Does anyone else get what I call "Bro... - Fibromyalgia Acti...

Fibromyalgia Action UK

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Does anyone else get what I call "Broken Arm Syndrome"

deelightful profile image
26 Replies

When ever I do a heavy job, like a lot of cleaning or gardening, a lot of work on a keyboard and other repetitive jobs, whereby you use your arms to the point you feel like it is broken. Everything just hurts, if you have ever broken a arm you would understand where I am coming from. A deep sickening pain, it need to go in a sling, holding it up is probably best relief. or heat sometimes help. I normally take some heavy pain relief and go to bed and try and sleep through it. Boy does it hurt. I don't know if this has anything to do with FM or something else. Another way I can describe it is like a repetitive sprain Injury.

I have had this since I was a teenager, I am late 40's now. Every doctor I have talked to has never given me a reason why this should happen.

Love to know what you all have to say,

Your fibro friend

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deelightful profile image
deelightful
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26 Replies
julieevh profile image
julieevh

I know just what you mean, I have always thought it was only me that gets bone-tired! Heaven only knows what causes it but heat and rest seem to ease it.

Julie xx

It's me too! I literally have skeleton tiredness at the moment, every bone aches! I think this symptom is probably more common than we realise with Fibromyalgia. One of the symptoms listed does state that there can be widespread pain widespread pain and tenderness in the muscles, bones and joints, I can vouch for that tonight, ouchie! :(

FionaP profile image
FionaP

Ouch. Me too. Have been typing a few long overdue messages to friends today and I am just about to crash. Good night xx

Ginsing profile image
Ginsing

Wow I thought it was just me how silly. I perpetually find I am holding my left arm as if it is in a sling. It does help a bit. It is always made worse by typing on the computer or if I try to wash a window (why should I do that - really I wonder at myself) xgins

Extremelygrumpy profile image
Extremelygrumpy

This is why my physical ability has changed so drastically if I try any of the things mentioned in the main comment my right shoulder and neck go into spasm . Lasts 3 days and shoots along my shoulder up my neck into my head for a 3 day migraine like headache. That's why I have trigger point injections and a cleaner and use an iPad. Can't use vacuum can't use mouse on normal keyboard lift anything heavy .. Not even a handbag can't lift anything no repetitive actions like knitting etc,... I could go on and usually do ;) why can't dla accept this is severely limiting my mobility ....but no as I can stagger on sticks I am fine..... Rant over... Returns to hibernation,

VGx

ShadowWolf profile image
ShadowWolf

I know what you mean, this happens with my arms also my legs to the point were it feels like my shin bones are going to shatter. It does get frustrating as I can not longer knit or do cross stitch and walking causes the pain in my shins. It basically seems to be any repetitive movement.

jaov61 profile image
jaov61

Know exactly how you feel last wk about 4" below my shoulders hurt as if broken thing is my meds although worked a bit i still had constant pain good to know its not just me and there are more of us out there

Dixiesdaughter profile image
Dixiesdaughter

This is so familar to me. On good days a bit of tlc heat and a painkiller help to keep the pain in check, on bad days Nothing helps!!! At its worse the pain in the 'broken arm' leaves it incapacitated it cannot be used at all; it has no strenght to lift or hold even the lightest of objects and the fingers cannot be used; so tasks like typing txting writing using cutlery etc are a complete nightmare. The pain from the arm also travels to my shoulder nd neck Area making them stiff & sore and I then end up with a 'crick' in the neck which pulls my neck to one side and looks ridiculous!!! O the joys of fibro :-)

Dixie xx

Bev95 profile image
Bev95

I know exactly how you feel ..sometimes it feels like someone has hit my arm, hands or leg with a hammer it hurts so much I feel sick...I often have to go and lie down and take some pain meds....I have tried heat that does ease it a bit but I still have to lie down...and take the pain meds....so you have all my sympathy.... Gentle hugs Bev :)

SootyB profile image
SootyB

Blimey, is that down to fibro, then? I've had that for a while, but more so since the fibro really started up last year. More and more things seem to crop up on this site that I've noticed on and off for a few years, never thought about, and then got a lot worse when the big pain thing finally hit. I do find that, if I do a heavy clinical load, or when I tried to do my chap's garden (ended up laid out on his living room floor for 3 hours - he won't let me do it now, and is paying someone to sort it out!), or if I'm typing a lot, I have to cradle my arm up against my chest. Likewise with my legs, if I've done a lot of driving in traffic (so on and off the clutch), or walking or standing for ages.

