hi, I had a fibro for over a year now, for about 8 months I have been on tramadol for it, slowly increasing dosage to 250mg or sometimes more a day, only one thing that helps me to be more mobile, relaxes my muscles a bit but not always that is the case, sometimes I don’t take tramadol or take less and the pain and tiredness is unbearable, I can barely walk, my hands especially are very affected, pain on the top on the hands like knucles or fingers itself are stiff, swollen and very painful! Today I took less tramadol and I had a terrible day, also slept for more than 3h but still very tired and in pain, God what type of life that is ?! I know all of the stuff about changing diet, gentle exercise etc, however this isn’t a case for me at the moment, although I’m trying to eat better. I’m trying to get different pain killers but doctors don’t recommend much that I haven’t tried yet, I don’t want pregabalin it doesn’t agree with me and makes me more tired and dizzy, if you have any recommendations that I don’t know about it it yet it would be highly appreciated
fibro pain and tiredness : hi, I had a... - Fibromyalgia Acti...
fibro pain and tiredness
I have found with my autoimmune and fibro that I have to trial and error a lot of drugs to find ones that sort of work. I came off tramadol as did nothing for me amtripyline gabapentine duloxcetine etc. I think it’s important not to feel you can’t approach your GP and say what else can we try as it’s easy to fobbed off and if they lived with pain constantly (maybe they do) they would find a solution.
My GP Is good if I keep upping medication and it’s not working that he says no point let’s try another as it’s obviously not working. I always unless a bad reaction give new drugs 3-4months to kick in.
Hope this helps
My gp can’t come up with something that already don’t know or haven’t tried, they always try to convince you for anti inflammatory but they don’t work !! Only cause me stomach pain even with omeprazole! Only strong painkillers or opioids do a bit of a relief but then I get bollocks from them that I take too much of painkillers 😳 honestly I wish they would suffer like us sometimes and then maybe they would understand how hopeless we feel when we can’t do simple activities like used to!!
I got moved to pantoprazole as omeprazole was not kicking in as getting so much acid reflux and it’s got calmer thank god. I have just been referred for talking therapy I will give it a go as on so many medications will try anything 🥰
Hiya, I don't have the magic answer I'm afraid but I can sympathise with your despair over living like this. For me, I've had to accept doing less, pacing and avoiding stress. Heat helps me. Heat mat, hot water bottles, heated gilet, layers etc but I'm never pain free. Medication doesn't work for me, I've tried many things and put up with the side affects (and then gone through the withdrawal and put up with more side affects!) But we are all different. I recommend trying everything you can face and afford! Hugs x
Hi thank you for your reply. If I don’t take tramadol my day is ruined, the aches are so real I can’t even comprehend. I find it very difficult to accept the fact that I suffer with it and I’m constantly angry and upset so that definitely doesn’t help to manage my symptoms, I know I have to go through grieving process but how long that will take yet ? Everyone is different I guess. I hate my life at the moment although I feel grateful that I don’t have to work as i can’t imagine to get up and go straight to work like used to ( I always worked in physical jobs ) that would kill me, literally. Cold showers helps me a bit in short time, heat too, I love having a bath but at the moment I have shower only waiting for new bath in April so that will be blessing! Maybe warmer weather will make something a bit better, do you swim at all? Or do exercises that helping you ? Do you sleep well? I can’t sleep at all, my sleep is terrible and I wake up like zombie x
Hello, thank you for your reply too ☺️. I'm glad tramadol helps you. Anything that helps has to be grabbed with both hands hey! Like you I've only ever done physical jobs and I'm so grateful my husband supports my decision re working. I also find it hard to enjoy or even like life too so I understand how you're feeling. You make a good point about grieving. I'm a shadow of the person I used to be. Maybe this grief will ease with time but will it ever go, I don't know. Exercising doesn't help me. I find being mobile does but in moderation. I reckon swimming would help me if the water was very warm but most pools are too cold for me. Good sleep is a constant challenge too. My lovely and wonderful husband sleeps in another bedroom as sharing a bed just didn't work for me. This has improved my sleep and pain but I still wake like a zombie too. I feel like I've run a marathon, been hit by a bus and have the flu every morning! 😵😫 X
