Gone But Not Forgotten

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Troy Wagstaff

Gone But Hopefully Not Forgotten

A Resurgent FibroChampion

blog_meme_gone_not_forgottenI have maintained a low profile for the last month and a half. I have been working on finishing my first novel. I first started writing my Blog, FibroChampionsBlog at CallahanWriter.com to promote the cause of fibro awareness. I then realized that, having fibromyalgia myself, for more than thirty years, one of the things we need besides a cure is validation and inspiration. I’ve been working on adding posts related to that way of thinking. I have a set of memes or graphics that I will be adding to my Blog shortly, which came from my rough draft of the novel I am working on. I think most fibro patients or fibro champions, as I like to call us, will appreciate them.
After writing off and on for a while, mostly for my Blog, I learned from my neuropsychologist that fibro fog affects the body much the same ways that brain damage or traumatic brain injuries affect the brain. Just because you may have brain damage or TMI doesn’t always mean the damage is permanent. Some or all of the memory portion can be reclaimed by physical therapy.
fibrochampionsblog_9Yes, physical therapy. I’m not talking about exercises that work the muscles and joints, but exercises to physically work your brain. I heard an ad on the TV or radio about seniors learning a foreign language to help them keep their memory sharp. I ask my doc about that and she said it is true. She went on to say that any language-art affects the brain the same way.
I asked about writing, would writing have the same effect as learning a foreign language? The answer was yes. She went on to say that any activity that works the brain actively, like reading, computer games that need strategy, writing, learning languages, puzzles, crosswords, sudoku etc., they all have the same effect. Unlike the muscles in our body that need time to rest and recover between workouts, the brain can and should be worked out every single day for best results.
I like reading and writing. In the past two years I have read about a hundred books. I have written a lot. Somehow, I got the idea to write a novel where the protagonist, the main character has fibromyalgia and has to deal with it through out the story. I wanted the story to have fibromyalgia as a conflict against the main character.
I have spent six months writing the book and completely thrown away one story line and finally found the characters I wanted and then threw out two plot lines until I finally settled on a plot that could go the distance.
You all know how fibro fog does more than affect the memory, I finally had what I wanted, I just needed to complete the rough draft. I had serious doubts I could finish it and so I finally put everything aside and forced myself to do nothing else but wallow in pain and work on completing the novel to the first draft level. I needed a story laid out from start to finish. I needed it as much for a sense of completion. Big projects can be difficult for us fibrochampions. Now that I have finally completed the rough draft, I have a sense of major accomplishment and I feel like I can take the story all the way to publication. That won’t be for a few months, but I feel like I can actually do it.
AND I can say that after about eighteen months of physical therapy for my brain I am remembering things a little better. I still have serious memory issues, but over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a small difference in my memory.
What I want to say to you all is that physical therapy for the brain works and most of us are disabled and have the time to work the brain every day via computer brain games, reading books, especially creatively written books. Writing is good. Languages are good. Eighteen months will pass where you try it or not. Two years, three years, five years, or ten years will pass by, whether you try or not. Everything that counts as physical therapy can be done in bed, on a couch or recliner. Good luck.

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A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Another Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia

For almost two months I have only posted a few times. I’ve been in the throes of a fibro flare. When I have been blessed with a few good days, I have been working on my first novel. It’s a mystery with the main character that among other things has to deal with a mysterious chronic pain problem. Later on he finds a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. In spite of his illness, he is the only one who can solve the mysterious disappearance of countless young people who have gone missing on Lake Shaft.

I’ve spent a few years working on my Blog and I don’t want it do let it die. So I am trying to institute a regular column called A Day In The Life Of

Fibromyalgia, to keep my posts more regular. It will be a type of journal of the details of various days of how I am fighting fibromyalgia or how it’s fighting me. I will still, as health permits, write articles about this vile disease, we so hatefully call fibromyalgia.

Lately I have been having some serious pain from the top of my ankles, both, up the outside of the leg about eight inches. It hurts when I walk. I’ve been trying to do yoga, which includes, among other things balancing poses. At first I thought that might be causing the pain, then I realized when I sit in my favorite recliner, I cross my feet. Then I felt the ligament pull from my ankles up to the side of my leg. I realized that was where my pain was coming from.

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Why is that important? For most people it is probably not very important. However, for those of us who have fibromyalgia we are extra sensitive to the slightest normal pain. Now that I have identified the pain, I can stop crossing my legs at my ankles, it will heal and then that little molehill will stop feeling like a mountain.

