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Post by winterwhispers on Feb 16, 2011 21:00:47 GMT -8
Wow, I'm late to the party, lol...
Hi, I'm Heidi (aka Winterwhispers) and I have Fibro too. I have had chronic pain in my back, neck, shoulders with headaches since I was in my early 20's after a car accident. Then fast forward to last year and everything else reared it's ugly head at once. The pain was now body wide. I wake stiff and barely able to move. I had to give up working out (I'd lost 20 lbs so far) and became recluse because of the pain. I also have hypothyroidism. That runs in my family. I actually have a whole laundry list of ailments. it's really quite ridiculous.
I commend your new dr on 1) being understanding 2) knowing the system and saving you both time and money 3) being proactive
It can be terribly hard to find a dr that doesn't think you're just a drug seeker or hypochondriac. Did your dr give you any other treatment options other than the meds? Mine prescribed cyclobenzaprine and to start doing light exercise like swimming, yoga, pilates, walking for at least 30 minutes 3 x's a week. She also instructed me to keep doing the therapies I had already referred myself out for (chiropractic adjustments and massage therapy). I have good insurance which covers these things, however, many chiropractors/therapists will set up a payment plan for you. You may want to look into that. It's helped me so much! That and a new mattress also helped. I'm rambling probably... sorry..
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littlematchstick
Figuring us out
Beauty comes in many forms, she is one of those forms.
~Blessed Be~
Posts: 38
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Post by littlematchstick on Feb 17, 2011 8:08:57 GMT -8
Wow, I'm late to the party, lol... Hi, I'm Heidi (aka Winterwhispers) and I have Fibro too. I have had chronic pain in my back, neck, shoulders with headaches since I was in my early 20's after a car accident. Then fast forward to last year and everything else reared it's ugly head at once. The pain was now body wide. I wake stiff and barely able to move. I had to give up working out (I'd lost 20 lbs so far) and became recluse because of the pain. I also have hypothyroidism. That runs in my family. I actually have a whole laundry list of ailments. it's really quite ridiculous. I commend your new dr on 1) being understanding 2) knowing the system and saving you both time and money 3) being proactive It can be terribly hard to find a dr that doesn't think you're just a drug seeker or hypochondriac. Did your dr give you any other treatment options other than the meds? Mine prescribed cyclobenzaprine and to start doing light exercise like swimming, yoga, pilates, walking for at least 30 minutes 3 x's a week. She also instructed me to keep doing the therapies I had already referred myself out for (chiropractic adjustments and massage therapy). I have good insurance which covers these things, however, many chiropractors/therapists will set up a payment plan for you. You may want to look into that. It's helped me so much! That and a new mattress also helped. I'm rambling probably... sorry.. Better ot be late to the party then not show up at all! haha! He did tell me that staying moving is important. I despise exercise and I always felt exhausted when I would do my REAL workouts. I'm also there with you about losing weight. Ive been trying for almost a year to lose weight (I did lose 25 lbs in the last 8 months or so..but most of it was due to changing my diet). So instead of trying to push myself to do like tae bo and kick boxing. I've switched to doing yogo. Yesterday I did it for 10-15 minutes in the morning and 10-15 minutes last night. I'm sore as HELL today so I'm not sure if maybe I should only do it once a day and work my way up? Or maybe not attempt to do it everyday...I'm still learning what's best for my body and all. I hate walking (especially since it's still pretty cold out here). I would love to swim, but there's no pools around here. There's a lake, but I sure as hell ain't swimming in there..it smells nasty..lol. Swimming is my favorite thing ever though..ideally if I could do that, that's definatley what I would be doing. As for chiropracters/message therapists. I would KILL for a message therapist..lol. But it's just completely out of my budget right now. I have no source of income AT ALL so even a payment plan wouldn't be very useful. And even when I DO find a job, all my spare money has to go to my college so I can finish school. They won't let me back in til I pay off what I owe them. and I'm only 1 semester away from graduating with a B.A. in psychology. The good thing however is, if I can get back into school..on our campus they have a fitness center that has a massage therapist for student discount (I think its like 15-30 bucks for a half hour session)..that would be amazing..lol. The medicine that i'm on for pain doesn't seem to be doing a WHOLE lot. I mean it helps some. But its still early in my treatment so I'm not really sure what's helping and what isn't. And what can be chalked up to good days vs. bad days. I haven't even started on the Prozac yet cause we couldn't afford it yet. I'll be starting that tomorrow when I can afford to get my script. I'm definatley hurting pretty bad today..but I also just woke up (always bad in the a.m.) and cause I dunno if I overdid it with the yoga since I've never done it before yesterday. This is definatley a learning experience. Also, has anyone noticed swollen hands as a part of this? The last few nights and mornings my hands have been swelling a bit, not a lot, but enough that they feel stiff and *bloated*. Not a comofortable feeling. Anyways, thanks so much for your support and information guys--it's helping me so much!
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Post by winterwhispers on Feb 17, 2011 9:54:58 GMT -8
I've actually been having that bloated hand feeling myself a lot lately. Some things I noticed about my symptoms, which may be useful info for you or may not... either way I'll share. for ME (as everyone's symptoms and triggers are different!) the cold and weather changing are HUGE triggers. If the temp falls below 60 I start to get a mild achy, if it's below 50 deep tissue achy, under 40 it starts to feel like it's in my bones. Under 30 and don't even think to ask me to move, I may just beat you to death if I can scrape myself off the couch, lol. I also wake very stiff (though a new mattress has helped some with that) and bloated feeling. I know that drinking more water will help with that though. Another trigger for me is doing too much physically. Of course, I have a herd of children and work outside the home. So really, I just have to suck it up when it comes to those things. My massage therapist treats other fibro patients and she's told me that they have a lot of the same "trouble spots" as I do with tension. Medication has helped quite a bit with these symptoms. I'm on the cyclobenzaprine (flexeril a muscle relaxer) for it. My dr did mention that if the flexeril didn't work, we could look into Neurontin (gabapentin--what Pahz has recently started on) or Cymbalta. Maybe you could ask your dr to put you on something like the Cymbalta which treats both depression and pain. As for the exercise thing, take it slow. To start with you should do 15-30 minutes of light exercise (for you the yoga) 3x's a week to start. Get your body used to the stretching. Also I found that using a heated throw (electric blanket) when I get chills or go to bed helps a lot. Keep a log of everything you are doing to treat your fibro and a pain log. Best way I found to do this was type up a spreadsheet or use a spiral notebook to jot down things. I have a copy of the pain chart they use in doctors offices and hospitals (you can find them online) and they work great to help you pinpoint your pain level for the day. If it shifts throughout the day, make note of what you were doing when it shifted (like: 6 am, woke stiff in hands, legs, back. pain level is a 4. took meds, 8 am pain level is a 2. 11 am did 30 min yoga, pain level a 5 afterwards) keeping track like this can be very useful for both you and your doctor. I think someone else suggested this before.... With the yoga, start out with Kids Yoga, it's a lot easier on the body. just remember, you're not crazy or lazy, the pain is real. there's many more of us out there that have it as well, and any time you need to bitch, whine, vent, celebrate or what ever, you have us...
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