is it normal for fibro sufferers to have lots of symptoms?

[isitme]

or do you notice only a few? i get dizzy and nauseous when walking or trying to exercise, swallowing difficulties, muscle and joint pain, restless arm and leg, headaches, brain fog, sleep issues, sensitive to noise, touch, temperature. and horrible feelings of dread. started duloxetine, hoping it helps
please tell me i'll be ok :-(

 

[bluesky13]

Hi isitme,

I experience most the symptoms you have listed in your post. I work full time and drive 100 miles round trip daily. I have to get up early and am usually pretty sleepy on my drive in. By the end of the work week, I am exhausted and can sleep for 12 - 16 hours from Friday night thru Saturday. This blows my husband away...lol. I don't have the feelings of dread, but I do know it when I skip my dose of Gabapentin....legs twitching and cramping all night long. You will have good days and nights and less pain on some days. I have gotten so used to the discomfort, I don't even react to it anymore.

 

[Lou38]

I have just about every symptom going... fatigue, brain fog, RLS & cramps, IBS, migraines, foot pain, teeth clenching/grinding, possible sleep apnoea, difficulty swallowing, trouble regulating temperature, noise sensitivity, TMJ, chronic pain, trochanteric bursitis, tennis elbow and neuropathic pain. I think that's it but I've probably missed loads. I don't have every symptom at once but I do experience quite a few at the same time.

 

[trenee]

Yes i have all Of the above Symptoms.in fact right now im having troubles with the keyboard!lol ok!sometimes i have to just sit down where ever i am so i don't fall,and i have fallen down alot.after pt one day my muscles just gave out and i fell down the stairs carrying my bags of clothes to the car at my parents.i usually just gather myself and say im Ok.thaat time i really got frustrated but i got up and got my stuff loaded up and thenn cried on my way home.what ffrustrates me the most is thhe lack of empathy and people that claim its not real.the anxiety and depression is very real as well.i had carple tunnel and corpal tunnel surgery and it has helped a lot.but im still shakey and achy. Lovely chatting with you great warriors,but I need to give my fingers a break.goodnight and i hope you all sleep well tonight.

 

[sedonaluv]

I have most of those symptoms as well. For me its muscles aches in my back arms and legs. Deep throbbing pain almost like its in the bone throughout my arms, legs and back. I lack muscle control in my hands and legs. Sometimes my knees are so weak and shaky that my knees will buckle. causing me to fall on occasion. Leg spasms used to drop me to the ground in agony until it passed. I had both Carpal tunnel and elbow done and that helped a great deal but not the total remedy. I have neuropathy in my feet and a little in my hands and elbows. Depression took me nearly to the brink until I started getting my symptoms somewhat under control.

How I now Manage MY Symptoms:

This year after trying every type of therapy and treatment I came across I have finally, FINALLY feel like I can Manage my symptoms via MMJ, Gabapentin, sertraline, amitriptaline, long hot showers, and an massage chair. ALL 6 are equally vital for me. (as a side note, the MMJ cut my pharmaceuticals down from 12-14 pills a day to 5-6 pills per day).
The addition of the Massage Chair just started this past March and has given me the courage to get out more and do chores that I need to do but avoided because of my condition. Knowing I can get immediate relief any time just down the hall in my home. I purchased my Chair with a 3 year full parts and labor warranty for $2400. Which is a big savings from a massage therapist every week not to mention I can use get very similar results 24/7. I used it daily if not several times a day at first but now I only need it roughly 4 or 5 times a week depending on how I feel. I have even gotten up in the middle of the night and hit the chair for 15 minutes on one of the 3 pre-programmed functions. There are tons of these types of massage chairs on the market, I recommend trying them in person though. I also liked the Panasonic brand because it would treat the upper thighs. I suspect there are better ones out there on the market ranging from $500 - $15,000 but I could only find 2 in my area and am not disappointed at all. Life Changing!! I am genuinely smiling again for the first time in a Long Long Time. Peace, Love, and Serenity To Ya'll!

 

[EmmaLVee]

Thankful I found this topic because I slowly begin to think I'm going crazy...it's always something - whether it's nausea, trouble swallowing/feeling of something stuck in my throat, a sore throat, pain in back, arms, legs, weakness, lightheadedness, stuffy nose, and the general feeling of having a cold/flu. I can't even talk about how sensitive I am to noises and temperature. I don't even want anyone to touch me anymore.

