NationaliTees What Is Fibro Content

What is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia “syndrome” (FMS) is often called the “invisible disease,” because outwardly, we may look perfectly healthy. Inside, however, we may have intense pain throughout our bodies. We may be constantly fatigued and weak, or we may be dizzy, confused, lacking sleep, suffering digestive disorders, and generally living a poor quality of life. There is no steadfast cause or cure for FMS, but there are ways to treat the symptoms and improve the quality of life¹.

A 1992 College of Rheumatology study found that the impact of FMS on your life is as bad, or worse, than Rheumatoid Arthritis. They listed one major factor in this as “clinical bias.” FMS patients don’t look sick, and their symptoms vary, so they are often misunderstood and disbelieved by clinicians, family and friends.

FMS is not progressive , but symptoms may become worse if the perpetuating factors are not identified and dealt with promptly and adequately. You have widespread pain and wake up every morning feeling like you’ve been run over by a truck. You may have headaches and loss of balance, dizziness as you look both ways when going into traffic. You can’t always find your car in a parking lot, and even on your best days, you feel like you have the flu.

You may have short-term memory loss, put on weight and can’t get it off, muscle twitches, an irritable bowel, grinding of the teeth during the night, and experience sudden and unexplained dizziness.

Many women experience painful intercourse, and men suffer with impotence.

One of the first things that makes us realize that there is something wrong is the inability to perform as intellectually as we once did. We seemingly accept the increasing pain, the muscle spasms and the insomnia, but when we keep forgetting our own phone number, red flags go up.

We lose things – misplace things – we forget where we’re going – shopping lists lose their importance because we keep forgetting to bring them. We forget friend’s names, stop in mid-conversation because we’ve forgotten what we were talking about and where we left off. We can enter a room and not remember what we came in for, or we sometimes wonder why we entered it at all.

We laugh about it, learn to “cover” the errors with laughter, and silently start questioning our own sanity. We worry about brain tumors and Alzheimer’s disease because we know the problem is far more extensive than other people realize. If we tell our doctor about our problems, we are often easily placated by the doctor’s words, such as, “everyone starts having trouble as they get older. It’s “just” FMS, or you’re depressed."

So we joke about it with each other – further dismissing its importance. Someone once said, “if it wasn’t for brainfog, I wouldn’t get any exercise!”

This is a twenty-four hour, seven day-a-week continual struggle to appear and act normal².

Other symptoms that can and do relate to FMS are listed below:

Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS)

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ( CFS)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Depression

Hair Loss

Anxiety/Panic Attacks

Migraine Headaches

Restless Leg Syndrome

Muscle spasms and Severe Muscle Weakness

Sleep Disturbance/Non Restorative Sleep

“Fibrofog” – Cognitive function problems

Sensitivity Amplification

Symptoms can be severe, yet blood tests, X-rays and other common diagnostic tests do not show FMS. This means that we presently lack knowledge of how to test for FMS. If your medical care provider has been trained to test for this syndrome, more than likely a series of blood work-ups will be done to rule out other maladies that can and do mimic FMS.

Once any other malady is ruled out, your doctor will check your “Tender Points.”

The definition states that you must have at least 11 out of 18 specified tender points in all four quadrants of your body for a minimum duration of three months to qualify for a diagnosis of FMS. Tender points hurt when pressed, but do not refer pain elsewhere – that is, pressing a tender point does not cause pain in some other part of the body. Enough pressure must be used by your doctor to whiten his thumbnail³.

The medical provider you seek, the medications he will approve, (and this is crucial since many will not recognize that, at times, opioids are a last resort), your symptoms that are believed to be one hundred per-cent serious, and careful and continuous follow ups until a regimen is found to satisfactorily return some kind of quality in your life, is imperative.

If you feel any dissatisfaction whatsoever, please do yourself a favor and “fire” your physician and start to find one that believes you, listens to you, and is willing to go the whole route to do whatever is necessary. Believe me, they are out there.

Always remember that communication is a must and understand that there are many medications you will tolerate well, and some not so well, so always try (when starting out on a new medication) to either keep a diary of how you feel, or better yet, have a family member keep an eye on your behavior for any changes that you yourself do not recognize to be life-threatening.

Remember, I’m not a doctor and much of the above was obtained from valuable Fibromyalgia web sites (as noted.) Only your doctor can make a diagnosis, treat, and administer medications. You play a hefty role in the outcome, so don’t be afraid to ask and ask again. If you are not sure of something, or are concerned with anything that has to do with your health, you must take control and become accountable.