Hello from Ireland

[hannahisainmdom]

Hi everyone, I'm a new user. I just came across this forum and looked through a few threads. Everyone seemed so lovely and supportive and it was a relief to see some people report the exact same symptoms as me. So I decided to sign up

I'm 23, from Ireland and I've been living with flare-ups of pain all over my body for probably five or six years now. The pain can vary from deep aches to burning sensations and can be anywhere in my body from my jaw to the back of my knee to the tips of my fingers. The first time I experienced this I thought I was getting the flu. The pain disappeared after a few days and for a number of years I only really felt this pain every few months. Recently though I seem to be having flare-ups every month or so. The past 2-3 weeks in particular have been really bad.

My other symptoms (which I get at the same time as the pain) are acid reflux/nasty taste in mouth, especially at night (and some WEIRD noises coming out of my stomach!!), tiredness, difficulty concentrating (e.g. my sister will ask me something and I'll have to ask her to repeat herself), trouble sleeping, occasional dizziness and nauseau, and anxiety (tight chest, feeling like I'm not getting enough breath, etc).

I've had two sets of standard blood tests done and antibody tests over these years but all came back normal. My doctor both times kind of just said 'all your bloods are fine, so if things get worse just come back to me'. To be fair I used to go long periods without these symptoms so I did just leave it for a number of years. It seems to be getting worse, though, so I want to do more tests to eliminate other conditions. With the pandemic at the moment things are really busy in the healthcare system though, so I don't know when I'll be able to move on with more investigation. I just hate the thought of this being something more "serious" than fibro (not that fibromyalgia isn't a horrible condition for sufferers, I mean in terms of prognosis/degenerative diseases) and not really doing anything about it for years...

Anyway, in the meantime I'm glad to have found this forum and this community. Even if what I have doesn't turn out to be fibromyalgia (although my nurse mum thinks it is and I'm inclined to agree) it's nice to know I'm not the only one dealing with these symptoms, especially after the nasty few weeks I've had.

Sorry for this long introductory post, I hope everyone is staying safe during this pandemic and managing their pain as best as they can. Thanks for reading

 

[Vwade]

Hello,
I am so glad you posted this message as I can honestly say I get these symptoms, always wondered why I was getting funny noises from my stomach. Like you the past 2-3 weeks have been terrible and yesterday was a very bad day. I go to an osteopath every week and he does cold needling which is very helpful as I also have osteoarthritis of the neck which also causes a lot of pain and headaches. I also get dizziness/lightheadiness a lot especially before and after a bowel movement. At the moment I am trying night and day Hemp oil which I find is helping, but I don't know how long for! My doctor has tried me on various tablets, i.e. antidepressants for the pain and muscle relaxer tablets (which when I googled are valium), I am not so keen on taking these as I don't want to get addicted to so many tablets and they also make you feel as so you are on a another planet! I also use a "Tens Machine" which really helps the pain in the neck. Lets hope when Spring arrives we will start to feel better.

Stay safe and take care.