7 Deadly Sins Of Fibromyalgia And Invisible Illnesses

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Seven Deadly Sins Of Fibromyalgia

As most Christians know there are seven deadly sins that are the mother of all other sins. They are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. While they have their place in our personal spiritual and physical salvation, they also have their place in our life of chronic sickness. Understanding the seven deadly sins of incurable invisible illnesses help us to know how they apply to our chronic illnesses can help us live a better quality of life.

1. Pride: Is the excessive belief that one can deal with fibromyalgia alone, with help from no one else. All this will do leads to even more misery than fibromyalgia has already caused. Pride is the idea that we are better than anyone else and can do all things by ourselves. That sounds ludicrous to the ear, there are those in all walks of life that suffer from pride, the original sin. Pride prevents us from receiving Heavenly help in our painful path of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and all other types of invisible illnesses. We need to let the medical professionals into our journey as well as quality advice and support from those who are going through what you are going through.

2. Envy: Envy is the desire to have for ourselves that which belongs to other people. As we communicate with the community of invisible illnesses we come across people who have been through what we are going through and they are having more success than we are in managing their illness. They have a better, kinder doctor than we do. We need to find joy in our hearts for them and not envy them for their good fortune.

7 deadly sins

3. Gluttony: Is an inordinate desire to consume more than which is healthy for our chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain or other invisible illness. If one pain pill takes the edge off the pain, then why not take one more to fully take away the pain. If exercise relieves stiffness and helps a little with pain management and helps with keeping our sedentary heart a little more healthy then if a little is good, a lot more is much better, right? Wrong. Overdoing medicine, exercise or any other type of therapy can do more harm than good.

4. Lust: In the case of chronic invisible illnesses like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and POTS lust is an inordinate craving for wanting what we can or shouldn’t have or an inordinate craving for what we shouldn’t do. Part of the way to get rid of that lust is to focus on what we can do without exacerbating our current condition. This is tough because what we want to do is to be normal. Is there anything wrong with that? Not for people with invisible Illnesses, but for us with fibromyalgia it will just make our symptoms worse.

5. Anger: I am not speaking for everyone, then again maybe I am. I find anger one of the worsts of these seven deadly sins. I want to be able to run like I did more than thirty years ago. I want to ski the best snow on earth in the mountains of Utah. I want to wake up at five in the morning and go fishing. I want to get on the floor and play with my dog. I want to, I want to, I want to . . . and the list goes on and on and on. Not being able to do these things makes me angry. But what I need to do is be grateful for what I can do and love what I can love, most especially I can love my wife and children all the more for the support they give me. I need to fight anger with humility, gratitude and love.

7 deadly sins_invisible_illnesses6. Greed: To be greedy is to want more than Heavenly Father is ready to bless us with. He is teaching us lessons with his blessings. We need to be patient. We need to accept that assertion and we need to always keep God in our lives and be grateful to Him for all that we do have. We fight greed by being grateful for what we do have. Maybe we have POTS or Fibro but we don’t have all the symptoms. Perhaps we can do things that we shouldn’t be able to do because of the blessings from God.

7. Sloth: Is avoiding physical or spiritual work to manage our various chronic invisible illnesses. What I am going to say may not sit well with many victims of invisible illnesses like POTS, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic pain and other invisible illnesses. In spite the extreme chronic pain, fatigue or other debilitating symptoms we need to work on coping and dealing with the symptoms. Many of these symptoms are manageable. Some symptoms can be managed to the point of going into remission. But we need to do the work, even if that work is simply praying and going to doctors appointments and taking our medications as prescribed.

These seven deadly sins of incurable invisible illnesses are very important to consider if we want to have some control over the quality of our life with these protracted illnesses. There are countless medical things we can do and there are unlimited things we can do outside of medicine to fight the good fight for some degree of peace and wellness in the midst of our journey with chronic illnesses. We need to be aware of the seven deadly sins that get in our way of peace, hope and joy.

Troy Wagstaff ©

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19 Ways The Smart Phone Can Help With Fibro, CFS And Other Invisible Illnesses

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

19 Ways The Smart Phone Can Help With Fibro, CFS And Other Invisible Illnesses

Twenty-five ways the smart phone can help manage Fibro fog, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromyalgia, Chronic pain and all other invisible illness.

The 24 ways your smart phone can help with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and all the other invisible illnesses. A while back, I wrote a post for the Fibro Champions Blog that was entitled 22 Items For Your Fibro Emergency Go Bag. The article applies to CFS and all other chronic illnesses of invisible illnesses.

