New member 🙋🏼‍♀️

[Hayls-b]

🙋🏼‍♀️ new member here, any tips or advice on pain management would be appreciated

[LisaSnow FMA UK Volunteer]

Hi welcome! What kind of pain are you having? Generally speaking if you can push yourself to do gentle excersise daily your body will feel better. For localized pain I find heat pad helpful. Most importantly, following instructions when taking medications is critical as many drugs don't demonstrate their proper effectiveness unless used correctly.

[Kokacola]

Hi the meditation will help, and mindfulness,

[LoneEra]

Hi and welcome 🌼 There are a number of things you can do to try to help reduce the pain and fatigue.

Not all of these will work for everyone, but it’s worth a go!

- Pacing (ask me if you’re not sure how to do this)

- Gentle exercise and/or stretching

- Epsom salt baths

- Using a TENS machine

- Acupuncture by a physiotherapist

- Using an acupressure mat

- Mindfulness and hobbies

- Eating healthily and drinking plenty of water - cutting back on caffeine and alcohol

In addition, it’s important to work with your GP to find the right meds for you. This could be antidepressants (used to treat pain) or anticonvulsants (used for nerve pain) as well as painkillers of some sort.

Please feel free to ask anything you want x

[Hayls-b in reply to LoneEra]

What is pacing, heard of this but not sure what it is x

[LoneEra in reply to Hayls-b]

As others have said, pacing is about not overdoing it on “good” days and trying to keep your energy levels on an even keel. It’s about prioritising tasks and working/living smarter. You can read more here: creakyjoints.org/living-wit...

It can be a hard skill to learn. I’m definitely still learning and overdo it some days! But it could help you, so it’s worth a try! x

[Stevejj]

Hello. I find muscle rubs useful and massages to relieve tight and tender muscles. Also a tens machine can help too. Epsom salt baths are relaxing. My hot tub is brill too with the warm water and relaxing at the same time. Pacing is using your energy not all in one go when you feel good but saving some throughout the day the use evenly to get you through the whole day. This is hard to get to and takes practice. I wish you luck hun xx

[Yassytina FMA UK Volunteer]

Hello and welcome,I can see you have already had some helpful advice, I agree that pacing yourself through your day is so helpful, as pushing too hard for long periods can set you back, and never feel quilty if some days are harder to do things ,just go with your flow, there are normally better days around the corner. xx

[AlfieG21]

vodka 😃

[AlfieG21]

Hi Hayley 👋I've had Fibro for over 3 years now also been told that I have CFS also overweight all a pile of Crap

Unfortunately I have had to give up work recently a job I had done for 17 years 🙃 I struggle a lot with sleeping 😴 😫 so the Vodka helps 😅 . I have lots of pain and find it hards to accept it 😢 .

[Hayls-b in reply to AlfieG21]

Yeah I was drinking most nights to help me sleep but had to cut down as I need to loose weight and it was effecting my mood 😫 it certainly is hard to accept

[AlfieG21]

me too been referred to sleep APNEA clinic but not had results yet on orlistat and low fat diet lost 6 pounds last couple of weeks need to loose another 4 stone 😑 😅😅 i have never been overweight in my life till all this happened

[Hayls-b]

Yeah I’ve put so much weight on myself 🙈