When I was 17, I was told by my doctor that the extreme fatigue and debilitating pain I was experiencing was Fibromyalgia. He said, they didn't know much about it, just that it was a general word for a grouping of symptoms and nerve pain that couldn't be diagnosed. He wrote me a prescription for Flexiril (muscle relaxer), Trazodone (sleeping pill) and Tramadol (pain reliever).
According to my doctor, it was what it was...I was going to have to adjust to my new life of pain and chronic fatigue. The fatigue was frustrating, but the pain was the worst. I couldn't do anything when I was having a "flare up" except writhe in agony and switch back and forth from the heating pad to the shower until I eventually fell asleep. Sleeping was the only way I could stop the pain.
When it started it was every once-in-a-while, but progressed to be a frequent occurrence up to 2-3 days per week. The pain was primarily in my upper back, and simultaneously in my stomach. My stomach felt bloated and like it might explode, like I had mixed coca-cola and a mentos in there. I also ended up with it in my arms.
When my arms flared up, I couldn't move them. I would put an arm sling on the affected arm (if not both) and try to stay as still as I could until, again, I mercifully fell asleep. Between flare-ups in my arms and in my back, there were days where I could barely walk. I actually made use of a wheel chair at 18 during work sometimes.
Pain wasn't a new thing to me, in fact, we were old friends. But I found myself, once again, running low on hope....depression set-in. Fast forward to when I was 21 and new bride and there were many times I had to skip out on doing things my new husband wanted to do, just so I could lay on the heating pad and suffer.
When I was 22, I had an epiphany. Up until that point I had just been existing and at the mercy of when my body decided to throw a tantrum. One day, I made a much needed connection between my flare-ups and what I was eating. I realized that when I had pasta several days in a row, I was guaranteed to have a flare-up...so I stopped eating pasta (at least I significantly cut back on it). Once I removed pasta, I discovered drinking soda frequently also caused a flare-up. So I backed off of the soda.
Once I cut back on those two things, I experienced peace....pain-free days and nights. That is where my journey into alternative medicine, health and remedies really began. I couldn't believe that certain things I was eating and drinking, things that practically everyone around me ate and drank, could disrupt my life so much...could cause so much intense pain!
But the benefit of hindsight and years of research, education, trial and error have taught me just how much diet plays a role in chronic health conditions, and that sometimes simply making alterations to your diet is the easiest way to alleviate or reverse what you are suffering from.
Don't give up and don't just accept that it is what it is...you are not doomed. Perhaps you have something that you will struggle with for the rest of your life, but there is a good chance, a GREAT chance that you can make changes that could positively impact what you are dealing with, alleviate or stop symptoms and increase your over-all quality of life. Diet has more of a role than you know! Have you tried making changes yet?
#Fibromyalgia #Fibropain #Fibro #Health #Healthy #lifestyle #healthylifestyle #Pain #Change #Hope #fatigue #backpain #inflammation #depression
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