These twenty-four ways a smart phone can help with your chronic illnesses may depend on what type of smart phone you have. I have an Apple iPhone. But I assume the competitive nature of the smart phones would provide many of the same default apps and many of the same downloaded apps.

We will review the fifteen default apps that can help with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and invisible illnesses. We will save the seven downloadable apps for a separate article after the Fibro Journey Book is published in about a month or so. I am very busy putting the final touches on the book so I can’t write as much or as often while finishing the book.

smart_phone_sample

The apps that come with a smart phone eliminate nine items on the list, almost half. 22 Items For Your Fibro Emergency Go-bag.

1. Extra Cell Phone Battery. 2. Cell Phone Charger. 3. Two days’ worth of all your MEDs. 4. Earphones for your cell phone. 5. Book(s) to read. 6. A notepad. 7. Pen or pencil. 8. MEDs. List. 9. Medical History. 10. Scriptures. 11. Food, at least enough to take your MEDs. Protein bars or energy bars. 12. Bottled water. 13. Cards, or some other small game. 14. Emergency money other than what you have in your wallet. 15. Small comfy pillow. 16. A small blanket. 17. Pair of comfy socks. 18. Tens Unit. 19. Heating Pad. 20. Reading Glasses. 21. Personal female items. 22. A few DVDs

Let me tell you how I got the idea. I was telling one of my daughters who says yes to our request to work around the house but forgets to do her chores. I said when you say yes to do a chore set an alarm for when you will be ready to do the chore and you’ll remember to do it.

As I told her that, the idea came to me that I do well in writing down “to do list” but forget to look at the lists due to my short term memory issues from fibro fog. So I thought I would do the same, put my to do list on my smart phone alarm. Then I started to think of all the other ways a smart phone could help me manage my disease.

Using a smart phone makes items number one, two and four all the more important in your go bag with the heavy reliance on your smart phone. After all, if you don’t keep your phone charged it won’t be very helpful.

On my smart phone I have the following default apps on my iPhone:

1. Calendar: Using the smart phone calendar is particularly good because it will provide reminders of the appointments the day before with a beep or custom tone.

2. Camera: Can be used for note taking. For instance, if you need to take notes from a medical document, take a picture and save your hands from getting tired. Also, you can take pictures of your pill bottles so you will always know what pills you are taking. This is important because most doctors’ office want to know what your current MEDs are. There are also other obvious reasons for a camera.

3. Clock: Keeping track of time is easy with a smart phone, especially for those who don’t like to wear watches.

4. Maps: The Google maps app and other map apps will give you driving instructions to get where you need to go. When you’re going to many new doctors this can be helpful.

5. Notes: The notes app eliminates three items from Go Bag mentioned in a previous post. It gets rid or a pen, pencil and note pad.

6. Safari: Helps you access the Internet

7. Telephone: Don’t forget that will all the bells and whistles of a smart phone, a smart phone is primarily a telephone allowing you easy communication where ever you are.

8. Voice Memos: If typing in the Notes app is too tedious for your painful fingers, then using the Voice Memo app. It’s a good way to take notes when you’re in a doctor’s office, ER or some other place where note taking may be beneficial..

9. Weather: The weather app tells you the weather for the day and the upcoming week. Having Weather knowledge is important to plan our upcoming days.

10. Speaker Phone: The speaker phone allows more than one person to be in on the conversation.

11. Texting: Many smart phone plans allow unlimited texting which is a good way to communicate. Testing is a good way to communicate should you find yourself in a place the requires quiet. With texting, you can always communicate.

12. Recents: On the iPhone is a list of all your recent incoming and outgoing phone calls. If someone calls you while you’re driving or otherwise unable to answer the phone you can call them back if you recognize the phone number.

13. Favorite and commonly used phone numbers: For any doctor, health care provider, hospital in your area, program in the phone number so you’ll recognize who is calling you. And on the favorite list of phone numbers, reserve this for the most frequently called numbers.

14. Alarm: The Alarm feature may be one of the best features for those with fibro fog. Besides the calendar that will remind you a day before of your appointments, the Alarm can be set for appointments that come up that day or that will be coming up in the future. It will sound an alarm and remind you of pending appointments. This is my new best friend. I am very good at making to do lists, but I forget to look at them. This feature will do away with that problem.

15. Timer: The timer is awesome for me when I put something in the oven and then go to my den. I can’t hear the oven alarm so I set my timer to coincide with the oven timer. When it goes off, then I go down to the oven.

16. Games: Games are a good way to get your mind off of things. Every phone that I know of comes with several default games. However, there are countless games that can be downloaded for free to add to your list on your phone.

17. Voice Activated – Siri: For the Apple IPhone Siri is the name of voice activation and hands off using many features of your phone. This is a good safety feature.

