Accepting Fibro

Hi all,

I've been lurking and reading here for months and have learned so much from all of you, so I just first would like to say thanks for having the courage to talk about the conditions you're all managing and dealing with.

For about 6 or 7 months, I've been battling an array of emotional and physical symptoms that seem to suggest Fibromyalgia. A timeline:

August 2015: 29th birthday, and, similar to a midlife crisis, I'm hit with a crisis of 'discovering' the concept of mortality. A friend's mother passes away after being given a few months to live, an older former colleague is diagnosed with cancer, I watch a documentary that includes people's views on the afterlife, and suddenly I start to see death everywhere and feel that I'm struggling with these concepts of life and its meaning and how precious it is.

October 2015: I start to have some disturbing physical issues - first, what have now been diagnosed as 'atypical' migraines as a result of TMJ issues, which caused me to feel facial numbness, drooping eyelid, terrible neck and eye pain, along with the other migraine symptoms. I have had since then two neck MRIs and one brain MRI and two head CTs, all negative. A week later, I come done with a very rough sinus infection and am still dealing with heavy post-nasal drip and swollen nose tissue several months later. (Nasal rinses only seem to make me more congested, oddly.)

November 2015: Migraines, TMJ problems and swollen nose worsen, and now I also have weakness in my arms and tingling in my hands and feet. Had a nerve function test, all comes back negative. I also start prodding around and find these incredibly sore spots (no bruises) on my back, shoulders, chest, and elbow area.

December 2015: Huge acid reflux flare and onset of very sharp chest pains down the front (where the sternum is) as well as on the primarily right side of my rib cage and into my right arm, sometimes it almost feels swollen and incredibly painful to press on the points that hurt. ECG, EKG all come back negative, but upper endoscopy shows small hiatal hernia (have known about that for years) and mild gastitis. Breast pains start to kick in, seems worse mid-cycle and end of cycle but more pain than I've ever experienced. Breast ultrasound: negative. (I'm particularly attentive to that issue because of mother's breast cancer (happily fine now but diagnosed before 50) and being Eastern European.

January 2016: After taking antibiotics for an infection, I start having terrible leg cramps and pains, which in hindsight might have been attributable to onset of monthly cycle. Two leg ultrasounds: no clots, but now I have a fear of clots, great, though I don't have any of the major risk factors (birth control, smoking, family history, under 40).

February 2016: Starting to have terrible esophegeal pain, spasms, and feeling like my breathing is all wrong. Dizziness sometimes, heart starts beating harder when I just stand up from sitting. Frequent chest pain and need to take a deep breath from my chest. Having pain and spasm feelings in the pelvic area, ultrasound shows a 4cm subserosal uterine fibroid. Pulmonary function test: negative. Sleep apnea test: negative.

All my blood work comes back negative, including ANA workups and Thyroid tests. A year ago, my doctor found that my Vitamin D was at a 12 and gave me supplements which I took for three months.

I guess my question is, am I missing something? It's strange to - what feels like suddenly - have all of these aches and pains. It ramps up my anxiety and makes me feel awful, and frankly concerned that something else is going on that no one can find, but also wondering if my anxiety over having some health issues is making all of the health issues worse. Has anyone had this experience? A waterfall of different symptoms that keeps moving around to different place? Mine sort of keep adding up, to the point that the lastest symptom is always the most painful but the other ones are still there in varying milder forms. I'm wondering also if anyone here can point to anxiety as a trigger for their Fibro.

Thanks all for taking the time - I'm starting to feel crazy!

Yes, my fibro is/was triggered by anxiety. Eventually it builds up so much it has to come out somewhere physically. Personally, I know my fibro was caused by working too much, pushing too hard, dealing with the stress of making big payments, dealing with "politics" at the high corporate level, etc.

I can give you a long list of symptoms just like yours above, but it would cover 35+ years. It started with "stomach aches" and headaches in the second grade. During one period I truly had a headache for six months straight after a traumatic experience like you describe. Didn't find Xanax until around 35, wow, what a great thing. It showed me it was anxiety that was causing all my symptoms for all those years.

Anyway, IMO, 99% chance it's your anxiety, and it's building on itself. My recommendation would be meds and meditation. The meds are necessary to eventually succeed at true mediation. IOW, you have to control the out of control symptoms before you can relax again. It took me 24 months of focused effort.

I could go on and on... so hope this helps.