Yes that’s exactly how I feel! I literally drag my feet in the morning as I struggle to walk, I sleep sometimes on my own too and my husband is super supportive about things so that helps and I feel blessed that I have man like this. Do you use tens machine ? Apparently not good with fibro though , my rheumatologist told me although I use it for some pains and it does help a bit. Is funny to say oh that or this shouldn’t be use with fibro. But how you can say that if this illness is not even investigated that properly, and everything works differently for us all! Some people telling me to do workouts as it would help, but that’s b**l S**t because if I do overdo myself sometimes like when we going out with dogs and walk a lot etc. I suffer so badly after that with pain, so no excersise don’t work for me even though is recommended by doctors. Just annoys me when people saying what we should and shouldn’t do, as bad as that would sound but I’m experimenting with meds and life style as I need to live with this not those annoying people that tells me what I shouldn’t be doing! Hopefully you understand what I’m trying to say, is just me having a rant I get so annoyed sometimes! X
I definitely understand your rant and it's good to rant otherwise this stuff goes round and round in our heads until we go mad 🤯! I have a tens machine but I find it more of a distraction than a help with easing the pain but anything is worth a go. Although if you had strapped one to me in childbirth I would have thrown it out of the window 🤣! I'm the same if I walk too far. I definitely pay the price during, after and the next day! Little and often is probably best but how frustrating for both you and who you walk with 🙄. I think you're on the right track experimenting with a mixture of drugs and life style and you know your body best so zone out the know it alls! Fabulous to hear your husband is supportive too, I can't imagine how difficult it would be without them. Ironically this condition is never really diagnosed. It's just a label they slap on us to make us go away after ruling out anything that can actually be scientifically diagnosed and actually treated. It's all madness really, painful madness🤷🤦. X
Heated gilet! There's a lovely thought. Didn't know these were a thing. I will be looking into this. Thanks.
It was a new one to me too! Only had it a couple of weeks. I got mine from eBay but plenty on Amazon too. Most don't come with a battery pack so you have to buy this separate. It needs to be a big one so it lasts! Just watch the waist measurement as they come up a little small around there. Hope it helps x
I know about them I used to had one when I was working in very cold cafe, it came with battery and it was good but costed £100 I’m not massively into warmth, like in summer for instance I struggle a lot when is hot so I don’t think that would do a trick for me, but for some people I guess it might
Welcome to our own special crappy life that calls itself Fibromygia,
Sorry,sorry,sorry, I'm being a miserable git today,None of my pain meds are helping today, I get into a right state sometimes with lack of sleep, pain and being depressed,
With Tramadol I take 400mg now everything I'm taking was slowly increased,because it was slow I didn't really feel the benefits, I'm also on a drug called Dihydrocodeine 60mg modified release so 120mg ,Fluoxetine 60mg and 100mg of Amitriptyline ,I also take levothyroxine for Thyriode
(sorry can't spell) Just my luck,I got it where it makes losing weight difficult,
The rest are blood thinners, Zinc,Vit D and the rest of it for 1 thing and another, You said what sort of life is this? It's a horrible,selfish and all round sh65r 1,
I have to relay on a power chair now,inside as well as out now, My answer to that is.... stay in my bedroom until I have an appointment!
You have your age on your side, So do what you can with the life that you have, Figure out what path to follow and ask your GP to refer you to pain clinic and you will need some sort of help with Mental Health, It's nor just for nutters 😜, (Just kidding) But if you have good support around you, It's not all doom and gloom,
You will find a way to make your life a little easier and better for yourself and I really do hope you find your way, MartynaMalinowska88
Take care and look after yourself
Debs
Thank you for your message it’s actually good to hear that I’m not the one that feel tramadol helps a bit. I had a app with pain clinic but she just gave me s**t for taking too much pain relief 😳 I feel like some doctors are so c**p and because they don’t understand the issue they just tell you that paracetamol will cure all diseases!! I’m sorry that you are not very mobile I know how it feels sometimes, I will have a look on that one medication you have mentioned as j never heard of it before ) it was the second one I think you have mentioned ) all the best to you my love!
