Hello

[stubal]

I am new to this site. Signed up to an Anxiety site and was directed by one of their councilors to this site as I said I had spinal problems, osteo arthritis and fibromyalgia. Had it 12 years now and life is tuff at times and so get low and anxious as a result.

Took a long time to be diagnosed but at least I can put a name to this damn condition, I suppose you will all know the symtoms, joint, muscle, tendon pain all over 24/7 365 days of the year.

Can't get comfortable whether sitting, standing or lying, have to move position every few minutes.

Have tried all the various meds which have side affects so off the lot now apart from Paracetamol so have bad nights and hardly any sleep. If anyone has any advice, tips on the condition that help I would be pleased to hear.

I slipped a disc about 16 years ago and seemed to go down hill from that point.

I'm 66 and was a fairly active person but have slowly almost ground to a halt.

Stuart:

[Hidden]

Hi Stuart, welcome to the club! You will find lots of lovely people on this site who experience similar pains to yourself. I am still working with my GP and the pain clinic to find the right balance of medication for me but I am sleeping better now because of them. Like you I didn't sleep at all really before I got Amitriptyline and cymbalta. Now things are at least a bit better.

I hope that you find this site as friendly and welcoming as I have done. All best wishes. Jane x

[stubal in reply to Hidden]

Hi Jane, thank you for your reply. I have been to pain clinics, take all the various meds but found that they caused me as many problems as they solved " catch 22 "

Stuart x

[irisjoy]

hi Stuart welcome to the site. it does seem we all wait years for diagnosis and suffer similar conditions to you , i think there is an ex pharmacist on here who may be able to suggest something to help, sorry i can,t remember his name but hopefully he/she will respond to your post J x

[stubal in reply to irisjoy]

Many thanks for your reply.

[Hidden]

Hello and welcome Stuart to our lovely forum! It's good to have you here! Take a look around through the Questions, Blogs and Tags, there is so much info there, personal experiences, support and advice, friendship too!

We all care and understand as we are all in the same boat, we all have Fibromyalgia and many of us have other illnesses and conditions too. If you have any concerns or worries, please contact us, we are always happy to help in any way we can.

Take care Stuart, you are amongst friends, enjoy your time with us!

[stubal]

Thank you so much for your kind words, It's comforting to be in contact at last with people who understand what I have to put up with. I have to admit to feeeling sorry for myself a lot of the time knowing so many people are worse off than me.

Stuart :

[hamble99b]

welcome Stuart, someone will generally respond but we all read the posts at different times of the day so don't despair if you don't hear straight away.

regards, sandra.

[stubal in reply to hamble99b]

Thanks Sandra.

[Hidden]

Feel free to feel sorry for yourself Stuart, we all do at times and it's good to get it off your chest. We are all here for each other, we all understand. Take care.

[stubal in reply to Hidden]

Hello and thank you.

Stuart.

[maxii123]

Hi Stuart,, you sound like the problems i have, I broke my back 4 years ago and damaged the L1 -S1 & T11 - T12 discs, i now have spinal cord compression and bulging discs, and my pelvis dropped and twisted on the left hand side. For the last four years they have been treating my back with every possible option you can think of, but i was still in constant pain, but everywhere not just in my back, a few months ago they have diagnosed Fibro and this answers a lot of questions as to why i am in constant pain. I suffer mostly in my ankles and hips and my back is extremely sensitive, but get flare ups in my shoulder and knees too. In fact only today I have a "new" pain, in the first joint of my thumb! and i can't use it to put any pressure - it hurts!! lol I hope that just chatting on here will help

Maxine x

[stubal in reply to maxii123]

Hi Maxine, your all very kind !

Thank you for taking time out to reply to my post.

Stuart x

[Ginsing]

Morning Stuart,

This site is excellent and I am sure tips a plenty will flow your way! We all have bad days and good this is where as friends and co -conspiritors we reflect and laugh and try to learn how to live with this horrid illness. It is most useful full of lovely people so welcome xgins

[stubal in reply to Ginsing]

Hi, yeah people seem so nice and friendly. Mind it's one hell of a way to have to meet nice people. I'd never heard of Fibromyalgia before getting the damn thing. How you get it God alone seems to know, but it's an awful thing and spoils life a lot of the time !

Thanks again for your kind words.

Stuart.

[lynnh in reply to stubal]

Hi Stuart, welcome to our fibro family. I started off the same as you with disc problems about 20 years ago, I was diagnosed with fibro 3 years ago and the Rheumatologist said it was a result of the long standing back problems. Basically the brain gets confused as to where the pain signals are coming from so tells your whole body it feels pain. The meds only really take the edge off unless you manage to hit on the right combo (I'm still looking lol), as you say the side effects can be a pain but sometimes they do wear off if you can stick with them x

[Dixiesdaughter]

Hi stuart

Welcome to the site. If your looking for info, advice, guidance, a safe space to rant, moan or vent, a sympathetic hearing, shoulder to cry on, friendship and even the odd bit of craic - then you've come to the right place Hope you find your time here as productive and pleasant as I have warm (((((hugs))))) from wet & coooooold belfast

Dixie

[stubal]

Hi Dixie, thanks for your kind welcoming words. It's not so warm in Tyneside either !

Stuart.

[ArctoLindy]

Hi Stuart, I've only been on this site for a short time and I've already found it very helpful and everyone has been so nice I'm in the same position as you in that the side effects have been worse than the symptoms so apart from the thyroxine I have to take (which took months to get used to), paracetamol is the only painkiller I can tolerate and I only take that when I'm crawling the walls. I hope you find this group useful too. Welcome from a warmish and sunnyish south east

Belinda.

[stubal in reply to ArctoLindy]

Thanks very much Belinda.

Stuart.

[myrtil]

Im kind of new 2 this site aswell..I do read every ones problems,so it does help to know im not the only one with pain etc...(MY first comment) ..Hugs xx

[stubal in reply to myrtil]

Hi, I can't believe the number of lovely people sending messages, thank you.

Stuart x

[myrtil]

Its because we ALL understand the pain etc..xx..

[stubal in reply to myrtil]

Yes there must be so many people out there suffering various levels of pain.

What gets me is before this all started I thought there was a tablet for all pain that would work well, how wrong I was.

[Waterlily]

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to this great site. You'll never feel your going through it alone again. Everyone here is so supportive and the shared knowledge has been invaluable to me, as I hope it will be to you.

[stubal in reply to Waterlily]

Thank you very much.

[theshadow]

Hi Stuart

I agree that pain killers are so wrongly named! They just take the edge off pain, pain dullers would be a more apt name!

Hope you get comfort & guidance from this site. I have found it invaluable to have people's kind replies, you know you are no longer alone & that means so much!

Gentle hugs to you xx

[stubal in reply to theshadow]

Hi, as you say pain killer is a misused term, if only they did !

Thanks for your post.

Stuart x