My name is Allison, I am 28 years old and I live in Southern California. I was just diagnosed with fibromyalgia 3 days ago after dealing with debilitating pain for just under a year (I had pain before that but it wasn't impacting my life enough to really pay attention to it). I also have myofascial pain syndrome which is similar to fibro except that the pain from that is in 1 location and not wide spread and it was that pain that was most impacting my life and I wasn't really paying attention to the other pain in my body but when fibro kept coming up when I did research on myofascial pain syndrome, I decided to take a look at some articles and realized I had many symptoms of that as well. My primary complaints, other than widespread pain and the severe pain in my myofascial trigger point are nausea, heat sensitivity/hot flashes, IBS, tension headaches, fatigue, and "fibro fog." I have also had pretty severe depression and anxiety for 12+ years.
I am really looking forward to meeting you all in the chat room and in discussions and I wonder if any of you have any suggestions/comments/stories/information for me? Is there anything you know now that you wish you'd known when you were first diagnosed? I am grateful for anything you have to share with me.
Educate yourself, rest, take your meds, eat right and find something you can do like walking or yoga. Try and find something relaxing. Remember only you no your body and everyone is different. Educate your friends and family.
Hi Allison, I was diagnosed along time ago, and from the perspective of my doctor she was just glad it wasn’t something “serious”. As a result I had always thought that it was something I just had to live with. I loved the good days when I got them and other days just put up with the fatigue and controlled the pain with heavy duty pain killers. I had always been the type of person to just accept things and drive myself beyond the point of exhaustion until the fibro got worse as a result of other medical conditions. I was no longer losing days or weeks I was losing months at a time.
As purplebutterfly stated it’s important that you educate yourself and do things like eating well and getting what exercise you can tolerate. It’s a good idea to research medications that may be helpful, supplements, and alternative methods like massage, acupuncture etc. There are a number of posts where members have advised what type of supplements and alternative methods have or haven’t worked for them.
Don’t be afraid to try new things, I’ve had my first therapeutic massages in the last couple of months, currently tracking down a good acupuncturist, and had my first appointment today with a kinesiologist to help me with my range of motion; who also thinks he can help with my headaches. I never would have considered any of these things before I joined this forum. I’ve also increased the number of supplements I am taking.
It’s important not to make any changes in medications, supplements or activities without consulting your doctor. We are all different and can react very differently to these things. Keep track of your symptoms, track your pain to see if you can determine what triggered it, don’t assume everything is just fibro, and keep an ongoing list to discuss with your doctor.
Learn to pace yourself, learn to say no (remember you can’t do it all) , and actually plan time to rest. Be good to yourself and realize that you are important and you need to take care of yourself.
Sorry I’m sort of rambling, it’s 3:30 am, just one of those nights. Please ask lots of questions of your doctor and the forum, we’re here for each other. Remember you’re not alone in this.