HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Does anybody else experience this?

Support Forums
>
Fibromyalgia
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/14/2008 1:31 PM (GMT 0)
Hi there,

Lately I have been having pain in my elbow when I raise my arms, or go to lift something.

It really hurts, im assuming its part of the fibro, but unsure really.

It feels as though, when i do lift something, thatit feels like my elbow is gonna snap in half, and its gonna drop anything that im holding, and it doesnt always happen when I lift something, even from typing, it does it,

My muscles are soooo soooo weak, sometimes i feel like they are elastic bands, because it feels as though they are just gonna snap, I hope that somebody has experienced this,

I also have another question, Has anybody who has fibro, been tested for ms? Just curious thats all, thanks everybody.

kelly

Posted 12/14/2008 2:47 PM (GMT 0)
hi kelly,

i get weird arm pains all the time, including in the elbows, but i don't know if that's because of the fibro or my carpal tunnel. my muscles also feel very weak a lot of the time (and they BURN oh man that hurts). i have been tested for ms, and even though i do have lesions on my brain, a neurologist determined that i do not have ms. (my muscles feel weak, but they aren't actually weak, if that makes sense. also i do not have the coordination or reflex issues that normally comes with ms.)

hope you feel better soon!
{{hugs}}
~danielle
Posted 12/14/2008 2:48 PM (GMT 0)
lol i am not coordinated at all, however as far as I know my reflexes are ok. I was just curious
thank you
((hugs))
kelly
Posted 12/14/2008 2:53 PM (GMT 0)
I get pain in my elbows. My upper arms are so full of knots I think it causes pain in the elbows. My shoulders and arms are sore this morning from holding them out and up yesterday putting the tree together. My arms have never been that strong but now.......

 

I was tested for MS many years ago.

 

luv and hugs

Marlee

Posted 12/14/2008 2:58 PM (GMT 0)
I get the terrible elbow pain too, but only now and then, thank God. I just ice it, and/or put some A5 35 on it. It usually goes away in afew days.
No..I havent been checked for MS,, but was originally dx with Lupus.

Hugs
Diane
Posted 12/14/2008 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
this elbow pain is something new, as well as the weak tingly muscles, it feels as though my limbs are asleep half of the time. Its not just in my elbow, sometimes its in my wrist, and lower arms, but when it does happen it feels like someone stabbs me in the limb, or the area, and it hurts, and i have to stop what ever Im doing. It just seems like one thing after another. I now have a b12 deficiency as well, and i do have a lot of eye pain, and dizziness, and such. thanks again everybody
kelly
Posted 12/14/2008 3:37 PM (GMT 0)
For me, pain in the elbow area of my left arm was my first noticeable pain area associated with my FM, but back then, almost 5 years ago, when I mentioned it to an internest I was seeing for something else, he said it was simply tennis elbow and to ice it and take Motrin. He didn't examine the area, and brushed me off even when I told him that sometimes the pain and tenderness were so bad I couldn't even lift a piece of paper. He told me to rearrange things on my desk at work so I wouldn't have a repetitive stress injury to the area, and told me I'd be fine.
I learned that icing the area made the pain go away initially, but always after the coldness went away the pain would be 10 times worse. And it was never in the same spot. Sometimes it would be in the back of the elbow travelling slightly upwards along the back of my arm, sometimes it would be in the front, not in the actual bend of the elbow, but right below the bend in the forearm. Once in a while it will shoot straight from the forearm up into my shoulder. Moving my arm at all during one of those flares is a guarantee I'm going to end up in tears, because for some reason that spot hurts more than any other of my normal flare spots. During really bad flares there, my hand and fingers also get tingly and my wrist feels weak. The flare there is the one spot that literally causes me to stop whatever I'm doing (I can generally keep going through flares in other areas like my hip, legs and collarbone area), not just because the pain is so intense that it takes my breath away, but also because the muscles there go weak and limp. Oftentimes, I can't move my arm during the flare not just from pain, but because I literally cannot move my arm.
The new rheumy I just started seeing confirmed it is from my FM, and told me to use moist heat on it when it flares, and to not move it if I can until the pain and tenderness subsides. (The internest said stretching would help, and actually recommended that when the pain started, instead of not using my arm, I should use it MORE to stretch out those muscles!). Thankfully, I am right handed, which helps a lot since the pain/weakness is primarily in my left arm. But I have started to get minor pain infrequently in the right arm, so I am trying to baby it as much as I can to keep it from getting as bad as the left arm.
Posted 12/15/2008 3:58 PM (GMT 0)
Have you thought about carpol tunel or arthritis?

