I'm new in this forum, hoping to learn more and get new insights into this thing called fibro

If you're needy then we are all needy. lol

Welcome! What are your new symptoms? And did you have any life changes or habit changes around the same time? (And I just want to throw in a whine how its always changing. So annoying!)

Hi and thanks to Anna and Debbie for the warm welcome...

Looking back on my life, I realize now that a lot of my symptoms started when I was a little kid...I had IBS, I'm sure, but it was called "spastic colon"...can remember taking a foul tasting medicine that supposedly stopped all the cramping problems, nausea and vomiting...can't tell you how many times I would throw up while sleeping and totally mess up the bed....my mom would come in, clean me up, change the bed, etc., ...but I never thought it could lead to something like fibro...I also remember being depressed as a child, but usually nothing was available to help that...as a teenager, the depression got worse, just not bad enough that my folks were worried, because I never let on to them how I was feeling...I had a brother who was Downs Syndrome who was younger than me by six years...after he was born, all my Mom's attention was on him, not my older sister and me..oh, she still made our clothes and everything, but the Mom and daughter stuff wasn't there....when we had events at school, she wasn't there...our Dad would drive us wherever we needed to be, drop us off, then come back and get us...and she was very difficult to live with, so when I was sixteen, I married just to get away from home...and that started me down the road into a life that was at times marginally happy, but mostly not...I stayed in that marriage for 38 yrs until my husband passed away...but I just about can count on both hands the really happy times...I do have 3 adult children that I'm very proud of..
After my husband passed away, I married again after a year...that was a total mistake and it was the combination of stress and having pneumonia early in 2000, that brought on the full blown symptoms of fibro and CFS...

The new symptom that I've been having for the last week is a feeling in left arm between elbow and wrist that feels like electric shock when I touch it to something...it feels like either a blood vessel, tendon or muscle that is stretched like a guitar string and when it touches something, it feels like I've been shocked...early yesterday morning, I leaned down to pick up a heavy item off the floor and touched the edge of the couch with my arm....mercy, it hurt, hurt, hurt as well as the electric shock feeling...I spent the rest of the day with a heating pad on my arm off and on...I'm just trying to be careful and not use it too much and cause that again...

Bobbie

PS: I'm also a female, because I don't think a man would be whining like this...hahaha

What in the world is an iontophoresis machine??? So many of these treatments I've never heard of...I am on a fixed income with only Medicare and a supplemental insurance for my needs...so, I usually just tough it out...I can't take a lot of the pain meds...too many reactions to so many medications....as long as I can get through the day OK, and I can take something to help me sleep...I make it OK...just praying that no more symptoms raise up their ugly head.....

I was diagnosed by a rheumatologist ( I think, have slept since then) , but only after a nurse practioner zoned in on my symptoms and made me an appointment...sure would like to remember his name, but bad memory is one of the things I have to deal with now...used to have a really good memory...<sigh>

Certainly seems that way, doesn't it, Anna??? I was diagnosed years ago with carpal tunnel syndrome...all my working life I used my hands typing in offices, etc., and everything else that a person has to do in an office...added to that, I play piano and did for my church for almost 40 years...I loved to play the piano because I felt I was worshipping the Lord and doing something for Him....and since all these problems, I can't play piano without lots of pain....that saddens me so much....sooooo, here comes depression....seems like it is a vicious cycle....

Well, Anna, I guess you are right....hahaha....lots of household chores I can't do very well anymore...but I tell you the truth....I'm so thankful that my symptoms didn't hit me hard until after my family was raised...I can't imagine feeling like this and having to tend to little ones and do all for them that they need....and I'm also thankful that I don't have all the other symptoms that others have spoken of....some of their symptoms and what they suffer through is almost beyond comprehension !!!! At least, I'm able to be up and around and the pain is such that I can deal with it...don't need lots of pain meds....good thing, too, cause my body can't tolerate pain meds...I'd be laid flat out all the time...those things just absolutely take all the starch out of me...if I take pain meds, then I'm hung over for days and can't function...

Thanks for the information, Anna......

Found it and put the website in my favorites...sounds like it would be great to use...since I'm on fixed income, will have to work it in with all my other bills...

As for having children, my kids are adults now and getting on up there...no chance in the world of any oxytocin running around in my system...lol....I'm an old lady now...hahaha

Actually, Bobby, that is untrue!! I just started a new therapy (so new that there is no info online) in which I give myself injections of pitocin three times a week. It's my first month, and its $160/mo because its from a compounding pharmacist and used off label, but you might want to ask about it if you're interested. The function is that it increases blood flow to your muscles to help heal them, thereby reducing pain. I made the mistake of using it during my period and OMG had the most horrible cramps ever - which makes sense since they use it to induce labor.

My RA has a lot of wonderful info on his website if you want to peruse it. I highly recommend them.

http://www.fmtlc.com/

Well, Anna, nobody ever offered anything like pitocin to me for pain...and for sure I couldn't afford the $160/month for the shots...Medicare has gotten to where it won't hardly pay for anything anymore and even though I'm paying through the nose with my Medicare supplemental insurance, it will only pay on what Medicare will pay on....so, there I am....

Joy, I haven't tried gabapentin for pain....as I said no doctor has ever offered it to me...and I haven't asked for anything either, since I react to the new medicines in such a terrible way...

Thanks, Angel, for the warm welcome...I appreciate all your thoughts and suggestions...I have been seeing a therapist for a little while now, but I'm not really pleased with her...maybe I'm wrong, but I thought a therapist was supposed to listen to me whine and complain about my problems, not have me listen to her endless discussions of her life, etc....I'm supposed to have an appointment on August 30, but I'm cancelling....can't see that she has helped me one iota....if anything, I've been able to draw myself up by my own bootstraps and get on the right track...

I don't know if you read all of my posts so far, but I was taking a whole lot more medicine than I do now...I have managed to wean myself off Wellbutrin XL 300 mg as well as weaning myself down to a half of a 0.25mg Xanax for anxiety....I was taking 3 different meds for high blood pressure, but my pcp cut that back to on one and half of a 100 mg atenolol I was taking every night...I have been eating healthier, using heat on the areas that hurt....I don't take muscle relaxers unless I just can't stand it...because the muscle relaxers leave me hung over for several days after I take them, even a 5 mg tablet does this...I started eating gluten-free the best I can now....that means I started buying gluten-free bread...I just saw an article on what other foods that gluten appears in....mercy, what is a body to do???? Starve??? I also stopped drinking milk that is produced by a national dairy....I totally feel that the antibiotics and hormones that are given to the cows that produce milk and the meat we eat is a huge part of our health problems...I found a place locally to buy milk that doesn't contain all the antibiotics and hormones as well as free range eggs....am looking for a meat producer who has free range beef and chicken, too...I certainly don't think that eating healthy like this will harm me, right???

And I'll be around....you can be sure of that ! ! ! ! ! !