go down and I do my walking in the basement. I don't do it outside as this part of town is not great at night and I want to not be doing it with a lot of people around. Every morning I do my stretches. If I do NOT do them I will pay for it by mid day.

Distracting the mind seems to help a lot as well. This is the #2 reason I'm on Facebook all day and watch a lot of TV, Netflix and YouTube videos. It keeps my mind off the pain. When it's hellish (thank god this is not often) I can't focus and end up in bed until it's over. This for me is normally only a day or two. Some people flair for months at a time so I am very lucky.

There is also the matter of getting doctors to actually think it's a real condition. My current GP does NOT actually think it is. The fact that it's in text books and there have been many studies done on the condition does not seem to phase them for some reason. I'm also stuck because the only one in town that might actually think it's real I'm kind of sure is not going to be here long.

So like the majority of Fibro and CFS sufferers I am screwed. Nothing helps for long and doctors won't rotate you threw the narcotics to keep you from being resistant. In fact they won't even give you any. I do understand this though; the fact that prescribed pain meds have killed more people that H does not escape me.

There is a wide variation of things that hurt Fibro depending on the person. A good example of this is a friend takes 1 sip of whiskey and she is in level 7 or 8 pain for 3 or 4 days. I on the other hand can drink it until I can't hold onto the floor and nothing happens to the pain level. BUT give me 1 can of Coke and I'm done for 2 days (currently sipping on a Coke Zero - it don't mess with me).

So well, it's a crap shoot to say the least. All you can do is find what works for you and hope for the best. BTW the strangest thing helps me - holding onto a stuffed cat toy. This will reduce the pain levels as I pretend it's a real kitty and pet it. I don't get why, it just works.