Odd places for pain.

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TWEEDLES

New member
Joined
Mar 8, 2023
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6
Reason
DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
04/2023
Country
CA
I'm new and trying to figure things out as a newly diagnosed person with FB. Does anyone recognize eye pain..just one eye and pain in the jaw joint. Sharp pain? How do you know what is Fibromyalgia and what is dry eye or TMJ? By the way have had other joint pain for years.
 
Hi Tweedles.

Joint pain, in and of itself is not an indicator of fibromyalgia... quite the opposite, really. Most "joint" pain is often from arthritis, most commonly osteoarthritis (the wear & tear type).
Fibro, on the other hand, seems to affect the muscles, tendons and ligaments around a joint, more than the actual joint itself.

As an example, for me, yeah, my knee joints hurt a little from arthritis, but the muscles, tendons and ligaments around the knee are very sensitive and painful, and that is the fibro... if my partner was to reach over and grab my knee in the car, even gently, i would literally about jump out of my skin in pain. It took me a while to make him understand that it hurts - A LOT - for him to do that.

And yes, TMJ is often a comorbidity, as are many other things.
This is why it is so important to be thoroughly checked out for other conditions - fibro very commonly mimics other things... things like Lupus, MS, Lyme Disease, and so many other things.

with they eye pain - have you been to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist? I would start there, make sure there isnt something else causing problems with your eyes.
As another example... my vision has changed a fair bit over the last few years... and I am dealing with dry eye as well... just recently had an eye exam (had been 5-6 years since my last one) and come to find out, I am in the early stages of developing cataracts, and that is the reason for the changes....

You dont want to just assume something is fibro, because it could actually be something else - either easily treated, or sometimes more sinister.
 
How do you know what is Fibromyalgia and what is dry eye or TMJ?
Hi there, and welcome! 👋. Completely agreeing with cookiebaker, I just want to add that I improve many symptoms by treating them singly instead of "blaming the fibro". I get them all checked, sometimes by various docs, but just because they don't find anything doesn't mean I can't do anything.

Whether dry eye is Sjögren's or not, it needs treating singly (youtube gentle gua sha exercises I prefer, because that goes "deeper" than drops etc.).

I have a few different kinds of jaw pain, but for the main one alone I have distinguished 8 different causes, and none of them are TMJ. By treating all of these causes singly, I've got them well under control.
But my main control doc is my dentist, cos there is still a jaw inflammation under a tooth, first invisible, which I seem to be getting under control with supps. Yet even here I can't say that this or any one of the causes is the main cause.
And blaming it on fibro wouldn't help, in actual fact I'd be incredibly worse off with all my symptoms.
I'm trying to think if I could say any of the 100+ treatments I do per day is "for fibro" - I doubt it. The only thing that "label" helps with is for some supps and most exercises saying is "roughly fibro" as opposed to my other conditions.
But actually all of my supps, esp. my main supps, are "pleiotropic", for many things at the same time. Like what is good for muscle relaxation is good for sleep, blood pressure, anxiety etc., what is good for energy/fatigue is also good for alertness/fog, inflammation, antioxidant, MCAS.
And I actually learnt that everything is interconnected and for any one symptom there can be many causes long before fibro in my twenties. Skin burning was/is caused by water & soap intolerance, back/spine muscle problems, praps stress, and even the nerves themselves. Nowadays good docs realize that, but it doesn't belong to their training or normal way of thinking....
 
Thank you to both replies. It helps me to know firstly how to think of the various challenges and deal with them individually.
 
Does anyone recognize eye pain
fibromyalgia can cause dry eye as will Hashimoto's and other autoimmune conditions. However actual pain in the eye can point to other serious conditions completely separated from Fibromyalgia. If it continues you should firstly consult your Optometrist and he will if required refer you to a specialist.
 
Thank you. I will be looking into it.
 
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