Duers with fibromyalgia. Can you give me some info?

The past several years my whole body has been in pain. Some of it is due to lumbar issues, which I had surgically repaired, and apin to my left hand after a partial amputation some 11 years ago.
Of late my whole body, every joint and muscle, hurts. Constantly.
This has been going on since about 1997. I also have no energy anymore. Always seem to be fatigued and flat. A nurse college of mine tells me that it may be fybromyalgia.
Can anyone here tell me if their symptoms are similar? When it began? How they deal with it?

I'm 49 and am really tired of always being in PAIN.

but I don't usually have symptoms.

You can find a lot of info on the net... I've read that tai chi and yoga can help alleviate the symptoms.

Best of luck to you... no one should have to live in pain.

:pals:

that's supposed to help.

It's horrible. I'm in pain most of the time, in varying degrees.

The Fibromyalgia Network publishes a newsletter and has a website (don't know the address, sorry).

You might also try the Chronic Diseases support group here on DU.

For me, I have found relief through Flexeril nightly, meditation, massage, yoga and Pilates. Everyone is different, though. I wish you luck with this - it's a horrible thing to live with.:hug:

lived with it for as long as I can remember. I have bad days but I find rest helps. If I get a bad night's sleep the pain is worse, also the brain fog which is harder to take than the pain for me. I take Motrin, 800mg 3x daily. It helps but the pain is still there. Yoga is supposed to help and in the fall I want to sign up for a class. Pacing yourself helps too. Take breaks if you can.

and also have your b-12 level checked if you haven't already.

I'd been feeling really crappy and depressed, and found out that my levels were abnormally low. Now I inject B12 twice a month. It makes a difference.

I swear by it! I've been in pain for 14 years now, and just recently decided to give physical therapy yet another go. Well, this time I found somebody who's really skilled in Trigger Point Therapy, and I'm feeling relief I never thought I'd be feeling.

Check out the following books:

Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain: A Survival Manual
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1572242388/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-7761526-3638409?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
ISBN: 1572242388

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1572243759/qid=1121889147/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7761526-3638409?v=glance&s=books
ISBN: 1572243759

...has fibromyalgia. She was diagnosed a few months ago after she became virtually home-bound, sleeping for hours and in constant pain. She is somewhat better now, but it is very debilitating. She can't go back to her former job (preschool teacher) and often just getting through the day is exhausting.

I suggest seeing a rheumatologist - they will do tests to rule out lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other conditions with similar symptoms. If you do have fibro, certain antidepressants and pool therapy are the Western remedies that will be recommended. I also recommend seeing a Chinese medicine professional for acupuncture and herbal treatments. That has helped my partner the most.

She also loves these two products, which should help regardless of what condition you have:
http://www.aromasensations.com/muscle_mist.htm
http://mymassagemouse.com/mouse.htm

Please let me know if there are any other questions I can answer. Best of luck to you in figuring out what's going on.

There is a DU forum on it as well.

There are many websites that deal with it, too. You will find (the majority, at any rate) that when there is a lot of stress in your life your symptoms are worse. You will find that you don't sleep well through the night, and probably suffer from some aspect of insomnia. In part, the insomnia can be both caused by and the cause of, fibro. They did tests with people who has fibro and found they don't reach the "delta" wave sleep, and it is a lack of deep sleep that exacerbates fibro. They put normal people into a sleep study who normally slept through the night, and began interrrupting their deep sleep patterns so they never got into that deep sleep, and shortly thereafter, the subjects began to get fibro symptoms. They let them go back to their normal sleep patterns and it disappeared. But those with fibro have some factor that prevents them from getting that deep sleep necessary to repair bones, muscles and tendons.

It's now considered an auto-immune disease, and it WILL prevent you from donating blood in some places. It isn't contagious, it just means you're weakening yourself by giving blood. Or at least that's what the nurse told me the last time I tried to give.

Sleep.....both your enemy and your friend. When you want it, it's not there, and when you don't want it, it is there. It messes upyour internal clock to the point where you don't want to plan anything because you aren't sure you're going to have enough energy to get through it.

It comes with depression. Doctors are convinced now that it isn't depression that causes it, but vice versa. Many people go years without any depression attached to their fibro, until one day, when everything is just completely overwhelming, and you realize that you're not only tired, sore and unable to do much, but now you're crying and depressed as well.

There are good times, though. People can go into remission and stay relatively "healthy" for long periods of time. But then, at the slightest provocation, it all starts again. The key is getting regular schedules, going to bed at the same time every night, getting up at the same time, and not overexerting yourself to the point where you break.

Hope this helps a bit. I would recommend googling and look for major hospital/medical sites like webmd, johnshopkins, mayo, lahey, medline, etc.

Couldnt sleep at night and walked around like a zombie in school all day long. I've also been depressed for most of my life and have encountered many trauma's over the past 11 years.
I suppose I should see my doctor first to rule out other things.

DU members are not qualified to give medical advice. We ask that you discuss your symptoms with a medical doctor for diagnosis.