Fibromyalgia: Fact or Fiction
Imagine waking up every morning stiff, all your muscles in your body soar, extremely tired and on the verge of exhaustion. The simple task of taking a shower and getting dressed makes you need to lay down for just a few minutes and rest. Your legs ache from a short walk up the stairs last night on your way to bed, as if you ran a marathon in your sleep, and your skin literally hurts to the touch of your clothes as they rub against you. Your blood pressure is up and you can feel the pain emanating from every part of your body. You can’t, for the life of you, find your keys as they hang from the keychain in your hand, because the pain and agitation you are feeling all over has clouded your mind. You are finding it difficult to even concentrate. Never mind the rest of the day ahead of you, that has not even started yet. Now imagine this every day, all day. It almost seems impossible to fathom something of this nature on a daily basis, but that is exactly what most people with fibromyalgia describe as a daily feeling. Some are much worse than that. Fibromyalgia is real, it is pain, and it does exist. Although fibromyalgia awareness has progressed thru advertising there is much more that can, and needs to be done to bring this to the forefront of the medical field and other organizations as a real diagnosis. More research and Government funding is direly needed and demands significant action from our National health agencies and United States Government in the form of grants, research, trials and various drug interaction and testing.
Fibromyalgia is not a new disease that has just surfaced, it has been around for a long time, it just didn’t have a name and was not recognized for what it truly was. It was...
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... gastrointestinal tract, causing stomach cramps that are consistent. Sleep disturbances or lack of good sleep, usually caused by some form of sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome (RLS) that does not allow the body to completely relax and fall into an uninterrupted deep sleep. Temperature sensitivity, when it’s warm, it feels too hot for them or vise versa for cold or cooler weather. It affects Sensitivity to loud noises or bright lights, limiting their ability to be in a noisy environment like a restaurant or even drive a vehicle at night. Cognitive issues with thinking and memory, such as concentration or disorganized thinking. It also causes the inability to stay focused and cognitive recognition, such as seeing a pen on the counter but not being able to say the word pen. This is very common with fibromyalgia and is often called “fibro fog” (Huffington Post).
CF is a chronic condition therefore the patients are either seeking medical attention or receiving (sometime involuntarily) a great deal of medical scrutiny and intervention during their lifetime.
A. Chronic pain signifies a developing public health issue of huge magnitudes, mainly in view of aging populations in developed countries (Russo).
Lucy’s biological, psychological and social factors must all be individually addressed in order to manage her condition effectively and personally. By getting involved in a pain management programme with support and guidance from her primary physician and other multi-disciplinary team members, Lucy can be signposted towards other strategies that may complement the ones she is already using to manage her chronic pain. This proactive management would enable Lucy to learn to manage her own long term condition but with support, guidance and direction from her team of health care professionals, allowing her to take an active role in her pain management.
Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a musculoskeletal illness (which causes chronic pain) and a chronic fatigue disorder. It can also change sleep patterns and cause the following: digestive disorders, chronic headaches, painful menstrual periods, temperature sensitivity, morning stiffness, numbness or tingling of extremities, and even cognitive memory problems. The name fibromyalgia comes from "fibro" in Latin meaning tissue, "my" in Greek meaning muscle, and "algia" (also Greek) meaning pain.(source 5)
" Chronic Pain (CP) statistics astounding according to The Institute of medicine approximately 100 million adults suffer from chronic pain which is more than heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined."(IOM Relieving Pain in America 2011, p. 1)
chronic pain could be handled at the bedside with no need to await a doctor's
When I think about the moments leading up to my diagnosis I remember feeling weak, confused, shaky and sleepy. I did not notice that I had began sleeping throughout the day. My body was craving soft drinks like soda and juice but not food. Days would go by and I eventually fell into a deep slumber that I found myself only waking up from to use the bathroom. I knew something was wrong and that if I did not get to a hospital it would get worse. Nothing could have prepared me for the life changing diagnosis I would receive.
