What does fibromyalgia feels like???
Question
I am exhausted and I am going through severe pain in the past few days, and my doctor does not know the reason. The pain is all over my body and I have not felt this pain before. Someone recently suggested me that it can be fibromyalgia so I started reading about it, in order to know more about it. A lot of people came and told me about the unique pain of fibromyalgia but I could not understand what was unique in it. While knowing about it, I came to know about other symptoms of this disease, like memory problems, inability to think, and I was suffering from this too.
I really want to go to my doctor at my coming appointment, but I really don’t know should I mention fibromyalgia?? So please can you tell me what actually fibromyalgia is??
Answer
It is very tough question to answer accurately, because fibromyalgia is not same for every person. But we have some common experiences of pain that can help you a little bit.
Many people with fibromyalgia mention about burning pain, kind of pain like pins and needles, feeling of blood rushing back to the foot after its fallen asleep. Others feel like itching all over the body like they have been pounded by a meat tenderizer. Some get electric zings, as well. It’s also common complain of painful skin as if it is sunburned.
A lot of us feel pain that can’t be described in words. It can be from some harmless thing like cold breeze, soft fabric moving across the skin, or light pressure from a handshake.
The waist-band of loose-fitting pair of pants, or a belt on a bathrobe, may cause severe pain. Bra straps, the elastic in socks and underwear, and the tag in a shirt, may become major sources of irritation and pain.
Our pain can vary from mild to severe, and change frequently and rapidly throughout the day.
On some days we have mild pain and can carry out our routine works normally while on other days we feel like we can’t get up from bed. You may feel normal one moment and on the very next moment you feel like as if the bus hits you.
If you can’t understand and feel like its very different kind of pain, then the truth is, it is.
Beyond pain
Fibromyalgia includes much more than just a pain. Other frequent symptoms include, waking up feeling unrefreshed, as if you have not sleep at all. Sleep disorders are common too, including
>>Restless leg syndrome
>>Sleep apnea
>>Insomnia
Then there is congnitive dysfunction which is known as fibro frog. It makes us forget things which we were doing, and we are unable to think. Short term memory loss is very common and many of us can’t do multi task.
We have difficulty remembering what we read, inability to learn things, and absorbing what people say to us, especially if something is seeking our attention. Our common problems include doing simple math, becoming disoriented in familiar surroundings, or even putting a simple sentence to gather. A lot of people feel like their brain is packed in cotton.
Many of us have old bunch of little symptoms that are trouble maker for us, but not as bad as the big three of pain, fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. We commonly hear from people suffering from this that we thought we are the only ones because the shortlist of symptoms which we usually encounter is not included.
One of the more common sets of second-tier-symptoms is senstivities. This condition involves an overly sensitive nervous system that can make us react badly to all kinds of sensory inputs. Loud or repetitive noise, bright or flashing lights, strong chemical smells, (such as the laundry aisle at the grocery store) can all trigger a rush of symptoms.
It may seem astonishing that a noise can give you stabbing pain in the abdomen, but that is the kind of unusual reaction we can have to those things.
Talking to your doctor
You should expect some resistance when bringing up fibromyalgia in front of your doctor. The reason may differ, but the common reason is that, many doctors do not believe that it’s a real condition.
Fibromyalgia has a lot of symptoms common with other diseases, so try not to jump on conclusions that what is causing your symptoms when it pays to be informed about what you could have. It’s important to work with your doctor open minded, and what with him through a lost frustrating diagnostic process. Always remember about your aim of getting accurate diagnosis, so that you can find the right treatments for you.
-Dr. Muneeba Rana, MD FUMDC.
Reference:By Adrienne Dellwo via Verywell