| Laughter is good medicine! |
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| Ok, an hour or so later and I found a good article explaining what myofascial pain is and how it affects trigger points. And I thought it was pain in your face! You know, like TMJ. (An excerpt from the article is below.) Hmmm...just as I thought! It explains why I am so tired. My muscles constantly feel like I am flexing them and if I tell myself to relax them, it lasts for a second or so, then BAM! they are right back to totally tight and flexed again! Go ahead, flex your arm muscles like you are showing off-then hold it like that all day long-and don't forget to flex all the other muscles in your body too. That's what my muscles do, but I can't make them relax! It is very tiring and annoying isn't it? All I can say is thank God for muscle relaxers! That's the only way I find any relief from it. Click HERE for the full article. |
| 3/13/03 What in the world!!! How can Myofascial Pain Syndrome cause your knees to hurt!?! My knees are so painful I can't even stand the thought of anything touching them! And if I bump them or someone or something just touches them, I go crazy! The knee pain I have is like a totally different kind of pain than I have ever felt. I was in physical theapy for them in March/April of 2002. That about killed me! I would go home sooooo tired that I would have to sleep for 15 hours! And that was back when I was still able to walk normally. Now I am back on my Desyrel/Trazadone (2/25/2003) and I have been able to move around a lot more, but I still am so very weak and I am still having to use amigos/wheelchairs if I venture outside of my home. Anyways, I am going to look into this Myofascial knee thing some more because I also get soooo dizzy and have migraines way too often! I first had terrible problems with dizziness in May of 1998, but I attributed it to my Maple tree allergies! Before I was allergy tested and started on immunotherapy injections for them, I would blackout and fall down stairs in the month of May whenever I stepped outdoors! Now, I fall over at anytime of the year just by standing there! So...I am not sure WHAT is going on! Anyways, this is the link to the above excerpt which has got me so confused about how this Myofascial Pain Syndrome can cause the symptoms it does, especially the knee pain! Read the whole article here. |
| This is where my back usually hurts! |
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| EXPECT TO BE AWED! All I could do was say WOW!!! when I saw this site! |
| Why I especially like these links: These are 2 of my 'big' things. 1. When I wake up I often ask my kids, "Did you see the trucks that run me over while I was asleep?" I had never heard anyone else say that before, but I now know that I am not the only one. 2. My increasing inability to climb stairs. We had to install new handrails on our staircase because I was tired of crawling up them. Now I hold on to each side and take my sweet ol' time! But that is only once per day, at the most. It's just too stinkin' hard! We also had to add handrails to our front porch. That was no easy task, as is anything around here, since my husband has only one arm. He lost it in an accident at work in 1999. |
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| Acurian is a site I found while researching information on a new med I am on, Ultracet. You do need to create an account to get all the benefits of the site. You will find info on the latest pain meds and clinical trials for numerous medical conditions. |
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| Awesome site. Try on clothes without pain! |
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| My good friend, Lou Ann (whom I met online of course!) also has a pain disorder. It is called Chronic Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Unlike fibro, her condition actually destroys her muscles. She sent me this link the other day... |
| Got questions? Have fibro and want to talk? Email me anytime! |
| 1/27/2003 I've really been having a hard time with muscle weakness. It seems as if the fibromyalgia is progressing. My daughter has been having to do the cat baths herself. By time I climb the stairs to the bath room and bend down to help her wash their faces, once I stand back up my leg muscles just start uncontrollably shaking! I haven't left the house in over a month because of the cold. It hurts my muscles sooooo much. They just cramp right up on me and it takes forever for me to warm back up. Thankfully my husband is able to transport the kids back & forth to school and do all the shopping. I have had to use the amigos at the stores since December. After Christmas my daughters wanted to go shopping at Kohl's. My 9 year old had to push me in a wheelchair because they do not have amigos. It was an eye-opening day for me in the way I view fibromyalgia. I just can't believe this is my life now. I found these links on muscle weakness, so I guess it is just something I am going to have to get used to. |