Is the feeling of having the cold/flu and a sore throat normal for anyone else?

 

[1sweed]

You will find many symptoms are related to your fibro. But always remember you can get other illness as well. Fibro can cause many of the above mentioned symptoms like leg cramps, weakness, dizzy spells, headaches, stressful anxiety and the list is endless. But you can still get sinus problems, tooth aches, sore throats, brain fog and other symptoms that may or may not be related to fibro.

Any symptom that goes on for too long go to your doctor and get it checked out. Mouth related see your dentist. Save yourself worry and depression and needless pain when ever your symptoms are different or drag on to long as it might be something minor or serious.

I have dealt with many of the above symptoms for long periods of time. Then out of the blue they stop and I feel great again until something new comes along. So don't give up hope that things won't turn around for you as well. As for pain issues I take medication and take care to rest often and lastly have just learned to disassociate from the pain. I put it away in my mind and try hard not to think about it until I get my work done.

 

[sunkacola]

1sweed, thanks for that post. It is all too easy for those of us with a fibro diagnosis to assume every darn thing we experience is fibro, because so many of them are.
And we all have such different symptoms and severity that pretty much anything goes when it comes to fibro.

This could be dangerous, if a person ignored something thinking it was just more fibro stuff, and in fact is was something serious that needed attention separate from the fibro. Of course, how to tell the difference is not necessarily easy either.

I have a wide variety of symptoms as well, but all of them fall well within the range of "typical" for fibro sufferers. Perhaps except the intense pain I feel in the cartilage of one ear. Happens more days than not, lasts several minutes, then stops. No doctor has ever been able to tell me why or what to do about it, and they all say they have never heard of it before. (NOT helpful! )

One thing that I have noticed that came with the fibro for me is that when I hurt myself in any way it feels so profoundly much worse than it ever did previously in my life. I always had a high pain threshold and now it's ridiculously low and I am ashamed of that.

And, whenever I get hurt I immediately become nauseous. The harder the hurt, the worse the nausea. Bad enough, and I won't be able to eat the rest of the day.

What I do, though, whenever I hurt something and am in intense pain from it.....I give myself about one minute to be with that pain and then I tell myself it is time to think about something else. And I go about my day as if the pain were not there, and ignore it. It doesn't make it go away but at least that way the pain doesn't cripple me.

 

[isitme]

Does anyone make themselves sick from sleeping so much? Not sleeping is terrible for us, I imagine oversleeping is just as bad for other reasons. I am in this terrible phase of exhaustion whereby I sleep 7-9 hours, am up for 4-5 hours, and then sleep another 4 or 5 hours. Feel absolutely sick. It's like the pain goes away for a while, but then I have extreme weakness and exhaustion. Then I feel more energetic and alert, but my spine and neck burn and my joints ache. One symptom goes another comes. Hard to imagine at one time I could sit in class for 8 hours a day without a problem, or sit at the computer for several hours without an issue. Just being awake and having my eyes open is starting to bother me. Are CFS and fibro even distinguishable

 

[Mspin6]

Yes. In the beginning I was miserable. If i lay around too much, pain. If i move too much, pain! I've learned that chemicals in air or foods aggregate pain. We don't use chemical cleaners, perfumes or cologne in house anymore. Plenty of substitutes nowadays. If you take a lot of opiate pain meds even those can over time make your body more pain sensitive. I spent 2 years tapering down from hydrocodone to tramadol which has helped. I also cut meat out of diet which has helped reduce burning/stinging pain all over. If i cheat and eat a fast food burger all the stinging comes back for the next 24-36 hours. So now I only treat myself to a good filet once in awhile that seems fine. I'm male and testosterone levels were low so building them up is helping me. A combination of all life changes has helped me get through the day better. Still have to be carefull not to aggregate pain. Its a learning process. Good luck!

 

[Feona68]

To be succinct, yes it is very normal. I have about 8000 things wrong with me. I think that's kind of the nature of the beast.

 

[moe1959]

your not alone. when will there be a cure?

 

[Hsmommy]

I get the ear thing. Just my left one. Thing is, I don't know it's sore until itches. When I absent mindedly scratch it goes from minor itch to 7 on the pain scale. Doesn't usually last long, thankfully.