Fibromaylgia

[Anzazi]

Hi have been suffering fabromaylgia for almost 10 yrs now stiffness on my neck and pain at the upper back pain kindly assist

[Brumchick]

Most but not all of the fibromyalgia pain in my neck and shoulders is caused by tension and tighness caused by the way i hold myself due to the pain.If possible do some slow stretches to loosen the muscles of the neck and trapezius ( the large muscle at the top and upper back of your shoulder. These are notorious for becoming tight in people with fibro..Make sure the muscle is warm before you begin.I use a wheat bag around my neck and a hot water bottle behind my upper back for 10 minutes whilst it is wrapped in a towel to avoid burns. I then put my hands above the door frames and hang of it for a minute or so and repeat three times then i do shoulder rolls and very gentle neck roll as far as i can without pain. It is very important to not do anything too painful because you could pull tight muscles very easily.i try to do this daily.It makes a hugh difference.also if you can tolerate it you could get a massage but instruct the masseuse that you have pain in upper neck and shoulder and upper back as well as fibro.Take your precribed painkillers afterwards. .ensure that your neck position is correct by buying a memory foam neck cushion.They are around 25 pounds but you use it every day so well worth it,It makes a hugh difference to how you wake up Much less stiffness in the neck .Best of luck .

[Hidden]

I agree with Brumchick - try to get yourself onboard with a physio to help you with stretching excercise, I go to hydrotherapy weekly, I find stretching in the warm pool is so much easier, I meet new people who dont judge me because they cant see a disability..

[Newtali]

Hi, here are a few tips for managing the pain:

Electric Heat pads

Deep heat and Linnex (Linnex is available on the internet. It's very intense so you only need a tiny amount, start with just a dab and if no effect in 10 minutes try some more. I find I need more on my back but only a tiny amount on the neck as the skin is more sensitive. It's quite expensive but lasts ages.)

Massage, Osteopath or chiropractor if you can afford them. Any family who could assist with a massage?

Self massage, there are loads of different tools available on the internet. If you want more info on this let me know. I have bought loads over the years!

Gentle stretches ideally from a physio osteopath or chiropractor

Also see past post below re the Lightning Process which really helped my daughter.

A few weeks ago I posted asking if anyone had heard of the lightening process (LP). I had several replies advising caution. I read some links someone posted which were all very negative and calling it a scam, waste of money etc. However a friend of a friend with ME had done it with great success and my osteopath put me in touch with another ME person who had done it and it had transformed her life. However neither had had Fibromyalgia but the lady advised me to join the LP FB group and ask if there was anyone with fibromyalgia who had done this. I got lots of replies from people who were now living full pain free lives! Clearly you are only going to get people in the group who had success with this but even so I was impressed.

After 3 years of trying to find relief for 19'year old Abby with her having been under pain management for 2 years, spending up to 20 hours a day in bed using heat pads to relieve the pain, my giving her 1.5 to 2 hours massage every night, she was only able to attend school for a couple of hours once or twice a week, had almost no social life and us spending a fortune on food supplements, allergy testing, magnetic mattress, osteopath treatment once a week etc etc we decided to give it a go. There is little we haven't already tried and this was a last resort to find a solution.

So with some nervousness we enrolled my daughter onto the course. Due to her difficulty travelling which would increase her pain we decided to pay extra for one to one to give maximum chance of success. Abby had to do an online training of 4 hours and then a phone assessment to ensure she was fully on board. You have to fully commit to it for it to work.

It works on the principle that brain pathways can be changed. It uses techniques similar to NLP, mindfulness, hypnosis ( but you are not at any time actually hypnotised). In essence it is quite simple to learn the technique but the training covers a lot of theory, much of which is similar to what they teach you in pain management.

The course was 11 hrs in total over 3 consecutive days. I wondered if she would even cope with focusing for 4 hours at a time as after 3 hours of being out of bed she is normally climbing the walls with pain and exhausted.

After day one there was already significant progress. She walked the dog for 15 minutes with no ill effects. She has not walked the dog for about 2 years and walking more than 5 minutes normally causes increased leg pain which can last days or weeks afterwards. She only had a short nap and did some work on her lap top with no,ill effects.

The progress continued after days 2 and 3. She is needing less sleep, is reducing her reliance on heat pads, and we have reduced the length of massage I give her. Now 2 weeks on she is still doing really well. We have just come back from a 3 day theatre fest, travelling to London on the train, seeing 3 shows, doing lots of walking, including spending 3 hrs walking round shops with just a couple of breaks! Today she has had some additional pain in one of her legs, but probably no more than you would expect from having not walked for more than 5 minutes for at least a year!

She is reducing down her medication gradually. She is not pain free yet but we are hopeful that this will happen over time, but even if it doesn't her quality of life is so much better. She can now start to think about her career and is no longer facing a life on benefits.

I cannot tell you what a relief this is for us as a family. If you are able to afford it, I would strongly recommend trying this. No doubt it does not work for everyone and it will not cure structural damage but I still believe it can help with managing pain caused by arthritis etc. if your life is dominated by pain it has to be worth trying. If you cannot afford the course (it is expensive) there are several books available. The one Abby's trainer recommended was "Get the life you love now" by Phil Parker. It is better to do the course, but the book covers everything in the course and is inexpensive.

The process can also be used for depression, anxiety etc.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who does decide to do this and how they get on. Feel free to contact me for more info.

Congratulations if you have managed to read this entire post!!!!