| 2/4/03 I went to the doctoer today to see if I could get back on my Zoloft and Desyrel (I was out of Effexor), since it seemed when I took that I did much better. Much to my surprise, when the nurse took my blood pressure, she asked me if I always had high blood pressure! I told her it has never been high. Anyways, the doctor is sending me to a rheumatologist. I then went to the lab and had some blood work taken. Guess what I did after that...went home and went back to bed! LOL! Imagine that huh! I have heard that pain can cause blood pressure to go up so I imagine that is why mine was. I really need to start writing this in my Blog. |
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| Suite101-Good site! Lotsa message boards. Link will take you directly to fibro section. |
| Below is a picture of a brain scanned using MRI. It shows proof of fibro pain. The study was conducted at U of M in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Click it to read the article. |
| Check out this story! Seems I am not the only one who needs to use a wheelchair because of the fibro! Fibromyalgia and a wheelchair at age 26? |
| I like this site! FIBROMYALGIA SYNDROME (FMS): A Medical Mystery |
| Neat site with polls! Miss Kitty Fibromyalgia Center |
| Cool! I found this too! This doctor knows our muscles are always "on". Read whole story from above excerpt: Don't Call It Hysteria And this is the therapy: The Guaifenesin Protocol |
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| 3/23/2003 Got tired of trying to explain the "wiggly worm" sensations I get under my skin, so I drew a picture of it in paint! Just HAD to do it after I found THIS article while researching something else. Funny, I had always thought Restless Legs Syndrome meant that your legs just started jerking or something! I had saw it mentioned as a fibro symptom numerous times, yet never put 2 and 2 together before...until now... Click 'The Worm' below for the definition of Paresthesias |
| Yes, it defianately affects the 'quality of life'. Read more... |
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| I believe the statistics on the ratio of men with fibro is: 1 out of 7 people who have fibromyalgia are men. Here are 2 nice sites. |
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| This is the link to my blog. |
| This picture looks just like me! Laying there wishing the weakness, pain and fatigue, would just leave!!! |
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| Have some fun! You never know where your web travels will take you with this link! |
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| Sign the fibro petition. While you are there, please sign the RSD petition for my friend Lou Ann. Read her post about the petition. It could have been written by anyone with a chronic pain disorder. |
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| Have you tried all the prescription pain relievers- and they do not work- or stop working? This natural herb works for pain. Learn the truth. |
| 1-13-2004 I was looking for a way to say this- but could not find the words. Jim Roache says it perfect! For non-addicts, these medications allow a person to be normal. Addicts get high and in trouble. Although his page is talking about prescription drugs-which doctors usually refuse to prescribe- the same can be used to describe marijuana. For non-addicts, this medication (marijuana) allows a person to be normal. Addicts get high and in trouble. I used alcohol and marijuana from ages 14 - 17 years old. But I never liked the way marijuana made me feel. It made me feel weird and panicky. So I would always have a few drinks before I smoked it. Then it would 'enhance my buzz'. Yes, I was young, and wild, and DID get into a lot of trouble when I used these things. But then, at 17, pregnant with my son, I lost all interest in that kind of life. All I wanted was to be a good mother. I put it behind me and got on with my life. All the while preaching the 'evil' and selfishness that goes along with alcohol and drug use. I now had kids and did not want them to go through all the crazy and painful things that I did by getting hooked on drugs. -Enter Chronic Pain- I began having terrible pain in my left knee in 2001. X-rays showed no damage. But it was so swelled and painful. I could not walk on it. The doctor would not give me any pain pills that worked. I went to physical therapy and that did help. But it wore me out so much that I would come home exhausted and go straight to bed where I would sleep for 16 hours straight. It also made me physically sick. Like I had a cold AND the flu. (That is how it had been for years if I did too much. Even though I had 3 small kids and HAD to get up and do things- regardless.) See, the terrible pain did not begin to get bad until this knee problem started. (I was put on desyrel for insomnia and pain in 1996. Diagnosed with fibro in 1998.) Prior to the knee, I had pain I could control using Advil Cold & Sinus and Naproxen. So I thought, I'll drink booze. That kills pain! Yes, it worked for a while. But people with fibro have an intolerance to alcohol and get very sick if they drink. My hubby didn't like me hanging out at the bar either. Well, it was during this time that I began to use marijuana again. I so needed