18. Hands free, Blue tooth: A blue tooth feature is usually an add-on purchase but it gives you more hands free ability to talk on your phone while safely driving.

19. Calculator: The Calculator is a great app for figuring out many simple math questions.

There are thousands of free download apps to add to your iPhone giving you more features to deal with in managing your chronic invisible illnesses. Smart phone users have access to download thousands of additional apps for free thousands more for a small charge. In the next installment of this article we will talk about at least thirteen downloadable apps that we will go into after I am finished with my fibro book in about a month or less.

Helpful Downloadable Apps

Facebook

Flash Light

Games

Google Search

Health App

Music

Reader Apps

Scriptures

YouTube

Google Pay or other payment apps.

Translator

Compass

Read bar codes

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10 Symptoms of Fibro Fog And 1 Known Solution

Posted on August 8, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

10 Symptoms of Fibro Fog And 1 Known Solution

  1. Forget to take your meds.
  2. Forget peoples names that you should ordinarily know.
  3. Want to use a word but can’t. You know what the meaning of the word is, you can even describe what the word is, but you can’t think of the word.
  4. Short term memory loss.
  5. Forget to read your notes you write so that you wont forget things.
  6. Staring into space before brain “kicks in.
  7. Inability to recognize familiar surroundings.
  8. Lose things easily.
  9. Mind wanders easily.
  10. Lack of concentration.

fibro_fog_10_symptoms

There is not a lot that can be done about the symptoms of fibromyalgia fog. But understanding what the symptoms are to fibro fog is a weight lifted off your mind, providing you can even remember that you have fibro fog 🙂 ha ha.

In another post I wrote about how language arts can help your mind get back some of what fibro fog has taken from you. How to Reinvent Yourself With Fibro . . . Living an Eventful Purpose Filled Life

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Living Free In The Face Of Fibromyalgia, CFS, Or Anyother Invisible Illness

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Living Free In The Face Of Fibromyalgia, CFS, Or Anyother Invisible Illness

Anyone who suffers from an invisible illness is tempted to give up or surrender to the frustrating trial of their illness, this quote is dedicated to them.

living_free_in_the_face_of_adversity

Living Free In The Face Of Adversity

When faced with adversity you have two choices, you can give into to the adversity and be it’s victim or you can fight back with the spirit of the warrior and live or die trying. Which would you rather do suffer as a victim or live freely, fighting while suffering and living your life in spite of the trials. Troy Wagstaff ©

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A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia – An Illness of Contradiction

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

A Day In The Life Of Fibromyalgia – An Illness of Contradiction

Typically the stormy weather, especially thick overhead clouds, rain storms and snow storms make me hurt two or three times as bad as my normal fibro pain. Good weather days are the best for my chronic pain.

One of the most unique things I’ve learned about fibromyalgia is that it is not only an illness of chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibro fog, insomnia and muscle spasms, but it is an illness of contradiction. Just when you think you have things figured out, in my case I thought that after thirty-one years I was getting it figured out, something is different, aspects of the disease are contradictory.

Take for instance this past week. Sunday I was able to teach my Sunday School Class but was in my recliner for the rest of the day. That, in and of itself, isn’t so strange but then the next day I wake up to a welcome but unexpected major rain storm. In Utah we are having a drought and needed the heavy rain. I was able to go to the gym and walk the treadmill at a blinding fast and steady speed of two miles an hour. That is not usual.

a_day_in_the_life_of_fibro_contradiction

Because I exercised on a stormy day I thought I would be massively sore and racked with mind numbing pain the next day confined to my recliner throughout the whole day.

Come Tuesday, I wasn’t in the recliner the whole day. I lead a fibro active day. I was able to help my wife put away laundry. Not for long because of feet and back pain, but the fact I was able to help at all was a miracle from the normal routine. Hence another contradiction. I spent the part of the day being incredibly stiff and typically sore and in fibro chronic pain. Later that day I was able to clean a portion of my den on the same day as laundry. I didn’t overdue anything on Tuesday.

Now today, Wednesday, I am bedridden. In my case bed ridden means being a prisoner of my recliner. Today is a warm day with partly sunny skies. Nothing normal about this week so far and thus from the fibro contradictions, it has been a very normal week.

Troy Wagstaff ©

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71 Fibromyalgia Emotions

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

71 Fibromyalgia Emotions

This is a list of 71 common emotions for those who suffer with fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome and all the other invisible illnesses. We suffer all the emotions that everyone else does but these emotions are prevalent in our lives due to the illness we have.

