Looking for Physio or Personal Trainer in Edinburgh Area with Training or Experience Working with Clients Who Have Fibromyalgia

[MommaK75]

Greetings all, I am in the Edinburgh area, have fibromyalgia and am looking for a physio or personal trainer who has experience working successfully with people who have fibromyalgia.

Specifically, I am looking for support to help me develop and implement my exercise plan in a way that incorporates pacing and attention to my calming system. I am getting clearer on my baselines for different activities and goals to help me incrementally increase my movement and fitness slowly over time and in a way that engages appropriate breaks, change of activities, etc. I am looking for a physio or personal trainer who can meet with me weekly to help me slowly but consistently build my fitness without causing flare ups.

Many thanks for any recommendations you may be able to share!

Hope you are each well today...

[Evonne02]

Hello MommaK75,

I must admit that when HealthUnlocked asked me to reply to your post I assumed it would be someone who had worse symptoms that I did. You seem to be determined to get yourself into the best fitness/health regime possible. For that I admire you greatly & hope you're not in too much, if any pain.

For myself personally I would try contacting my local Pain Clinic, or seeing if my Gp will refer me to it, as well as the physio & personal trainer. If you're wanting private referrals you may not get this information from your Gp.

You could look into your local council gym who usually screen via seeing you & talking to you about your diagnosis, then coming up with a plan to support you with a personal trainer. This will come with a fee/ direct debit to join their gym. There's no extra cost for the Personal Trainer as that's part of the service the council provides as membership... but don't think you'll be shadowed at each attendance, just checked on periodically. You can still as questions, request the next/lower phase, etc.

You may even find the physio or Personal Trainer via researching through various search engines, community groups online such as fibromyalgia support groups or via Fibromyalgia UK themselves (you'll have to pay a yearly fee to join this group). You can also join

versesarthritis

as Fibromyalgia is a form of arthritis too, and is free to join. This has community pages for support and yearly challenges to raise funds for the charity.

Unfortunately, finding the help that's tailored to you as an individual can just be the luck of the draw. You must research 🙄 and cross reference to get the best of what you're entitled to. Once you have the 'knack' you can branch out and either build a directory (which requires yearly reviews), network, visit or contact Onestop Centres, libraries, community centres & events, etc.

At the 1st stage of my many arthritic forms, (around 5 years in, so over 10 years ago), I was referred to the NHS for a few weeks. I attended groups where we discussed our varied acute health issues, had lunch, did workshops, did role play, did chair based exercises, listened to speakers. I absolutely loved it and was given a book that I never thought I'd need. It's called Self-management of Long-term Health Conditions. A Handbook for People with Chronic Disease. It's based on an American model of healthcare self management. Written by the Expert Patients Programme Community Interest Company. This a good book and has sections about pacing yourself, living and arranging your home to ease the use of your home. Some councils have copies of this in their buildings that deal with Social Services, where you can pick up or call and request a copy, which will be the updated version.

You can if you want to ask your local Social Services for a Occupational Therapy assessment or a full assessment of needs. Some questions about physio or a personal trainer may be answered for you, especially from an OT with plenty of experience. Try, but don't hold too much hope in getting help here though 🙄

You, yourself, can look into the dietary aspects of this immune disease and use that to plan around your daily activities. Other health issues/impacts come with Fibromyalgia and must be investigated asap. You'll find little things you've had or experienced were an early indicator that you had the dreaded Fibromyalgia 😖

Some personal advice:

* Doing too much/pushing yourself too much can have the opposite effect of what you wanted.

* The pains will still be there, sometimes a little later, but they always come back.

* Your fibromyalgia can to some degree be managed, but it doesn't get any better as you age.

* There will be days when you can't keep to your schedule so just accept and carry on as normal when you can.

* Be pleased and proud of yourself for having the drive in you to dumb down these awful symptoms and try to control them.

* Try to keep up with your hobby, or try to find a new one.

Please let us know you get on as its a massive fight to get any help....... especially ongoing help. All the best 😍

[MommaK75 in reply to Evonne02]

Many thanks for your response Evonne02. Much appreciated. I've just completed the excellent 10 week Pain Management programme with the Astley Ainslie Hospital in Edinburgh so we have been establishing our baselines for movement and developing exercise plans through that. They are very minimal (in terms of the daily exercises in my plan), with only incremental increases planned, after yoyo-ing (boom and bust) for the past three years. The pain and fatigue will never go away entirely and I know flares will continue to be a part of it, but we've been taught that we can have some sort of movement / fitness level increase, particularly if we've gotten to a really low level (which I have). I know myself though and know having a physio or personal trainer to meet with weekly to check in can help keep me progressing - as long as that person is ofcourse really knowledgeable and does not try to get me to push through thresholds (but instead helps me to keep with the baselines - which is the challenge on good days). Sounds like there may not be a lot out there. Have tried my local gym and have done a lot of research online without great results. I have found some a physio who is also a somatic therapist and can support remotely so may go that may be the best route at this stage. Thanks so much again for your time and for helping me to explore the options. Hope all is well with you today!

[Evonne02 in reply to MommaK75]

Thanks for your reply MommaK75. I do hope you find a good cross section of help as it helps with motivation & mental health. I wish you the best on your journey and you can always post other requests for help when needed. This is a good space to access advice, information and support, vso don't be afraid no matter how mundane, minute or repetitive you think it may be. All the best 😍

[JessFM]

You'll probably find it cheaper to search fibromyalgia videos on Youtube. Check my recent post and search on Youtube 'The girl with the pilates mat'.. im really interested in her videos, they are very good