the escape from the pain- and it helped. Also around this time my movements became soooo slow. I was afraid I had Parkinson's Disease. I moved so slow I appeared to be moving in slow motion. It was a very scary time as I could not understand what in the world was happening to me. But since hubby was unhappy with me being gone 2 nights a week, and I did not have the energy to get myself ready, I stopped going out to the bar. Then the fibro got so much worse throughout my whole body. Like it spread out from my knee. By now I was far too sick to go to the bar even if I wanted to. Bathing became so difficult I was lucky to get one twice a week. I surely wasn't going out in public stinky! My husband ended up having to cook my meals and I ate in bed where I spent most of my time. The fork was too heavy at times to even eat! Not to mention the shaking of my hands and terrible weakness- it was hard to get the fork to my mouth! Six months I spent nearly totally bedridden except for trips to the bathroom. A lot of times, I had to crawl to the bathroom. Sometimes, I would be too tired to crawl all the way there, and my kids had to carry me by my arms and legs. Standing was impossible now. My legs would shake and I was far too dizzy. I would fall down. So hubby got me a wheelchair. Vicoden worked for my pain for a while. And since I had to get them on the street, since docs won't treat pain here in the good ol' USA, I only took them on the days I woke up writhing, and crying from the pain. Then, they didn't work anymore. What was I going to do? Hubby could not stand to see me deteriorating like this. I was a person who could not sit still for 2 seconds and now- BEDRIDDEN!!! While searching the web for some kind of answer, I started reading of people with MS and fibromyalgia saying that marijuana helps their pain. During this time, I had terrible, unceasing cramps in my legs and strange, random muscle twitches throughout my whole body. My doc prescribed me various muscle relaxers that brought some relief, but not enough. I was still in pain. It was then that said "I am going to try some marijuana without using alcohol first." What did I have to lose. I was at the point I would have done almost ANYTHING to ease some of this pain and the other odd things happening to my body. Well, let me tell you, it DID work. It took my pain away! I couldn't believe it!!! I was also able to think straight again! I felt NORMAL! As an added bonus, it took my constant nausea away. I had been suffering with this for 14 years! So...now, I could walk around my house. I started doing little things. I still had to hold onto the furniture and walls when I walked, but I could do it! You have no idea what joy I got from being able to do little things. I was like "Look at me! I can walk!" I could stand up straight again after a while. No more walking bent over like a little old lady! I was praising God for opening my eyes and showing me the healing properties of this wonderful herb He has created. What Satan had used in my life years ago for evil, God was now using it for GOOD! We surely do serve a mighty God! ~*~ For those of you thinking, "This girl is nuts! Admitting she smokes herb. She could get thrown in jail!" Yes, I realize that marijuana is illegal. And, yes, I know I am taking a risk by sharing this information with the world. Yeah, the authorities could show up at my door. And take me to jail. But if someone doesn't put themselves on the line to get the truth out there, who will? I care about people. And I speak the truth. We don't live to ourselves-and we don't die to ourselves. We are here to help one another. And that is what I am going to do. No matter what. No compromise. I do what I feel is right. I have to stand before God one day and give an account of my actions. I do not want him to say "You knew the truth. Why didn't you tell someone? Why were you so selfish to keep the knowledge I have given you to yourself?" No. I want to hear "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord." Matthew 25:21 I fear God. Not man. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28 So, please, do not send me any emails telling me how foolish I am. Because...remember...you too- shall give an account one day. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: Hebrews 9:27 I am only doing what my Maker requires of me. For that is our purpose. To love God and serve only Him. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13 ~ Seven Reasons Why You Should Fear God ~ Just because something is legel, that doesn't mean it's right. (By right, I mean pleasing to God.) Abortion is an example of this. And just because something is illegal, that doesn't make it wrong. (And by wrong I mean displeasing to God.) Using marijuana, a natural herb He created, to heal our bodies, is an example of this. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. Genesis 1:29-30 Let your food by your medicine and your medicine be your food. ~ Hippocrates Coming soon: How my change in diet has helped me ever further. For more info, please explore my bookmarks. I have a link to them here. |
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