Agitation

Amazement

Anger

Anguish

Annoyance

Anticipation

Anxiety

Commotion

Concern

Confidence

Conflicted

Confusion

Contempt

Defeat

Defensiveness

Denial

Depression

Despair

Determination

fibro_invisible_illness_emotions

Disappointment

Disbelief

Disgust

Doubt

Dread

Eagerness

Embarrassment

Endearing

Envy

Excite

Fear

Frustration

Gratitude

Grief

Guilt

Hatred

Hopeful

Humiliation

Hurt

Impatient

Indifference

Insecurity

Irritation

Jealousy

Loneliness

Love

Nervousness

Nostalgia

emotions_CFS_fibro_pain

Overwhelmed

Paranoia

Pride

Rage

Regret

Reluctance

Resentment

Resignation

Sadness

Satisfaction

Scorn

Shame

Shock

Skepticism

Somberness

Sorrow

Surprise

Suspicion

Sympathy

Terror

Uncertainty

Unease

Wariness

Worry

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12 Tips On Dealing With Someone Who Has Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue or Chronic Pain.

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

12 Tips On Dealing With Someone Who Has Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue or Chronic Pain

If you know someone who has fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome or any other invisible illness her are twelve tips on how to deal with them. There as especially if the person you know is a friend or family member. Remember, they never asked for these illnesses. These are life altering illnesses and we need your support.

1. Be sensitive. We are no longer the person we used to be.

2. Validate us.

3. Don’t just assume we can’t do anything. There are many things we can no longer do, but there are still some activities we can do.

4. Honest communication is not an excuse to be rude or negative.

5. Look for thing we can do and get involved with us.

fibro_12tips_suport

6. While there are things we can do, it’s very likely we will do it much more slowly than normal.

7. If you felt pain 24/7 with chronic fatigue and fibro fog at the same time, how would you want to be treated?

8. Pray for us.

9. Understand, we didn’t ask to have fibro or chronic fatigue and we are not hypochondriacs.

10. Don’t be offended if we don’t act on your advice. We may have already tried it or know better than to try it.

11. Losing your good health is a loss we suffer and sometimes we feel like grieving. Give us space to grieve.

12. Don’t forget about us.

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Review Of The Article: Fibromyalgia Now Considered As A Lifelong Central Nervous System Disorder

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Review Of The Article: Fibromyalgia Now Considered As A Lifelong Central Nervous System Disorder

This article comes from the website WWW.News-Medical.net and it covers research done by Daniel Clauw, M.D., Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan

I do this review with thirty-one years of chronic pain experience. I spent about twenty years with chronic pain and misdiagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. I’ve been correctly diagnosed with fibromyalgia for the last eleven years. I have been to more than fifteen doctors over the years, maybe more. Fibro fog does a number on the old memory.

The article talks about the research that Dr. Clauw has done on fibromyalgia. It is stated in the article that fibromyalgia is the second most common rheumatic disorder, yet he states that is it a central nervous system disorder. That confuses me. A central nervous system seems like it should be treated by a neurologist, whereas a rheumatic illness would be treated by a Rheumatologist.

The majority of the articles deals with the issue of the central nervous system. He also states that it is a life long CNS disorder.

review_cns_article

When I first read this article over a month ago, I wondered about the assertion that it is a life long disorder. My first thought was, “no it isn’t.” Then I was preparing a Blog post about fibromyalgia having more than 70 symptoms. I thought about a few symptoms manifesting while I was a child, but pain was not among those symptoms. Then I talked to my Neuro-psychologist and she said that people may have fibromyalgia waiting for a stress-induced trigger. That stress inducing trigger might be a car wreck, an operation, abuse or suffering some other traumatic life event.

So maybe it is a lifelong condition. But for me, it has not been a life long chronic pain condition.

Because it is a Central Nervous System (CNS) disorder, the pain one feels with fibromyalgia comes from the brain and spinal cord, not the area of pain. If you feel extreme pain in your lower back, hips or thighs, the pain is coming from the CNS not the lower back, hips or thighs.

This article makes three other questionable statements that I take issue with. First, he asserts that opiates are not a good treatment for fibro. I have eleven years of experience and two pain management doctors who would disagree. My pain is helped a great deal by opiates and muscle relaxers.

And then after making that assertion doesn’t go into detail, but glosses over the alternatives to pain management. He does mention gabapentinoids, trycyclics and serotonoin reuptake inhibitors. Those MEDs have not worked for me and I have heard from many fibromites that they do not work for them as well.

The last criticism is that he states that goal improved function. While he is obviously not a patient of fibromyalgia he can say that, but to those of us with fibromyalgia, we want pain, relief first then we can try to work on improved function. Often, managing pain alone improves function.

