Fibro Fog

Cover of Fibromyalgia: A Natural Approach

I've posted about my Fibromyalgia before. I'm learning more and more how to deal with it and what my limitations are. The thing about Fibromyalgia is there is a broad range of symptoms and one person might suffer from one or two of the symptoms while another person might suffer from 6-7 of the symptoms. Fortunately the main thing I suffer from consistently is intense fatigue. I don't have a lot of the pains I used to have on an everyday basis anymore...either that or else I'm just getting "used" to them and dealing with it.

Some ladies at my church started a support group last week for chronic pain sufferers. Last Sunday was our first meeting. Discussing symptoms, treatments, how to deal with the aches and pains, fatigue and such with people who understand what I'm going through even when I look perfectly fine on the outside was a tremendous blessing!

One thing I wasn't prepared for was this little tidbit...a woman was discussing some goofy thing she had forgotten to do and she said "Oh I just blamed it on Fibro Fog."

"Fibro what?!?"

Several people looked at me and one lady said "Fibro fog! You haven't heard of that?"

"Well, no actually I haven't."

She continued, "It's an actual side effect of fibromyalgia sufferers. Do you ever forget your words, have memory loss, get confused about stuff...like have a cloudy brain?"

By now the flashing bulbs and alarms are starting to go off in my head because I am REALLY getting excited...."Why YES!! Like EVERY SINGLE DAY!! Is THAT what's wrong with me??!!"

I have never been so excited in my life to find out that I'm not losing my mind. Fibro Fog is a side effect, BUT it is not a neurological condition like Alzheimer's or anything like that. I can work on overcoming it and modify my diet to possibly help. After researching this and learning more about it now I feel so much better.

I can't begin to explain the frustrations over the last 6-9 months that I've dealt with (and Greg has dealt with) because of things I've forgotten to do, or I've forgotten I've already done, or I can't quite find the right words to say...my words get jumbled and I have trouble spelling when I've always been an excellent speller before...to know that this is caused by my fibromyalgia and be able to pinpoint the problem is a freeing feeling. Now I have something to work with towards making my memory and confusion better!

Fibromyalgia

I have fibromyalgia. I'm learning to deal with it and know my limitations. In addition to my fibromyalgia I have osteoarthritis throughout my body...it's becoming obvious in more and more locations. :-)

I go see my rheumatologist regularly for bloodwork and xrays to keep a check on things. I've also signed up with Quality Health...
There is a ton of useful information on this website. They email me articles all about diet help, exercise tips, emotional needs etc pertaining to my fibromyalgia and arthritis. I also regularly receive samples from Quality Health - an extra bonus!

FYI for those with Diabetes
Even though I don't suffer from Diabetic Nerve Pain there is a special offer available for those of you who do if you sign up to receive emails from Quality Health right now.

Mother's Day

I received some wonderful Mother's Day presents this year - my husband is an amazing gift-giver! He always knows just what to give me. He says I am hard to buy for...I guess that's because I don't like "stuff." I don't want things just to have things and I don't want more clothes just to have more clothes. To help him out this year, I told him I really wanted an hour-long massage for my Mother's Day gift. I used to get massages pretty regularly after our car accident 3 years ago but I haven't gotten one since last June because of my fibromyalgia.

With fibromyalgia, I have trigger points on my body that are painful for others to touch and I didn't want to sit through a massage and have to keep saying "ow, that hurts" or "don't touch there" or things of that nature. My daughter in Hawaii has been going to Massage Therapy school and I have been talking to her about this. She recommended a couple different types of massage I could look for that might help me so I decided to give it a try again.

After I got the okay from Greg to schedule my massage I looked in the phone book and actually found somebody who specializes in fibromyalgia massage! I told Greg I wanted him to drive me over there so I could be completely relaxed when I came out and not have to worry about driving myself anywhere....am I spoiled or what??!! This massage was AWESOME! The therapist was an amazing Christian woman who sang with such a beautiful voice it made me cry! When I went in she had worship music playing. She went to change the music and I told her she could leave it on because I enjoyed that music - I listened to it too. As she massaged my body, she sang and prayed the whole time....it was soooo beautiful! That was last Saturday - I have felt great this whole week. I am definitely going back to her again very soon.

