Tender points(SEE VISUAL PICTORIAL OF TENDER POINTS AREA) are areas of the body that are painful when pressed, even slightly. People with fibromyaliga usually have tender points in several places including the base of their skull, above and between the shoulder blades, below the elbows, in the lower back, on the hips, and behind the knees. A specialist and or a rheumatologist who specializes in treating fibromyalgia can identify whether someone may have fibromyalgia by giving a tender points examanation and seeing if they have at least 11 of 18 tender points in specific areas.(A neurologist can also scan the brain...and if low levels of blood flow to the brain where there is not enough oxygen flowing to the brain as well...can prove the patient has fibromyalgia as well)
Simple tasks such as washing dishes, laundry,vacuming, cooking, and or cleaning,sitting, or standing for even short periods of time can feel physically as if you've run a marathon, increases your muscle pain to an intolerant level, and you feel extreme chronic fatigue just from performing one of these or other basic everyday tasks.....what normally everyone else can do without feeling tired at all, people with fibromyalgia may not finish until hours later or days later.
Everyday you wake up feeling as if you have a bad case of the flu, or have been run down by a huge truck or that you've aged 20 years older physically. Small simple basic amounts of information you have trouble remembering, such as a phone number, or something someone may have told you five minutes ago, or you forget something you may have just read within minutes. All of these things go on internally ...while on the outside to people we look "just fine" and to people that are ignorant to what fibromyalgia is, you deal with constant criticism with people accusing you of being lazy, feeling sorry for yourself, a hypocondriac, and like to tell you to "just GET over it".......which IS the worst thing to say to someone with fibromyalgia.
Let it be said that there are different levels of fibromyalgia, and everyone differs in these levels. Levels can be either primary, secondary(you had fibromyalgia in your immune system for quite some time but it didn't surface until now, or you had another arthritic condition that caused you to develop fibromyalgia as well, or you got it genetically from one of your parents or relatives having it or a relatively close illness such as chronic fatigue syndrome(one of my sister has cfs), or post-traumatic(if you were physically injured, or had some type of emotional trauma)
Though currently there is no cure for fibromyalgia syndrome, it is not fatal and can be lived with if adjustments are properly made in your life physically and emotionally.
This isn't a specific disorder that only effects women of certain ages or nationalities, anyone can get this pain syndrome. ALL Ethnicities,Women of all ages, children to teenagers, and men of all ages.
This syndrome is extremely draining and exhausting emotionally & physically and affects all aspects of your life personally & professionally. It is not an easy problem to live with everyday, however it can be monitored and lived with better if you take the right steps in your life to help do that.
Main Issues To Handle When You Have This:
Educating & Communicating with Family & Personal Relationships etc..
Moderated Diet
Gentle Form Of Exercise
Lots of SUPPORT from loved ones/friends
Sleep
Pain Medications & Anti-Depressants(help pain)
OR Alternative Medicine, or Treatments
MOST IMPORTANTLY: POSITIVE ATTITUDE* :-)