For us fibro champions, we have to take care of the slightest aches and pain to prevent the minor pain so it won’t feel like a major pain.

Troy, A fibro champion.

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36 Reasons Why The Butterfly Is A Great Symbol For Fibromyalgia

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

36 Reasons Why The Butterfly Is A Great Symbol For Fibromyalgia

For as long as I can remember, the butterfly has been the symbol of Fibromyalgia.

Some say the symbolism of the butterfly for fibromyalgia is because a touch as gentle and soft as the fluttering of a butterflies wing can cause severe pain to a fibro champion.

For parents with fibromyalgia, the gentle soft touch of a baby or a young child is likened to the soft flutter of a butterflies wing and that same loving touch from a baby or child can cause great pain to a parent thus afflicted. That sounds like a good reason to use the butterfly for a fibro symbol. However, there are many other reasons why the butterfly is a great symbol for fibromyalgia.

Butterfly Life Cycle – Four Stages Of Transformation:

(1) Laying of the egg. (2) The egg grows into a caterpillar. As the caterpillar grows it sheds it’s skin a minimum of four times to accommodate the new growth of its increasing size. (3) Then the caterpillar forms itself into a cocoon, a fuzzy sack of rapidly forming growth not visible from the outside. But a metamorphosis (transformation) is happening on the inside. (4) As the adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. A winged beautiful butterfly flies away, continuing the circle of life.

We will look at many of the different symbols of the butterfly from around the world and through many cultures. Doing this will show how many of those symbolisms can fit a fibro champion patient.

 

Review the various symbolic parts of the butterfly and you can easily see what makes the Butterfly such a great symbol for fibromyalgia.

Butterfly Symbolism

Accepting Change (Universal)

Aliveness and Brightness (Native American Totem)

Beauty (Christian)

Bliss (Japanese)

Change (Universal)

Circle Of Life (Universal)

Embrace Change ( (Native American Totem)

Finding Joy in life (Native American Totem)

Flying Away With Our Burdens (Christian)

Going through changes and transformations with grace and beauty (Native American)

Grace (Christian)

Granting of Wishes (Native American Indian)

Happiness (American).

Healing (Japanese Symbol)

Hope (Christian)

Immortality (Chinese)

Important Changes (Native American)

Letting go of something bad (Ancient Culture)

Lightness of Being, elevation from the heaviness of tension (Native American)

Migration (Universal)

New Life (Universal)

Personal Transformation (Native American)

Playfulness (Native American Totem)

Profound Change (Native American)

Rebirth (Ancient Culture)

Relaxation (Japanese Symbol)

Resurrection (Christian)

Shedding Of The Old Life (Universal)

Soft As Breath (Universal)

Spirits Of Deceased Loved Ones (Mexican)

Spiritual Growth (Christian)

Stress Reduction (Japanese Symbol)

Support during times of Transition (Native American Totem)

The Soul or Psyche (Ancient Greece)

Transformation (Universal)

Weightlessness (Universal)

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A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: Fibro Fog

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia Related To Fibro Fog And Humor

I have, for a number of years been a fan of Psych, the TV show. I heard about my daughter and her boyfriend decide to watch the whole series from the beginning to end on NetFlix. After a while I thought that sounded like a good idea. I spent a lot of years watching Psych and reruns so I was fairly sure I would see a lot of familiar shows.

a_day_in_the_life_fog_humorI started watching Psych a month ago and I was astounded at how many episodes I didn’t remember. I’m now on the eighth and last season of Psych and looking back at all those seasons, all I could clearly remember having previously viewed only about twelve. It was like I was seeing it all over for the first time.

Fibro fog is very common among those of us who suffer from Fibromyalgia. It’s frustrating to forget so many things so often. It can even be detrimental in many cases. I ask myself, “how I can be in so much pain and forget to take my pain MEDs?” That always get’s me.

But on the plus side, I can invest money to buy a DVD and know that over time, it will be like watching it for the first, over and over again. When possible, I like to infuse humor. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

If anyone here enjoys fibro fog raise your hand…no, wait a minute. You might forget to take your hand down.

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A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: Memories

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: Memories

I’ve had fibromyalgia for about thirty-two years, diagnosed for about twelve years. For all of you who have fibromyalgia for any length of time can relate to this, in concept. Probably not the exact situation, but the concept at least.

