How many people with Fibro have been in a car crash or simlar tramatic experiance

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links56

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Oct 29, 2013
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DX FIBRO
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01/2013
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IL
I haven't been on in awhile but I was wondering how many with fibro have been in a car accident Prior to being diagnosed with Fibro? Just something I was "investigating" on my own. Thanks.
 
Hello all! I just registered and signed on this very minute. I developed FM after a car accident in 1990. Not uncommonly, it took me 5 years to get a diagnosis. I was fortunate to have seen a Physiatrist - (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians, also known as physiatrists, treat a wide variety of medical conditions affecting the brain, spinal cord, nerves, bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons.) The first treatment she recommended was stretching that makes a world of difference. That brings me to what I was wondering about in general. I don't see many threads that deal with what ppl are doing to successfully improve and maintain their functioning. That's why I used the username PeerMentor. I've had FM for over 20 years. I've learned many self help methods that are empowering and keep me high functioning. It is extremely empowering to know that you can help yourself!
 
Hi links56,

Yes I was in a car accident about 10 years prior to being diagnosed with fibro. I developed, or should I say I was diagnosed with other things such as sciatica and chronic back pain long before my fibro diagnosis. Good luck!
 
i had a fall from steps onto concrete..broke my foot ..my whole foot carried on having unexplained pain and and off for months after the bone had healed ..the pain than spread to my whole left side then the rest of my body over the next year. I was diagnosed with all sorts from frozen shoulder to chondroma patella and plantar fasciitis ..then finally fibro. So weird. I had also been under a lot of stress for the previous few years.
 
I also had a fall from a chair onto a concrete walkway....Chipped my tailbone, whiplash neck to thoracic spine about three years prior to my diagnosis. I didn't slow down or take the time to heal. My life was filled with family, and work stress. I continued to work 7 days a week for 10 to 12 hours a day. Often working on sick days and vacation from home. The more I accomplished the higher the expectations became. All this for a perfectionist who could never say "no". One day about two years after my fall I just became completely fatigued with morning swelling, stiffness and pain. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, Plantar fascitis, cervical bulging disks, osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis. I also have had GURD's for many years, peptic ulcers, a hiatal hernia, history of migraines, and high cholesterol. For me it's always a guessing game of what my pain is actually stemming from. I have tried Cervical RF neurotomy.... without success, Cortisone injections....without success. I do find that lidocaine and ketamine infusions do give me a bit of relief for about 3 weeks in addition to Cymbalta.
 
I didn't have a car accident, but a bike accident (in a country where there are twice as many bikes than cars on the road!) when I was 19. I was riding quite fast, couldn't stop for this other biker who was going the wrong way at a very fast speed and I was thrown out my bike, hit my head quite hard on the concrete ground. Of course ended up with a concussion, large bruises on the left side of my face/head and a broken finger.

This accident definitely played a part in my never ending neck problems - which make my fibro an even bigger challenge. I had an ccident during PE class at school when I was 15, I hurt my neck real bad. The impact of the bike accident definitely made it all worse.
 
Hi all,

Yes I had a car accident prior to being diagnosed with Fibro.It seems like a lot of us have had neck and back injuries along with Fibro.The chronic pain changes into Fibromyalgia somehow.