Hi Martyna
I take tramadol and pregabalin and it seems to work for the majority of pain but very tired all the time and my memory has suffered. There is another alternative to pregabalin which is gabapentin. They used to prescribe this before pregabalin was around and my friend, who has MS takes that one. Pregabalin and Gabapentin are for nerve pain but otherwise I take co-codamol which is codine and paracetamol. Have you tried any of these?
yes I have all. I don’t like pregabablin or that other one is just makes me feel weird and super tired! I can’t take codamol it doesn’t agree with me, I take solphedine as well most days as I suffer with headaches and that helps me with it, funny how some people say how bad is tramadol and all this blah blah blah, but it’s actually taking me out of bed, if I wouldn’t take this I would be in bed most of the day and asleep that how badly fibro affects my life, so it’s actually relief that you are saying that tramadol helps you a bit too, and I don’t care what Google says or gp that tramadol is not for fibro, clearly they know nothing!
Tramadol isn't really efficient pain relief for fibromyalgia but there are some people like myself that cannot take anti inflammatory drugs and are limited to what can be prescribed. The symptoms you have mentioned you are experiencing are inflammatory and probably why you aren't getting much relief. I only take 50mg and that is enough to make me nauseas, dizzy, groggy, sleep all day and feel like crap. It helps a little with the pain but not much. 250mg seems way too much. It is highly addictive. My GP will not prescribe more than 2 X 50mg a day. He will not let me have it on repeat either. Maybe try and see the pain clinic and see what they suggest. The dosage you are taking seems way excessive and will be hard to come off of and plenty of side effects. Tramadol also causes bad constipation. I have just spent three weeks with major constipation and two weeks on laxatives trying to get back to normal. That's on 50 mg every other day.
Sadly as there is no cure for fibromyalgia there are limited medication that will be offered. If you have tried most of them then it may be a case of diet, exercise, holistic treatment, tens machine, vitamins and supplements etc etc. I know I started taking devils claw which was working quite well until I realised they were a major interaction with one of my crucial meds I take.
Good luck.
No offence but you sound like my GP. Tramadol helps me for fibro hence I’m taking it, I didn’t ask for your opinion about tramadol, I ask people for advice or what they do to help with pain, tens machine isn’t for fibro at all! That’s what my rheumatologist said yet people using it with positive effects, and as proven tramadol works for so many people with fibro.
Tramadol is useful to those with fibro that it helps. There is research showing its positive effects and its class of medicine is not like other opioids with some of the research suggesting its effect in promoting serotonin to a small degree may be part of why it helps some. All fibro meds appear to work in sub groups of people.
NASAIDs are used for people with fibro but it does not make too much sense as fibro is not an inflammatory condition. I would also say the OPs description of symptoms could be any type of pain including fibro. As to addictive properties it is addictive to those that will find it addictive. I can start and stop it no problem at all and just have the "normal" pain and no withdrawal symptoms. I am at this moment trying a bit of time without tramadol and have not had any ill effects.
Dosage is not excessive either. My prescription is for 2 x 50mg up to 4 times a day and take as and when needed. So I can take up to 400mg a day.
I guess what I am trying to say is we are all different and one persons experience may not be another's.
Thank you so much for this ! And I agree 100%! People that trying to tell me I shouldn’t be taking tramadol or I take too much and all this blah blah blah just annoyes me !! Tens machine apparently shouldn’t be used in fibro either that is what my rheumatologist said yet people using it with positive effects! So best if everyone do what works for them, hence my Post here for advices what people do etc, not for been told I take too much tramadol and I might get addicted!
Same hear,I take the full whack, I can stand a little longer leaning on the kitchen work tops,
If you feel your GP isn't offering alternatives perhaps you could suggest that they refer you to either the pain clinic or a fibro clinic for more specialist advice. I have used both and found them very helpful.
newbie 
Fibro clinic
Just need to sleep.