I was watching a rerun episode of M.A.S.H., it was the one where Klinger tries to get Winchester to invest in the hula hoop and Frisbee. I wonder when and where those two classics came into being. But the memory I had was like a series of video clips of me throwing a Frisbee. I threw the Frisbee in a grocery store parking lot late at night with the parking lot lights on so we could practice skipping the Frisbee on a hard surface. I threw the Frisbee a lot in parks all over. I could competently throw the Frisbee in three or four styles including under my leg.

a_day_in_the_life_of_fibro_frustrating_memories

The fun review of the mental video clips was followed by some despair as I realized, “there is one more thing I can’t do.” Luckily I no longer own any of my Frisbees so I am not tempted.

It’s both fun and sad to have fun memories or recollections from the past. It’s always fun to reflect on the fun of a former life before the new life of disabling fibromyalgia. But it is sad because in many cases, those fun memories will stay as memories and be things we can no longer do.

Troy Wagstaff

 

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A Day In The Life Of Fibro: Frustration

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: Frustration

It’s tough, oh so tough and miserable going all those years with chronic pain and assorted symptoms without a diagnosis. Then after all those years and the money you finally get diagnosed. At last, a light at the end of the tunnel, or so you were hoping.

After the diagnosis, then you think or rightfully hope for the correct medicine to manage your symptoms. That’s better than nothing, right? That’s not always the case. Maybe after a year or two or three you finally get a collection of medications and therapies that help manage your fibromyalgia. Less pain and less symptoms, but you know in the back of your mind, a flare up is always around the corner. Frustration!

Then after ten or fifteen years of watching a great deal of your old life, pre fibromyalgia, pass you by, you think you’re finally at peace with your new life of medication and flare ups and restrictions. That is until you watch a movie, TV show or a football game and the memories of jumping up from the ground and walking away from a tackle shaking off the temporary pain come back to haunt you. Frustration!

a_day_in_the_life_of_fibro_frustration

The memories of getting off the message table feeling energized and spry comes flooding back to you reminding you that even a great therapeutic message has lost its magic. Frustration!

The memories stirred by a movie or a favorite song from the past stir your emotions and bring up memories and going out to dinner with your newly wed bride and then dancing all night long, come home fall into bed for two hours sleep only to have your old AM/FM radio alarm wake you up for another day or work and school. You wonder how that was ever possible and how impossible that is now with twenty or thirty years of fibromyalgia, eating away at your energy and physical abilities. Frustration!

So what does the ‘F’ in fibromyalgia stand for? Frustration!

Troy Wagstaff ©

 

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Fibromyalgia Word Search Puzzle

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Fibromyalgia Word Search Puzzle

fibro_word_search!

1. CHRONIC PAIN, 2. FIBROMYALGIA, 3. HEADACHES, 4. SENSITIVITY, 5. IBS, 6. VISION PROBLEMS, 7. ZANAFLEX, 8. TENDER POINTS, 9. MUSCLE SPASMS, 11. FIBRO FOG, 12 CONFUSION, 13. LORTAB, 14. DEPRESSION, 15. ANXIETY, 16. LYRICA, 17. FATIGUE, 18. C 19. INSOMNIA, 20. DOCTOR , 21. HIP PAIN, 22. CLUMSINESS, 23. STIFFNESS, 24. JOINT, 25. CRAMP.

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A Day In The Life Of Fibromylagia: A New Daily Column

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia: A New Daily Column

Since this blog became primarily a fibro blog I have had lots of support and a lot of likes and comments to my posts on fibromyalgia. The trouble with having fibro, among other things, is that when you have fibromyalgia you can have a period of feeling relatively good followed by a period of feeling crappier than usual. Your efforts reflect these ebbs and flows. I still plan on doing the articles that I have done in the past, but I am going to add a daily post on my adventures of the day with fibromyalgia. I’ve had fibro for thirty-one years and it has been officially diagnosed for almost twelve years.

a_day_in_the_life_of_fibro1_everyday_stuff

Because of that, I am wise enough to know that my daily efforts won’t be seven days a week, week in and week out. But that will be my goal. I will talk about how my day went, how my pain is and other symptoms. It will give you a good glimpse into the life of a fibro champion who is male.

This post will cover one small thing. I went with my Mother-in-law to a yoga for senior’s class and it’s Saturday and I am still paying for it. I have been tremendously sore and my message tool broke a week ago. I’ve managed to get by, barely with the use of heating pads, soaks in hot water in my tub. I’m just now feeling good enough to blog. My next blog will be about Yoga, as I have more plans about it. Stay Tuned.