Just a thought

Hugs, Karen
Posted 12/15/2008 7:00 PM (GMT 0)
yah i have, im thinking its probably arthritis, but wanted to rule out ms, as i have a lot of headaches and eye pain, blurred vision sometimes,
thank you karen
kelly
Posted 12/15/2008 7:14 PM (GMT 0)
Muscle weakness is a terrible cause of a lot of pain. I hope you can find a way to strengthen, no matter how slowly.
I'm slowly working on strength, but whenever I falter, I pay for it big time in pain.
Posted 12/16/2008 2:04 PM (GMT 0)
I too have the elbow pain, its usually on and off, I never know when it will start...  when it does hurt I can barely pick up a glass with out excrusiating pain!!!!  I don't know whether or not it is due to the fibro either, the doctor seems to think it is, but then again they blame everything on the fibro, so who knows!!!! : )  Hope you are feeling better!!!! 
Posted 12/17/2008 3:10 AM (GMT 0)
OH MAN, I GET THE PAIN IN MY ELBOW AND I CAN'T LIFT MY ARM EITHER. MY UPPER MUSCLE HURT WHEN I DO, I CAN'T EVEN LAY ON IT AND I GET THIS HORRIBLE BURNING IN MY MUSCLE AND ELBOW AREA. I KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING about, I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE.  I FINALLY GOT AN APPT WITH A RHEUM, BUT IT WON'T BE TILL THE END OF THIS MONTH. LET ME KNOW IF YOU GET ANY ANSWERS.

TAKE CARE D

Posted 12/17/2008 8:22 AM (GMT 0)
Yes, I get the sharp pains in my elbows, especially the left one.  I was tested for MS & don't have it.  Hope you find some relief.  Hugs, Denise
Posted 12/17/2008 10:43 AM (GMT 0)
I don't have pain in my elbow joints, but sometimes in the muscle below it. It never makes me feel weak, it just hurts.

HOWEVER, I get the exact sensation you describe in my wrists. Typing is actually fine for me, I have to do it for hours before I get trouble. My wrists tend to hurt for no reason a lot of the time. Sometimes if I go to pick something up, even something very light, I get a stabbing pain in my wrist and a flash of almost numbness in my wrist which makes my hand briefly weak and tingly. Even though it feels weak, I can use it normally if I just ignore the sensation. Usually I have to do so if I'm in the middle of moving something or carrying the dog. You can't often just drop whatever you're holding.

The absolute worst though, and the first symptom I had of fibromyalgia, is stabbing pain in my wrist and hand when I write. I have always taken notes at school and into college by hand in cursive. For one, I take pride in my handwriting and it's always nice for the person next to me to compliment me on it. But also, I remember things better if I write them down and won't need to study as much as I would if I had typed it. Wearing wrist braces makes me capable of taking notes for about an hour but any more than that and I feel the stabbing anyway.

My rheumy told me right off the bat that it was just fibro. My wrists are still very flexible so I haven't lost any mobility (she actually told me on my first visit that I should have been a gymnast). I haven't been tested for carpal tunnel or MS, but I have been tested for Lyme 3 or 4 times and it's always negative. I definitely don't have lesions on my brain if that's an MS symptom (someone mentioned that above); my brain has been subjected to most of the tests my neurologist could come up with. As far as treating it, I was told to "do whatever I have to do." The rheumy told me that if I have to wear a brace to write, I should wear a brace. She was pretty unhelpful but I don't really think there's anything she could have done for me anyway. Aspirin doesn't help at all. I haven't tried ice or heat because it's not the kind of pain I associate with either treatment.

As a final comment, I have the pain just as frequently in both wrists, though usually only in one at a time. My right hurts when I write, naturally, and my left is more likely to fail me when I'm lifting something. Though there have been times that I've started taking notes and my LEFT wrist has started to hurt like hell even though it's not doing anything.

-Sandi
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply