Coping and staying positive

[CopingwithEx]

How do you all cope with your pain? Recently my pain has gotten much worse than it was before it was always flu like aches, sometimes sore to touch. Now it’s as if I’m carrying rocks around my neck all day. A large weight in my chest and upper back and stomach (like I’ve done 100 crunches) . (I was in hospital last week for a couple of days due to head injury and had all sorts of bloods , head mri and blood pressure etc everything was clear) I think the stress of it all has brought on this pain. Nothing helps the pain 🙁

[Hazel_Angelstar Administrator FMA UK Staff]

Hi, it sounds like you may be going through a flare up, especially as you've been through a lot of stress recently.

Hopefully if a flare it will start to ease off. Resting when you can, pacing activity and tasks can help

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It's stress related. Relax with a nice glass of wine, put some relaxing music on, lights out and sod the world. That helps me. When that doesn't work, I'll have a brandy, after all, it's Christmas! 🎄😂 Find whatever helps you to destress and just do it! Last month, I was planting lavender in the rain at night as I'm light sensitive. It took me three days to plant 16 pods but I paced myself and detressed.

[Danniava]

Hi I know how your feeling. I was rushed in hospital last night with upper back pains feels so heavy. I had this pain for a long time and nothing been done because when I told the hospital iv had fibro they just said ohh that's what it is and just let me go without any test now iv just had a ct scan on head and now waiting on mri for my back and there keeping me in till they get to the bottom of it. Im really not coping. If your in a lot of pain please don't give up trying to get someone to listen. I really hope you feel better soon x

[CopingwithEx in reply to Danniava]

Thank you. I’ve had all sorts of blood work and had chest X-rays and my heart checked in the past few years and just had a head mri last week. I seen a private rhuemologist and he said I’m young he knows I’ll get through it but it puts so much stress on me when my family think I’m being dramatic Hope all went ok with the scan x

[Danniava in reply to CopingwithEx]

Yep my family think the same but its really hard and no one that isn't going through what we are just don't understand. Try not to worry about what other think. I know its easy said then done. If you ever need a chat or just to let of steam im here. My scans all come back ok back home now got more appointments tomorrow fun x

[Canbedone]

Stress is key. I have just gained a lot by learning to treat it as migraine without the headache. You certainly sound like you are in a flare. I used to find that I went to the Doctor when it got intolerable and within days I might recover. I too got annoyed or upset when people said it was in my head but I have learnt that is in my brain rather than my mind.

There is real pain which is caused by inflammation and you can treat that with anti-inflammatories but there is also pain amplification - where mild sensations can become extreme. For instance that can include sensitivity to sound just like a hangover or skin contact excess sensations.

I have always had a hunch that seasonal illness would be connected to Vitamin D3 deficiency. We only make it from sun and we become deficient in winter. It looks like COVID research in the USA proved that just last week. For many, increasing Vitamin D levels really helped to decrease infection risks (for anything) and eased symptoms for people with a Chronic COVID infection. If there is an undiagnosed real disease triggering Fibro then dosing with Vit D3 will help. I have been high dosing D3 and feel enduringly better for it.

The USA research has just proved that Vit D3 is part of our immune defences and has shown a strong causal link to winter infections when it gets low. A variant form is produced in your kidneys called 25 Hydroxy D and patients have been injected with a whole season of sun this way and have made good recoveries.

In Scandinavia, they put VitD3 in the food chain because they found a link between D3 deficiency and winter depression(Seasonally Affective Disorder) - it is almost impossible to be D3 deficient in Scandinavia now and winter depression has decreased. But beneficially that seemed to increase COVID resistance too.

With pain amplification, try Migraine medications. There seems to be evidence that you can get migraine without a headache and it can affect, vision, hearing, brain function, sense of smell and sensation of touch and pain.

When in a flare, it might be wise to consider a whole body massage to release knots and disperse lymph. It worked for me but you might feel terrible (toxic) the day after and then much pain goes away if it was due to inflammation. One 70mg of aspirin per day seems to really help too. It helps with brain blood circulation.

Shut your eyes and empty you head for 40 minutes if you get hyper-sensitivity and take an aspirin. Vision is the main load on your brain with stress or pressure a close second. Drink plenty of water because you sense of thirst can go with the brain condition. Try to lay off the toxic stuff like Coffee, Tea and alcohol. Replace it with a smoothie. That improves the Bacteria in your gut and that too seems to help with symptoms.

Anti-depressants really help you sleep cycle too and sleep deprivation when we are worried does a lot of damage.

Also I learned a good piece of philosophy this week for dealing with anger. "You can't control anger because people make us angry all of the time. We can control our rage when we ask ourselves what we are going to do about it. Something moderate normally appears in place of shouting or feeling hurt".

Best wishes to you with your battle