Fybromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain

[snickywick]

Hi, I have a very good friend who has been diagnosed with CMP Chronic Myofascial Pain, she had been through 4 years of pain and prodding and has been on horrendous and various drugs which dont seem to have done anything. She has now been referred to the pain clinic to try to work on pain management. I've joined HealthUnlocked in desperation and wondered if anyone can please tell me what the difference is between Fybromyalgia and CMP as when I look for chronic pain, they both come up and where to look next for possible help with her condition.

[BlueMermaid3]

Hi there

I am not sure if this is of much help, but Fibromyalgia is a syndrome, which means that the condition is a variety of different symptoms (the main ones being pain and fatigue) which collectively are called Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

I have 27 different symptoms. Some people have a couple, others a lot.

Migraines are another big symptom that we suffer from.

It sounds as though you are describing daily pain in a certain area. However, I am not a doctor, just a long time sufferer of this horrid illness.

Pain management sounds like the ideal thing for your friend. Perhaps CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) as well? This is also very useful to some people.

Looking at diet is another thing to try. Perhaps some foods are contributing to the pain? Writing a pain diary and a food diary for a month is a good idea. It can give a good understanding of what exacerbates the pain and what helps to ease it.

I appreciate you were probably asking for a direct link to somewhere, but I hope that explains a little of what Fibromyalgia is and how it affects me personally.

Hugs

Lu xx

[snickywick in reply to BlueMermaid3]

Hi, thank you. She has been diagnosed with Myofascial pain syndrome and suffers a lot with back, shoulders and legs. The muscles and tissue in these areas seems "fused" together and is permanently excruciating. I'm trying to find a way to support her, but don't want to appear overbearing.

Thanks so much for responding, sounds awful what you are going through and I can only say I hope it all magically goes away.

Many thanks for the tips, I'll suggest that, particularly the food one as I think that the food we eat has a huge bearing on our health.

Take care X

[BlueMermaid3 in reply to snickywick]

You're very welcome

Thank you for your kind wishes. If only!

You are a lovely friend xx

[Regnofibro1]

If you google it there are several articles on the subject. I think the main difference is treatment and trigger points but that is my opinion only!!

[rosewine]

First of all can I say thank you to you for being such a caring friend. There are actually some very good American sites that give really good explanations of CMP and some interesting comments from people who have actually suffered with it and how they have used a range of treatments not to cure it but to certainly make their lives easier and more pain free. Some of the medications of course have different names to the ones in the Uk but there is normally an equivalent UK version. Many people seem to have found quite a bit of relief from trigger point injections and slowly starting to exercise especially with water therapies. As with fibro it can become a vicious circle of not exercising because of the pain and then the muscles unfortunately just get tighter and tighter and movement more painful. It is often better to exercise little and often starting with things like gentle stretching and slowly building up.

Hope you can source some therapies that you might think your friend will respond to. Good luck with this.x

[TheAuthor]

I am so genuinely sorry to read of your friends suffering and I have pasted you tow NHS Choices links to read that explain the difference.

nhs.uk/conditions/temporoma...

nhs.uk/Conditions/Fibromyal...

I want to sincerely wish your friend all the best of luck.

All my hopes and dreams for you

Ken