The biggest contribution the article makes to the issue of fibromyalgia is that is suggests that fibromyalgia is an illness of the CNS. Other than that, most of the information has already been presented by many other researchers.

What do you think about the article? Do you agree or disagree with my review of the article and why?

Troy Wagstaff ©

I am not a health care professional of any type and I assume no liability for the information and opinions presented in this article or Blog post.

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Five Fibromyalgia Emotions – Part One

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

Five Fibromyalgia Emotions – Part One

There are countless emotions that those with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and chronic pain go through. I will write a small series of posts on some of the emotions that we who are afflicted with one of these chronic invisible illnesses go through. Here are the first five emotions.

Anguish

Anguish is an emotion that is derived from the distress of suffering or from acute suffering. Whether we are in dire life sucking pain or find ourselves drowning in fatigue we are suffering. From that suffering we go through the emotion of dire anguish because there is no end in sight from our suffering.

five_emotions_fibro_part1

Conflicted

Feeling conflicted comes from many different angles when suffering from chronic fatigue or pain. We feel conflicted from the myriad of symptoms that seem to contradict themselves and unless you’ve gone through it, you can scarcely understand that conflicted emotion. We also feel conflicted by the way others treat us. Some are supportive, others unbelieving, and others judgmental.

Frustration

It is so easy to feel frustrated when you are chronically ill, especially with fibromyalgia. You can be having a good day when the pain scale shows your pain at a three or four then out of nowhere are pain jumps up to a nine or ten. The symptoms come and go so much that it is impossible to make firm plans for this evening or next Friday because you don’t know how you will be feeling.

Loneliness

Of all the emotions we go through, loneliness is one of the roughest to experience. Being healthy and lonely is tough, but being chronically sick and in pain all the time adds to your feeling loneliness. Even if you are around supportive family and friends and they are talking about their day or their vacation you feel lonely because you can be a part of that conversation. Who wants to hear about your pain and stiffness or your fatigue or chronic headaches and the fact that you lay around all day?

Overwhelmed

The feeling of being overwhelmed is something most people can relate too, except for the feeling of being overwhelmed by chronic pain and fatigue. Day in and day out, night after night always feeling some type of pain and feeling worn-out constantly and nothing you can do will give you the energy you so desire. This is the emotion of being overwhelmed that we go through all the time.

Troy Wagstaff ©

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How Fibromyalgia Affects My Daily Life – Stress

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Troy Wagstaff

How Fibromyalgia Affects My Daily Life – Stress

It’s no secret to anyone who has had a chronic illness for a long time that stress aggravates your condition, especially when that chronic illness is pain centered like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or other chronic pain disorders.

Yesterday, I had a very vivid experience that illustrates this point.

Without boring you with the details, I’ll summarize the event. My daughter is finishing up her cosmetology education. She had one last project. When my daughter handed in that last project, Darlene failed it with spurious claims on not following directions. She followed the instructions to the letter and so I called up the head instructor Darlene, and she told me what she told my daughter. What the instructor told me and what my daughter told me about the guidelines of the project was almost word for word the same instructions, yet she had the nerve to fail her.

I tried to explain how wrong it was, using her own words against her, in failing my daughter. She was stubborn and wouldn’t budge. A while later the Vice President of academics called us and asked that we bring in the project as part of her investigation. We did. During the conversation, it became readily apparent that she was taking the side of the teacher. The facts were not disputed, but she took the side of her friend. Although, to her credit, she provided two compromises to resolve the issue.

how_fibromyalgia_affects_my_daily_life_stress1My daughter choose an option and then I let myself dive into to her for the sake of justice. Since there would be no consequences for Darlene I decided I needed to make my case and educate this Vice President on the concept of consequences and justice. Granted, I did this from the standpoint of anger, but my points were valid. Finally, after I said what I wanted to say twice or more I stopped, thanked her for her time and found my daughter and left. Looking back on it, while I had valid points, I acted out of anger. I will write more on that in a later post as a way to manage stress.

This is where the story really begins.

This is where the story begins in dramatic fashion. Within four, maybe five minutes, we were still driving in the complex, I felt my lower back muscles move and twist and spasm. The pain wasn’t too bad because I had recently taken a pain pill and muscle relaxer. But when I started to feel those muscles move and squeeze I was amazed at how soon after that ordeal stress kicked into my body and physically manifested itself.

This story is just one more of a million ways about how fibromyalgia affects my daily life when stress is involved. This epiphany opens up room for me to consider in the future how to control my anger, that will be a topic for the future.

Troy Wagstaff ©

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