The next day (Sunday) we woke up early so Greg could put ribs and roast on the smoker to begin cooking while we were at church. We had family coming over after church. I wrapped up potatoes in aluminum foil to throw on there with the meat. Greg offered to cook me breakfast but we had just had our normal big breakfast at Cracker Barrel the day before so I told him all I wanted was cereal and fruit.

He pulled out a gift bag and handed it to me. I told him he wasn't supposed to get me anything because my massage was my gift. He said "Now you really don't think that's all you are getting do you??" He gave me a black cross necklace - it is very pretty. Once Dakota woke up he came into our room and handed me another gift bag...this one had a very beautiful gold heart necklace that says MOM in the middle and has 3 diamonds on the top. I wasn't expecting this at all - and my emotional self started crying!

Felicia (in Hawaii) had told me she ordered something for me and it was shipped and would be in this week. It did come in and is the cutest thing ever!!! I love it!!
This is supposed to represent me (Ya-Ya) and Greg (Pops - with his cell phone which he ALWAYS has!!) our dog Jet (on the armrest) and our three grandchildren...Bailee (wearing a Princess crown), Allan and Nathan. The pillow on the couch says "#1 Grandparents"

The Blues are going away

I went to the Rheumatologist early last week about my fibromyalgia and was prescribed a new medication to try. As the weekend approached I was feeling exhausted, weary, depressed, angry and couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with me.

Saturday evening Dakota and I went to a function at church (a talent show) and I sat away from everyone because I just didn't want to be bothered - I felt lousy. It was everything I could do to keep myself awake. When the show was over we stood around talking for a few minutes and Dakota best friend (our pastor's son) was asking if Dakota could go home with them for awhile...I was secretly praying no because I didn't want to have to come back out and pick him up...well they did say no because they had running around to do. Dakota and I left and went to Sonny's BBQ to grab some dinner. While we were there, the pastor and his family came in along with another friend's family that was there at the talent show. When they saw us there they came over and invited us to come sit with them - but we already had our food at this point and I just wanted to finish eating and go home to bed. Dakota was upset with me because his friends were over there - obviously he wanted to go sit with them.

Sunday morning when I woke up I was dizzy and just not feeling well. I went to make sure Dakota was up and getting ready for church. We started working on getting his contacts in. He wasn't having much luck with them and had about reached the point of not wanting to wear them anymore. I was cranky and made him cry. By the time we left for church I was mad and he was crying...not a good combination for a Sunday morning and something I try very hard to keep from happening. When we got to church he got out of the truck and headed towards Sunday School...I sat there and cried and cried and cried. I text messaged my parents to let them know I was going back home and to please pick Dakota up (we go to the same church) and I headed back home. I crawled into bed and fell asleep and I stayed asleep for several hours until late Sunday afternoon.

We had a church picnic/fish fry that afternoon and I normally go to all of these events and take pictures - but I missed this one. I slept right through it. My cell phone vibrated all afternoon with people calling to find out where I was but I didn't hear it...I slept right through the vibrating.

Later on after I had woke up I was thumbing through a Newsweek magazine and one of the first things I came to was a big advertisement for the new medicine I'm taking, with a caution "This medicine may not be suitable for everyone...if you experience these symptoms, discontinue use and let your physician know...." and there listed my symptoms in black & white. Praise God! I'm NOT going crazy! It's that stupid medicine!

As of Sunday I have discontinued the use of that medicine and I am already feeling much better than I was when I was taking it! My blues are going away!!

Fibromyalgia with Hypermobility Syndrome

Back in the fall I posted that I was being tested for Lupus. After going through several rounds of varying blood tests and x-rays I was finally told in February that I have Fibromyalgia with Hypermobility Syndrome...the latter part is a big fancy word for being double-jointed.

I found out (much to my surprise!) from my rheumatologist that it's really not normal to be able to do some of the things that I can do. The funny thing is that this condition is hereditary which would explain why it seemed very normal to me because my mom and my three oldest children can all do the same things I can do, so we thought "everybody" was double-jointed.

I'm very thankful I don't have lupus! I am having to build up my muscles in my arms more because that's where the majority of my pain has been. With the exercises I've been doing and making sure I get plenty of rest I've been doing much better this last month.