6 Fundamentals Of Coping With Fibromyalgia

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

6 Fundamentals Of Coping With Fibromyalgia

1. Accept the fact that you have it.

2. Accept the fact that, at the present time, fibromyalgia is incurable.

3. Manage the various symptoms as they come upon you.

4. Don’t be afraid to let go of the you, you used to be before fibromyalgia.

5. Look for a new you that you can be in spite of fibromyalgia.

6. Look for the spiritual strength you need to give you the energy to cope with Fibro.

six_fundamentalsIf you can accept the fact that you have fibromyalgia and that at the present time fibromyalgia is incurable you will save yourself a lot of money and a lot of stress. There are people out there that want to make money on peoples misfortune. If you knew, for an absolute fact, that doing a certain thing would, for sure, cure you of the chronic pain, fog and fatigue called fibromyalgia, would you be willing to pay almost any sum of money? I know I would. We can make easy marks for shysters.

Coming to terms with the fact that there are things you can no longer do because of fibromyalgia and that there is no known cure for fibromyalgia, then you can take that stress, and pressure off of you and focus it on dealing with the present, which is you with fibromyalgia.

Most people find out that they have fibromyalgia from chronic throbbing pain and then with differing speeds, other symptoms start to afflict you. Don’t just assume that it is par for the course. Treat each and every symptom that comes your way appropriately with the doctor. The additional symptoms, if left untreated, can become as bad as or worse than the chronic pain.

You’ll find that, like most people with fibromyalgia, you can’t do what you used to do. You should accept that, and take the energy you would spend fighting the fibro disease and apply that energy to becoming something that you can do with the give and take of fibromyalgia.

Often, when you are spending so much energy dealing with the pain of fibromyalgia and the many other symptoms associated with it, you can slide away from the spiritual energy you need most. Keep aware of that possibility and try to keep or get that spiritual energy to help fighting the hated monster, fibromyalgia.

Perhaps there are more fundamentals in fighting fibromyalgia. What have you found to be a fundamental in your fight with this terrible disease?

Troy Wagstaff   ©

This is not medical advice, just my opinion.

Filed under: Fibromyalgia - Fbro Awareness | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: Exercising

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: Exercising

I know that talking about fibromyalgia and exercising in the same sentence is a turn off for many fibromites but before you tune out this topic, please remember, I have had fibromyalgia for thirty-one years. I have experience about this subject and that experience may surprise you.

Over the thirty-one years I have had fibromyalgia I have been on a roller coaster of success and failure with trying to establish an exercise program. I will save the details for another post. In short, though, I’ve only found three forms of exercise that I have been able to do for any length of time, walking, swimming and weight lifting. Again, the details are worthy of a separate post. I just want to say I have found appropriate exercise to be beneficial to partially manage fibromyalgia and here is my story that drives that point home.

a_day_in_the_life_of_fibromylagia_exerciseI have had several sicknesses unrelated to fibromyalgia over the past month or so, but in the middle of all that, I have managed to spend some time, less time than normal, on the treadmill. The past eight or nine days I have had a middle ear infection or a large fluid buildup behind my eardrums. It makes me dizzy and seriously distorts my hearing. One day I hear better than I have for thirty years and the next I can hardly hear anything. One day almost all noise bothers me and the next day I can watch TV. All the while my equilibrium is out of whack. This means that it’s very hard to exercise, for anyone and especially me where my primary exercise is walking on the treadmill. Even holding on to the bars, no way.

So for about that last eight or nine days I have not been able to exercise with one small exception; I managed to walk about seven or eight minutes on the sidewalk with my walking sticks and my daughter walking along side of me in case I fell. That small amount of time didn’t help much.

Yesterday I noticed my abs was sore, along with my thighs, buttocks, and most of my back was sore. It was the kind of sore I didn’t have while I regularly exercised. Those of us with fibromyalgia are expert at reading the different types of pain. This pain wasn’t the type that makes you think “I’m going to die” pain, but rather, it is the miserable and uncomfortable pain. Normally, it is a tolerable pain, but for us fibromites it is way too much pain.

For the last two years of exercising, I have felt physically good about exercising but never wanted to find out if it was helping my pain levels, to do so would mean I deliberately stop exercising for a while. Exercise is good for you no matter what, so I just kept going. Now that I have been benched for enough time to notice, I can see that to some extent, my pain has been relieved by exercising.

But here is the main point. In spite of the increase in pain caused from not exercising, I have not felt the need to increase my pain MEDs. Yet, as soon as my dizziness is over, I will resume my walking on a treadmill or on the sidewalk. It does make me feel better enough to want to keep exercising, but doesn’t affect my pain levels enough to influence my pain MEDs up or down.

Troy Wagstaff ©

This post is not medical advise or medical suggestions. It is just personal observations and opinions.

Filed under: Fibromyalgia - Fbro Awareness | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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