Fibro Frustrations

Fibromyalgia is the most common arthritis-related illness after osteoarthritis. Still, it is often misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Its characteristics include widespread muscle and joint pain and fatigue as well as other symptoms. 

Hi. My name is Tracy and I have fibromyalgia.

I was diagnosed with this disease in about 1998 after my body started to feel like it was attacking me.

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1. Living with Chronic Illness
2. A Lifetime of Pain
3. You Don't Look Sick
4. The New Normal
5. A Life Worth Living
6. Living In Pain
7. I See It
8. Doctors....Ugh!
9. Unseen Strength
10. Disability and Medical Care
11. Fibromyalgia.. the Monster Within
12. The Pain Scale.... Really?
13. You Know, Pain Won't Kill You!
14. Own It!
15. Fibromyalgia, the Invisible Monster
16. The Search for Medical Care
17. The Everyday Struggle
18. The Cycle
19. Fibro... Fear... Frustration
20. Too Much

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Most Common Symptoms

The problem with fibromyalgia is that there are so many symptoms that you feel like a hypochondriac, especially when no one can see any of your pain, brain fog and exhaustion. Your symptoms are mostly invisible to others. Added to this is a tremendous variability of symptoms between one person with fibromyalgia and another. These complications cause physicians to be perplexed and patients to be frustrated.

In addition, research has shown strong links between sleep disruptions and pain. Symptoms of poor sleep resemble many of those found in fibromyalgia, such as muscle achiness, fatigue, memory and concentration difficulties.¹²

Click here to read details on key symptoms.

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Symptoms of fibromyalgia include:

• Chronic muscle pain, muscle spasms or tightness, weakness in the limbs, and leg cramps
• Moderate or severe fatigue and decreased energy
• Insomnia or waking up feeling just as tired as when you went to sleep
• Stiffness upon waking or after staying in one position for too long
• Difficulty remembering, concentrating, and performing simple mental tasks (“fibro fog”)
• Abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, and constipation alternating with diarrhea (irritable bowel syndrome)
• Tension or migraine headaches
• Jaw and facial tenderness
• Sensitivity to one or more of the following: odors, noise, bright lights, medications, certain foods, and cold
• Feeling anxious or depressed
• Numbness or tingling in the face, arms, hands, legs, or feet
• Increase in urinary urgency or frequency (irritable bladder)
• Reduced tolerance for exercise and muscle pain after exercise
• A feeling of swelling (without actual swelling) in the hands and feet
• Painful menstrual periods
• Dizziness

Fibromyalgia symptoms may intensify depending on the time of day -- morning, late afternoon, and evening tend to be the worst times, while 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. tends to be the best time. Symptoms may also get worse with fatigue, tension, inactivity, changes in the weather, cold or drafty conditions, overexertion, hormonal fluctuations (such as just before your period or during menopause), stress, depression, or other emotional factors.

Fibromyalgia is probably one of the least understood by most doctors and can produce excruciating pain when in the midst of a flare up.

The articles contained in this section are about my struggle with Fibromyalgia and the doctors I've had to deal with.

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