What to do to help flare

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CathyRachelle

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Joined
Apr 5, 2022
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22
Reason
DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
03/2022
Country
US
State
NJ
I’m new to Fibromyalgi. I’ve recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgi, diffuse osteoarthritis, tendonitis and bursitis. I’ve been on cymbalta 40 mg and flexeril at night for 2 months. I know I can increase the cymbalta, but haven’t yet because the pain has been much more manageable and I am sleeping thanks to the flexeril. I just had one of the worst flares yet. Has anyone found something that helps during a bad flare? Perhaps CBD? Thank you so much for any help you can offer!
 
Hi Cathy and welcome in! 👋

Well, answers to this question about fibromyalgia-flares are very individual, even more individual than what may generally help!

The most common/usual/common ground answer is: rest and wait, and during that do good things to keep your spirits up, if possible keep up regular short gentle stretches, so further pains due to moving less don't add themselves on.
Another fairly common one is warm baths (or in my case cold showers if I manage) or something like a good magnesium sort.

But to go into more detail there it's necessary to know what areas your flare affects: overall Ache, local pains, sleep, gut etc.
To put that generally: it's as ever a case of identifying symptoms and triggers, and preventing or alleviating each.
As you are taking meds it would also be on of the first things to question if your symptoms are triggered by their side effects.
But you've already consulted sunkacola's general Advice Post ▶️ here at the top of the forum I guess?

CBD again is a broad field. We all react so differently to it - in my case a tiny drop of high quality oil zombifies me, not helping.
And there are so many different types that I'd assume it'd be better to test that after the flare, rather than in it.
Sunkacola - away for a few weeks - is a real expert on that and regularly gives recommendations - you could search for CBD-threads (magnifying glass top right of the page) or if you need help I could look up some for you.

As I've been in a full fibro-flare since Dec19, I've needed my toolkit of many kinds of physio, 20-30 supps, a mix of many diets, trigger hunting & symptom analysis etc. just to work & play for at max. 4 hours a day. Any added flare on top of that aside from stopping everything = rest means going thru my complete tool box again if there's anything I can detect & readjust. In some cases Wim Hof's cold showering and/or breath-holding help me - my body is eccentric like that...
 
I have a few places around the house and garden where I can lie down and drift off. I really recommend slowing-down, forgetting about the day's plan, take a long relaxing bath, eat a favourite food and sleep. It's difficult to concentrate during a sudden attack or a flare-up so I don't even try to accomplish anything. It's not my fault if that disappoints anyone else in my life, it's my FMS, not me.
 
Thank you, that’s what I did and while it didn’t end the flare, it’s nice to know I am not alone!
 

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Wivenswold said:
It's not my fault if that disappoints anyone else in my life, it's my FMS, not me
I like that statement a lot.
I say it just slightly differently but meaning essentially the same thing. My statement to myself has been:
It is not my responsibility to avoid or feel bad about other people's disappointment when the cause is FM, and not of my choosing.
 
I have experienced flares that left me in a fetal position for hours/days/weeks. I feel like I want to crawl out of my body. My doctors have prescribed so may meds, they all have side effects including Dizziness, confusion etc... Makes perfect sense right? As far as rest, that is the number one thing that helps. My doctor recommended to rest and find something mindless to watch on TV as I am sometimes way to serious. I find that Xanax will give me a calming feeling helps a little bit. If you are in a state with MM I would highly (no pun intended) recommend. I tried Vape and Flower first but didn't like the effect. She started me on high THC low CBD edibles, I was worried that I didn't want to be "High" for 6 hours. The first time I took one it was like a miracle, all the pain and spasms just melted away. Didn't get me paranoid. Worked better than anything else I have tried. Didn't have to take the meds with nasty side effects. Believe it or not it even helped with the fog I was actually able to concentrate. If you live in a state that has legal MM, I would give it a try. But definitely do through a doctor. Tried over the counter CBD but didn't do anything at all. The dispensary explained that over the counter CBD comes from hemp. MM CBD comes from the flowering plant variety. I'm going through a not so pleasant flare right now, so going to rest and watch mindless tv and stay calm. Below Deck seems to do the trick for me. Hope this helped, good luck, and REST!
 
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