In contrast to later views by Jewson beginning to understand that there is an underlying cause of symptoms (the disease itself) not that the symptoms are the disease. “Medical investigators concentrated upon the accurate diagnosis and classification of cases rather than upon the prognosis and therapy of symptom complexes.” pg 229 jewson
So what is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or CFS? I would like to be able to explain exactly what CFS is, but true to the nature of what is known about this illness, there is no precise way to describe CFS. Rather, the disease is identified through a number of symptoms (both physical and psychological), including unexplained and persistent fatigue of new or definite onset, concurrent with short-term memory loss, sore throat, tender axillary lymph nodes, muscle pain and unrefreshing sleep, among a number of others, for a duration of at least six months. As is probably evident, the above symptoms, in addition to being signs of CFS, are also the same (or very similar) symptoms experienced in such diseases as Lymes disease and "the flu." There are symptoms that involve the Gastrointestinal Tract (GI), immunological-related symptoms, symptoms of psychiatric disease like depression, sexual malfunction, endocrine dysfunction-basically every system in the body. This is part of the reason why CFS is hard to detect, and is usually chosen as a diagnosis only at the exclusion of all other possible ailments. The other difficulty that lies with diagnosing CFS is that there is no way of measuring the level of a person's fatigue-there is no way for a physician to tell whether a patient complaining of fatigue is experiencing the type of fatigue associated with CFS or he/she is just extremely tired and overworked.
I also surveyed to determine if there is a public desire for an Integrative Medicine practice model. I surveyed 35 people of all ages and genders, of which 21 admitted to experiencing negative side effects from taking various medications. Additionally, 19 were taking prescription medications for a chronic condition, of which 18 stated the symptoms returned after discontinuing their medicine, thus concluding the medicine simply masked the symptoms. Out of 35 people surveyed, only one had previously heard the term Integrative Medicine. However, after learning what Integrative Medicine is, all 35 stated they would prefer the Integrative Medicine approach over the Conventional Medicine approach to healthcare. My survey confirms a public desire and need for Integrative Medicine, and demonstrates the urgency to educate the public on the meaning and benefits of an Integrative Medicine practice model. With the public’s growing concern of being over-medicated by expensive, and sometimes violent Conventional medicine, the movement towards an Integrative Medicine practice model is quickly approaching. This movement will have an impact on my future job as a physical therapist, and physical therapists already in
Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients; however, Fitzgibbon and Loeser (2010, p.190) stress that pain may often be undertreated, even in the UK. Foley and Abernathy (2008, p.2759) identify numerous barriers to effective pain management, among which are professional barriers such as inadequate knowledge of pain mechanisms, assessment and management strategies.
Considering the Beverly’s complaints, she has been undergoing through a season of stressful moments. She kept wondering why she couldn’t do the things she used to before. The doubt presented by her family members and her husband made her discouraged. This kept her depressed. She also engaged in hard activities that triggered other physical challenges that harbor the existence of Fibromyalgia and depression at the same time. Her daily activities forces her to take bed rest in order to fight the fatigue developed from the previous day’s hard labor. These are the major contributing factors to the condition affecting the
In February of 2016, I released my book Life Beyond Chronic Pain: The Step-By-Step Guide to Healing Chronic Illness Naturally. It’s done well on Amazon Kindle so far, and it has gotten great reviews. I’m very proud of its success!
Autonomic Neuropathy affects the internal organs primarily. It can affect the cardiovascular system by hampering its ability to regulate pulse, blood pressure, and body temperature. It can affect the digestive system with gastroparesis, dysphagia, and uncontrollable weight loss and malnutrition. Frequent urinary tract infections are common, as well. Sexual responses, other than drive and desire, are also affected by this type.
After meeting with our patient twice, I believe we have set into place a relationship where the patient is very open to us about her health. This is helpful for my partner and I as an open and honest patient is beneficial as we assist them in their health. Goals for next semester include reducing our patient’s blood sugar as well as reducing our patient’s fibromyalgia pain. Our patient has expressed to us that her glucose is high but she is ok with the high number as long as she is feeling relatively healthy. We hope to give practical ways to reduce blood sugar throughout next semester so hopefully we can reduce that number by semester’s end. Our patient is going to see her physician soon, so we hope to get an update on the patient’s fibromyalgia