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Posted 4/10/2021 1:18 AM (GMT 0)
Hi All,
I just wanted to say hi and ask for some much needed help. I just had blood work done to test five different neuro problems. I am not really sure what they all are. I know one is for inflammation. Another is for neuropathy. The others I will find out at my next dr appointment.

I have read the Fibro 101 thread and learned much about this disease. I have a lot of symptoms which would also indicate Fibro.

I also suffer from osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, osteoporosis and lastly Cancer. I had a two level cervical fusion a few years ago and now need two more levels done. My spine is a mess really so having chronic pain is something I just would not wish on anyone.

I want to say how impressed I am with Sherrine the moderator as she is so helpful and just a caring individual. I want to thank you for all your hard work. I look forward to getting to know you also as I read you saying this very same thing to others.

I will give an update on what I feel are Fibro issues in this thread maybe tomorrow.

Thank you all for your support.
Posted 4/10/2021 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, Oceanfisher and welcome! I’m sorry that you are going through these problems and I also see you have not been diagnosed with fibro and it’s never a good idea to self-diagnose yourself. We are not doctors here. If you are thinking you possibly could have fibro, I suggest you see a good board certified doctor. Many of us use a rheumatologist. They deal with muscles, tendons and ligaments which do affect fibromyalgia. But make sure your doctor rules out other illnesses that have many of the same symptoms as fibro...illnesses like lupus and Lyme disease. They have tests that can rule these illnesses out but they have no test for fibro. But if all illnesses are ruled out, you usually are given the diagnosis of fibromyalgia.

I have fibro, Crohn’s disease, an ostomy, auto-immune inner ear disease, diabetes, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoporosis, sacroilitis, scoliosis, glaucoma, and a partridge in a pear tree. 😂. I’ve also had four outpatient surgeries for skin cancer in the past 18 months. We all have things causing pain and other issues.

Nine years ago I was in excruciating pain and almost couldn’t walk. The pain was in my back, hips, and ran down my legs to the middle of my calves. I needed two canes to walk and I was at the point where I wasn’t eating or drinking much because I didn’t want to walk to the bathroom because the pain was enormous. I thought I might have to sell my house and move to assisted living. My board certified Internist tried everything he knew to try...including Tramadol and Vicodin. It didn’t touch the pain. So he referred me to my board certified rheumatologist and they took about 25 x-rays and 8 vials of bloodwork. My inflammatory markers were off the charts and fibro isn’t considered an inflammatory illness! I had been blaming all my back pain on fibro for years!. Anyway, he discovered I had ankylosing spondylitis along with fibro. Now I knew what was causing my pain for decades!

Now my pain has diminished a lot. I take ibuprofen with food, Tylenol when necessary, magnesium malate, vitamin D3, and a muscle relaxer called Robaxin (methocarbamol) that has made a significant difference in my pain. If you are low on vitamin D3, calcium, and coq10, you can have more pain. If you take a statin medication, they can deplete the coq10 in your body and that can cause pain. That happened to me but now I take that twice a day. I even use vitamins and nutrients for my osteoporosis.

As I said before, we all have pain and other illnesses to deal with but how we handle these problems is the key. I personally try to use a more natural approach and it has worked great for me. I use mainly over the counter pain relievers and vitamins and nutrients that are necessary for our bodies to run correctly. I also am a believer in having a positive attitude. If you read through Fibro 101 then you saw the link about how to have a positive outlook when you have chronic pain. This really works. You can always find positive things no matter what you are going through. Positive thinking also helps a lot with stress and we all know stress is terrible for our bodies! So do read that link if you haven’t already and start enjoying your life. It can be done. I find ways of working around my problems so I can do the things I want to do. I bet you can too!

I hope I have given you some ideas as to how to improve your pain as well as your health. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better too! Have a good day!

Sherrine
Posted 4/10/2021 10:48 PM (GMT 0)
Miss Sherrine,
I want to thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my thread. I see from your signature you have your hands full and I am so sorry. I also see you have a Bible quote which many here on the forum object too. I am a firm believer in God and thank Him each and everyday for my life.

I am in the process of trying to find answers to my pain. I have a pain management dr who I love so very much. She is quite kind and caring. She ordered the neural workup for me and I am hoping they find something as I am wanting to find some treatment plan and or meds which will help. My spine is a mess and I need yet another fusion at C3-C5. My last fusion was C5-C7. I have the tender pain points around my neck which Fibro patients also have. I take prescription meds for moderate to severe RLS. I never knew this was a Fibro symptom till I read the Fibro 101 thread. I have some form of neuropathy across my upper back and shower water feels like needles being pushed in me.

I also suffer from cold intolerance. I am freezing when most people are comfortable. I have a Rheumatologist lined up and will try to figure all this out. I have spine issues from degenerative disc disease and osteoporosis. I fractured my T12 vertebra helping my wife move her sewing table. She picked her end up fine but my back snapped when I lifted my end up. I just have too many other symptoms which I feel are maybe Fibro related. Anyway I have the right drs ready to help and I am doing the tests they have prescribed for me.

Miss Sherrine I want to say what a kind and helpful person you are. You go above and beyond to help others. Your positive attitude is amazing. I am usually pretty upbeat myself. I have finished my cancer treatment and am just waiting to be declared cancer free. I get tested regularly and hope by next year to be in remission.