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Current Stats For Fibromyalgia

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Current Stats For Fibromyalgia

The CDC says that 2% of Americans have fibromyalgia. Other Internet fibro website’s suggest that anywhere from 2% to 4% of Americans have fibromyalgia. Most fibro sites agree that eight out of ten American diagnosed with fibromyalgia of female. Therefore, two out of ten are men, or 80% of all diagnosed fibro patients, 20% are men.

When I looked up how many Americans had Fibromyalgia and specifically how many men had fibro. All I found was out of date information.

One example of out of date information on fibromyalgia was on the CDC website. It said “The prevalence of fibromyalgia is about 2%, affecting an estimated 5.0 million adults in 2005.”

statistics_fibro

America’s 2014 population is 319,000,000. 319 million.

Here is an update table of current fibro statistics as of 2014.

At Two Percent

2% = 6,380,000 Americans diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

5,104,000 are women.

1,276,000 are men.

At Three Percent

3% = 9,570,000 Americans diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

7,658,000 are women.

1,914,000 are men.

At Four Percent

4% = 13,760,000 Americans diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

11,008,000 are women.

2,752,000 are men.

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CURING FIBROMYALGIA

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

CURING FIBROMYALGIA

When talking about coming up with a cure for fibromyalgia I think it is important to gain some perspective on the subject. First of all, what does a cure for fibromyalgia mean?

Let’s focus on what a “cure” means?

From Dictionary.com there are four definitions for the word “cure” that apply to our topic of conversation.

CURE:

1. A means of healing or restoring to health; remedy.

2. A method or course of remedial treatment, as for disease.

3. Successful remedial treatment; restoration to health.

4. A means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental.

a_medical_cure_for_fibro

The first three definitions are, I think, what everyone thinks about when they say we need a cure for fibromyalgia. But even the fourth definition needs to be considered.

Before we go on with talking about a cure for fibromyalgia I want to address another hot topic in the world of medicine and health. That is a cure for cancer.

People are going crazy blaming the pharmaceutical researchers for not coming up with a cure for cancer. Keep in mind that cancer is a broad term. Cancer can range from cancer cells in the lymph nodes, blood, bone and soft tissue. Not all cancerous tumors are the same. There likely will never be one cure for all cancers. But they have come along way in the survival rate of those who have come down with cancer. They have tumor specific treatments. Early detection increases your odds of survival. Based on what the definition is for “cure”, we do have some cures for cancer. We have a long way to go to cure all cancers, but we are well on our way.

I mention the cure for cancer for two reasons: One is that looking at cancer cures helps to put the word “cure” into perspective. Second is that the medical science community has created treatments that can cure some cancers. That gives me hope that there will be a cure for fibromyalgia and it gives me hope that we have the brains and technology to effect a cure for fibromyalgia in the future.

Now consider the fourth definition for the word “cure.” “A means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental.”

The term “relieving,” is worth a mention. This applies to many diseases, like cancer, MS, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s et al.

Having relief for some illness, is in some respects a cure. Not the cure we want, but it is a form of cure. I say all this to put perspective on the concept of what curing an illness means.

CURE FOR FIBROMYALGIA

Most statistics say that fibromyalgia affects anywhere from 6,380,000 to 13,760,000 Americans. Ten to twenty percent of those are men.

As we wish, wait and pray for a cure to fibromyalgia we need to keep some things in perspective. It is a relatively new disease. Since it doesn’t kill people there may not as much interest in searching for a cure. In the eight or nine years that I have been diagnosed the medical community has come along way just in accepting it as a legitimate illness. But from the perspective of its newness, the medical world is getting better at dealing with the illness than they were eight years ago.

When you, a fibro patient, think of a cure for fibromyalgia, what do think it will be or should be? A one time injection of medicine? Take a pill and then in two days you’re all better? That’s what I am hoping for. But we need to keep an open mind about both how soon a cure may come and in what form it may come in. At first it might be a good drug that manages all the symptoms of fibromyalgia, and then decades later there might be a magic pill that does away with fibro altogether.

Looking at the example of the cancer cures it is possible that we might have to take a curative medicine for each separate symptom.

I freely admit, this is all conjecture on my part. But as I have heard so many people complain that science isn’t doing enough or ask the question why isn’t there a cure yet? I think we need to have some perspective on the whole idea of a cure. I’ve had it for thirty-two years and counting. More than anything, I want a cure. But I don’t see it happening any time soon and I hope I am dead wrong. I hope a cure is announced tomorrow at lunch. Until then, let’s reflect on the perspective we need to maintain.

What do you think about a realistic cure for fibro?

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