Sagey
 
I was in a severe crash when i was 16. That is when my chronic pain started
 
I also was in a bad accident before I was diagnosed with fibro, I was traveling down a 2 lane highway just as it turned dark and I had a gooseneck trailer with a tractor and a car engine on it. I had just turned and I was in the process of shifting gears and accelerating (probably 30 mph) when out of no-where i saw a flash of headlights come flying up behind me and before i knew it i was violently hit from the rear, I was hit so hard it broke the trailer off of my truck and smashed it into the bed, the bed hit the cab and forced the cooling fan into the radiator and it broke my steering shaft pushing me into oncoming traffic. I had 2 passengers with me and i yelled at them to get OUT of the truck NOW! I was worried about how dark it was getting and there were no lights on this road. I was approached by the kid who hit me and he was already on the phone, I called 911 and reported the accident. The kid handed me the phone it was clear that he was in shock( i had been a volunteer fire fighter and first responder for several years) a man answered and said "what happened?!?" I said "this kid slammed into the back of my trailer! but he seems alright" He said" wait a minute! he hit you?" I said "yes!" he said "give the phone back to my son!" I handed the phone back to him. The ambulance and fire dept showed up and sheriffs dept. I was in the ambulance and the first thing one of the EMT's said to me was" I will be happy to testify for you in court because this isn't normal" I said "what do you mean?!?" she said " the kid who hit you is the a sheriffs son and they aren't following protocol." almost immediately after a sheriffs deputy started drilling me with rude insinuations and questions. He kept saying I didn't have any tail lights on my trailer which wasn't true. He said they could tell from the wreckage if they were lit or not. I told him they were and they could look all they wanted. After a long time of getting bashed by questions I finally said call the guy who loaded the tractor not 20 minutes before the wreck he will tell you the lights were on. They called him and he confirmed the lights were on, around this time after the sheriffs dept has already took a statement from me and tampered with my trailer light connector they decided to call in the state police because a conflict of interest. A while later a state trooper shows up and first thing he does is hug a couple guys from the sheriffs dept and they talk like best friends. by this time Ive been standing at the wreck and I noticed my passengers were gone and I was alone. I asked where are my passengers they said we took them to a town 30-45 min away and dropped them at a hotel. I said they have no money how are they going to get a hotel? they said it was none of their concern. They continued to drill me with questions until well after midnight and then they put me in the back of the police car and drove me almost an hour in the opposite direction and forced me to take a blood test. After the blood test they took me into a room at the hospital and proceeded to question me harshly while recording the conversation. after that(after 3am) they took me out to the parking lot and the state trooper said" Ill call you tomorrow and let you know how many tickets you are getting" and I said" how many tickets I'm getting?!?!?!, I was rear ended!" He got into his car and left. My truck, trailer and tractor had all been impounded with all my clothes and belongings included. The sheriffs deputy proceeded to get into his car and I said" are you just going to leave me here? I don't even know where I am!" He said "I've got stuff to do, there might be one more officer in there that might take you somewhere." Then he left, I went in and found the last officer he was a younger guy and he was pretty nice, he drove me almost 2 hours back to the town my passengers were in, luckily the hotel was nice enough to let them stay inside until i got there to pay. It took until 6pm the next night to get a rental car to get home. And 5-6 years later I'm still trying to get some reimbursement for the wreck, it took over a year for me to find out the kids name and the insurance he had then another year to get a police report. I never heard from that state cop ever again, his insurance company never came and looked at my truck, I got 3 tickets and had to pay almost 2 grand to get my stuff back missed countless days of work and lost a vehicle and trailer, and after that is when I started having pain and fatigue, etc.
 
Hi There!
Wow links that whole situation sounds INSANE! no wonder you developed fibromyalgia. That's a total survival story .
I have had a few of those . You survived but with these consequences of pain and fatigue.
It really Stinks that you have to still be dealing with the bs of the accident.
That story is like everyone's worst nightmare. It goes to show you are super strong to be able to endure. I probably would have refused the testing and demanded a lawyer, but you aren't thinking strait when your in survival mode.
I have had experiences of flight or flight and I do truely believe your body just can't handle the stress even though your going through it . That's why now if stuff comes up that isn't "normal" events Your no longer able to cope as well .
The fact that you made it Thur alive is a blessing and your able to reflect back and say " yup that's how I got this ".
Now you just have to take Care and do only what you can .
Car accidents are the worst . They change your life and make you stronger! So keep your chin up and hopefully you can focus on taking care of yourself.
Try to put that behind you as best you can . You lost a lot that "stinks" but I bet now if anything like that ever happened again you would react a lot differently. It's toughened you up ! Take care .
 
I think the severe and long term stress hormones from an incident like this where you are so traumatised and unjustly treated..plus the actual car accident are enough to push you into fibro...its a typical story of a fibro sufferer and im so sorry as this sounds a horrible experience Links56.

I think like maria22 so many of us have been subjected to long term stress/anxiety and maybe also an unjuts situation where we've been kind if fighting for survival...i know those are the exact emotions i have been through just for different reasons and one incident after another for a period of years...like Links story..i think you were under such a high anxiety and stuck in an unresolved situation for a long time..trying to get justice and fight your own corner against a stronger force ....the mind burns out and gets so overloaded..then the body goes into pain and fatigue ... i agree after that we dont respond to stress in a normal way.

Anything out of our comfort zone feels like too much pressure....and increases our pain through the roof for me personally.

For me my experiences didnt toughen me up they made me long term feel kind of vulnerable..on top of fibro making me feel vulnerable as i have always had it at the severe end and had to stop working etc.
Thanks for sharing Links56...take care
 
Omg links56 from your story that's just not right!! I'm getting angry just reading your story I have to stop and started reading again a few hours later. That's crazy, your multiple stresses must have shooting you up non stop!!. I do believe that intense multiple stress can cause fibromyalgia to appear . I didn't get in any car accident ,but I did took the ambulance ride to ER twice in one day and the situation was horrible I was about to die from multiple organs being crushed down by Ascitic fluid that constantly poring out from my ovaries I couldn't breath , my lungs was collapsing my kidney stop working my liver was shutting down . The biggest unfortunates circumstances was that just before I got strolled away by the ambulance I was still grieving from my mom death, and dealing with a shock from the sudden divorce. ( they did say that bad things always comes in 3) . So naturally I came back from hospital with ptsd and panic disorder , I thought that was all I had which included with multiple sleep disorder, till not long after things got worsen so I found out that I also have MDD and fibromyalgia which also started at the same time as my ptsd. Everytime I get scare my belly blow up just like how I was in the hospital then with almost exact same feeling both physically and mentally . Sometime it felt just like fibro trying to copy the exact same horrible situation physically and repeating it over and over like a broken record. While my ptsd is putting on the special effects ,MDD is playing the emotional violin, then panic attack bring down the curtains, and the the cycle repeat over again.
 
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