Fibromyalgia plus Tendonitis

[Bee001]

Hi everybody

I am newly diagnosed with fibromyalgia and tendinitis, they are both quite painful.

I am just wondering if anyone has been managing the both conditions successfully?

Any exercise at the moment causes further pain and tendons inflammation.

[Rs06]

Hi when I had this in both wrists and arms I used sports tape during the day for support as wrist splints I found did not help ( you can find on YouTube how to tape for tendinitis). I also went to a chiropractor once a week for acupuncture and vibration on my wrists and arms and this did help massively . Hope you find something that can work 😊

[Matrix]

I have both and from the age of ten years .I had fibromyalgia I now am a nana with 7 grandchildren .I have tendinitis in both arms legs !I also have golfers and tennis elbows and carpal tunnel in both hands and a lot more although I won’t bore you with it .I can recommend you wearing splints on the arms .xxHope it helps .xx

[Bee001 in reply to Matrix]

Thank you for your advice. Unfortunately I have to be “bare below elbows” at work where I especially need that splint or tape support.

My tendons where they attach to the bone swell and painful as a result of any activity. Naproxen helps but it’s bad for kidneys to take it on regular basis.

[Bmw640]

Hi Bee

I’m not much help to you with the Fibro side of things because mine is quite advanced & I’m not finding anything that helps. However I do have a couple of tips for helping your tendinitis which you could try.

One is to find a soft but supportive pillow and lay it across your lap when you’re siting down and rest your arms on it in the least painful position you can find. It can be very useful for resting those overworked angry tendons of yours. The other is to ask your doctor to refer you to a consultant specialising in hand, arm & potentially shoulder conditions (for whichever part is causing your tendinitis). They in turn can send you to a specialist occupational therapist who can make you splints tailored specifically to your hand or arm shape whichever you need. I found the hand splints to be very helpful especially the stretch fabric ones.

Apart from these you could try frozen medical gel packs wrapped in a towel which can relieve some of the inflammation in your tendons. If you find the cold doesn’t work for you or makes it worse then try the opposite - a heat pack.

Hope you can get some relief from your pain & something I’ve suggested works for you.

Best wishes

Bm

[oldwomaninpain]

I really don't 'manage' these two (amongst other issues) I just whimper a lot, won't take meds as they disagree with me

My tendinitis is in shoulders and upper arms, even the slightest movement can trigger it, cold / ice packs relieves it a bit, then I just 'wait it out' till it subsides enough to be able to function again

I wish you well in finding a solution

Ann xx

[Twin4Life]

I have tendonitis in my hands (wrists and thumbs), elbows, and most recently my achilles tendons. I was told not to wear splints too much as wearing splints for long periods of time can cause your muscles to waste away due to lack of use. You could try wearing splints at night when you sleep, but I wouldn't advise wearing them too often in the day.

I have not tried sports tape as someone mentioned above, but that is probably a better idea than splints.

I do exercises once a day for my hands and my elbows. I should probably do the exercises at least three times a day, but I'm too tired for that. The exercises help a little with the pain, and they help A LOT with keeping my hands and elbows functional. If I don't do my exercises for a few days my hands and elbows will become noticeably stiffer and I become significantly clumsier (e.g. I drop stuff more and find using my fine motor skills difficult). I also do exercises for my achilles tendons once every day, but so far I am not seeing any results from them, and find they are quite painful to do. So I can't really give you any advice on that front.

Ice does not help me, as I have poor circulation in my hands and arms and feet, so coldness makes my tendinitis worse. I find that warming my hands up helps with the pain. But, you will have to find what works for you.

Also try to avoid repetitive movements that aggravate the pain. I have de quervain's tenosynovitis which is tendinitis in the thumbs. Because of this I find playing video games with a controller/joysticks causes me a lot of pain and makes the tendonitis much worse. I have had to give up playing them for the time being even though I love them.

I would not advise taking Naproxen regularly for your tendonitis as it is very harsh on the digestive system and you could end up with gastritis (inflammation of the digestive tract). And, if you do decided to take it regularly then you should also take lansoprazole to protect your stomach. But, be warned, lansoprazole will affect your ability to absorb B12 and you will probably need to take B12 supplements as well. (I speak from experience as I had to take lansoprazole for a few years for unrelated stomach issues.)

You could try using ibuprofen gel on your inflamed tendons. I only use it on very bad days, but I think its safe to use on a regular basis as you are not ingesting it, so it shouldn't affect your digestive system. However, do not use voltarol regularly, because it is a much stronger NSAID than ibuprofen, and I have read that even using it topically can cause gastritis because it is so strong.

[Bee001]

Thank you very much for your replies. I did find that keeping hands in warm water helps with stiffness, so at home and at work I do it few times a day. My tendinitis unfortunately is not only in my arms, wrists, but in the hips and ankles as well. At work I have to do quite a bit of walking, standing and handling, so by 11am I am usually completely “spent”! But still long time to go till 6pm…. Altogether, I found that my fibromyalgia is getting slowly but surely worse, just in May I felt quite a bit better than I do now. When I overdo it, which happens almost every time at work, my tendons get quite warm and painful to extent that even touching the skin over where the tendon is incredibly painful, never had this before. I saw physio a week ago and she referred me to pain clinic.