Any other suggestions you have I would love to hear about.

God bless and thanks
Posted 4/13/2021 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
I’m glad you are seeing a rheumatologist and I hope they are board certified. That’s very important. We all want to rid ourselves of pain but there is no magic pill or magic surgery in most cases. It actually can make things worse. I’ve heard of people getting back surgery and needing more back surgery and they never got the relief they thought they would. So be careful. Surgery might not be the answer. Here is a good link as to how to avoid undergoing back surgery.

[https://www.spine-health.com/blog/5-ways-avoid-undergoing-back-surgery

I have had extreme back pain for decades. The vertebrae in my shoulders fused by themselves so I look like Quasimodo. 😂 I didn’t realize that happened. I thought everyone was shaped like that until I truly looked around! This causes me to walk head first if I don’t pay attention to my posture. It wasn’t until my rheumatologist diagnosed me with ankylosing spondylitis that I realized what had happened since I’ve had back pain for years. He said I’ve had AS for decades but kept it under control with ibuprofen. With AS, my back could continue to fuse and it could get extremely difficult to move around and live a normal life. I certainly wouldn’t undergo fusion surgery. It could cause me even more problems with my back. The back is designed to move in many directions and fusing vertebrae just locks it up...in my humble opinion. I’m not a doctor. This is just my opinion.

Anyway, the doctor wanted me to be put on Remicade infusions but I wasn’t willing to do that. Pain is generally caused by inflammation. This presses on nerve endings, your muscles tense up and you now hurt a lot. I wanted to lessen the inflammation so the pain would lessen and I added the muscle relaxer so the muscles weren’t adding to the pain. So I started up with the ibuprofen and then discovered that Robaxin (methocarbamol) helps with pain and inflammation. The rest is history. I have very little pain in my back now but I continue to take both ibuprofen and methocarbamol daily to be in control of the pain. I also move around a lot which exercises my back. I am bending over a lot to pick things up and to garden and this really helps keep my back muscles stretched.

So please read that link. If you follow the instructions, you just might avoid back surgery.

The “symptom” list in Fibro 101 are some things that fibro patients could possibly have problems with. The hallmark of fibro is pain in muscles, tendons, and ligaments and cognitive memory problems. Nerves are involved. Sometimes I feel like water is running down my leg but it’s totally dry. We just get weird things and we need to accept these them. Otherwise we would live at the doctor’s office.

I do not have RLS but have read that iron helps with those symptoms. I’ve heard that a banana a day keeps RLS at bay but I don’t know that for sure. I do take iron because I’m borderline anemic and my supplement for iron is great and it’s easy on the digestive system. I needed that because of Crohn’s disease. The supplement is called Ferro-Sequels. They are more expensive...around $27 for 100 tablets...but I find its well worth it. I take one tablet a day. If you try these, do not take them with calcium or calcium foods. The calcium prevents the iron from being absorbed. You can find them at CVS and elsewhere. Each tablet contains 377% of the daily requirement. So you might ask your doctor about these. I’ve been taking them for 32 years with no problems at all.

I have cold intolerance also. I live in Florida and it’s 90 degrees here right now. My outfit goes down to my ankles and I have socks on my feet because they are always cold. I have an easy answer for cold intolerance. I put more clothes on.

I use calcium, vitamin D3, magnesium malate, potassium, and vitamin K2 plus trace minerals I get in my multiple vitamin for my osteoporosis. I have remodeled bones doing this and now have osteopenia in the spine and right hip and my left hip is almost in the osteopenia category!

The tender points you feel are most likely muscle knots that are called trigger points. I bought The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook that I found on Amazon. It’s paperback so it wasn’t really expensive. I’m sure you can get it other places too. Anyway, they have an index of things that cause pain and how to use trigger points to get rid of the pain. I developed a frozen shoulder and couldn’t lift my hand beyond my shoulder and couldn’t put my arm behind my back. This really limited me. I got out my book, looked up the frozen shoulder and it showed a picture of the shoulder and where to look for the trigger points. For my frozen shoulder they started at the sternum and went toward the shoulder and even slightly over the shoulder to the back of the shoulder. Also it showed trigger points in the neck that affected the shoulder! So I started at the sternum, found the trigger point because it was tender and pressed on it as hard as I could stand and then massaged that area. I repeated that and kept moving toward the shoulder. I cured that frozen shoulder by myself using this book. So this could help you a variety of ways in helping to lessen or even get rid of pain without using drugs.

As you can see, I use a more natural way of helping my symptoms as well as helping to heal my body. You can’t focus on every symptom you notice. It will drive you bonkers. If you have fibro you will have to accept some things and work around others but you can still have a full and enjoyable life in spite of this Illness. I know because I have!

Sherrine
Posted 4/13/2021 10:58 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you Miss Shirrine. Like you I am working through my pain issues and trying my best to find answers. I have reached an overload point a while back when out of the blue I was diagnosed with cancer. Of course my pain took second place to curing my cancer. I am hoping by next year to be declared cancer free. In the meantime I get tested and take my meds.

Life is so very hard but I have faith and that faith sustains me in my times of troubles. With the help of God I do what I can and leave the rest to Him. I no longer worry about eternity.

I thank you for your help and pray for your continued good health and your willingness to help others. "That which you do unto the least of mine you do unto me"

God bless
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