It's amazing what you can find out on here! xx

deelightful profile image
deelightful

Thanks so much for all your comments, so it is not just me, I am not imagining all this. All these years I have had Fibro and did not know it or why I was in so much pain. I am glad I found this site, it is really answering so many questions I have had for too long. , thank you all my FIBRO FRIENDS you are helping me more than you can imagine.

regards to all.

josieowl profile image
josieowl

thanks for posting this. i have been reading a lot on this site and realising why i have all these different pains ect. i have been diagnosed last yr with fybro but did not really know a lot about it. my arms and my leg go a lot when i drive, which i do a lot. also if i stand or hold something when standing i feel as if my lower back is going to snap in two.

irishlady76 profile image
irishlady76

Thanks for this post I thought it was me being a bit odd when I do anything a little bit strenuous I feel like i have broken or fractured a bone "at least I am not going mad " thank god for this site I hurt all the time but sometimes its sheer agony and I have to take large dose of really strong painkillers. I walked a short way today with my stick as I had to have eyetest and now i feel as though I have just completed a marathon well soft hugs Deelight and all of our little group xx

eviemadison profile image
eviemadison

my arm feels broken but now my feet feels like i am walking on broken bones VERY painful i feel like cutting them off

suejayjay profile image
suejayjay

What a very apt discription! Yep I get it too. I can't carry anything and I mean anything with my arms at full streach downwards. Not making myself very clear here! The pain is indescribable and only by supporting it at a 90 deg. angle will it gradually subside. Also get same pain in my shin bones from time to time, but no idea what causes that to flear up! Thought my arms were due to my neck/ carpal tunnel problems. Seems it is another common denominator to fibro. XX

Butterfly54 profile image
Butterfly54

Aer you sure you have never fallen and broken that fall using your hand.

I now have impingement in my arem and we traced it back to two bad falls I had.

Pain is just the same and never goe`s.

xx

deelightful profile image
deelightful in reply to Butterfly54

I understand where you are coming from, I have broken my left arm twice, hence why I call it broken arm syndrome, I get the sensation in both no matter. Drs never tracked it down, "psychosomatic" was there diagnosis. What you don't know then it is all in the mind. No in the arm, I know the difference!.

Ozzygirl64 profile image
Ozzygirl64

Like VG get it pretty bad in my right arm and shoulder, neck and head. It gets to the point that I can no longer move the arm and it takes day to recover from it xxxxx

roundaway profile image
roundaway

I get the 'broken arm' feeling also. I have had it for a long time now. Sometimes it is the right arm, then maybe the left. If I am really lucky it get it in both arms at the same time. I usually get pain in my neck and shoulder along with it and it does make me feel sick. The total body pain is so true. Knowing what it is helps me. I was diagnosed 5 years ago and I am now very familiar with every symptom that Fibro can throw at me and how best to treat each symptom separately. Recently I had to see a consultant regarding severe leg and back pain. He tried to tell me it was part of the Fibro but I knew different and had to really fight him before he would give me an MRI scan and confirm that it was something different. Doctors do frequently lump all our inllnesses into the one category 'Fibro' but it isn't always the case.

Annleea profile image
Annleea

i've had days like this yet no answers, i tend to hold my arm up while sat, yet other days both arms are so heavy they just dont want to work, and the shaking of hands after using them, i find this very hard to deal with. all the best

deelightful profile image
deelightful

well done you. I never seem to win in this situation.

MrScamp profile image
MrScamp

I am going to do the best i can to reply here in a way that is visual as well as practical - I saw my pain management specialist a on Wednesday and got a good answer about this type of thing.

For those who suffer with fibromyalgia the wiring for pain reception and transmission get all (my word here) gurfurgled. It is as if our 'wiring' gets rerouted and the wrong bits do the wrong things in the wrong time/place/order so that the wrong information and interpretations get sent to the brain and the wrong responses get sent. Instead of activity that is manageable it records messages that suggest we tried to be super champions without training or warming up first (and there is a grain of truth in this) - our brain tells us that we hurt really badly and we actually do - because our brains tell us this - Apparently specific MRI's taken under staged circumstances (I can't remember what the specialist said about the circumstances) show that our electrical circuitry has hard wired and if we have lived with the condition for a long time the wiring becomes permanent whereas over a limited period of time if caught I think this can be reversed and there still are circumstances where this can be reversed so do not give up hope. The fact that this is demonstrable with pictorial evidence (the MRI brain scan ) should help us all to feel validated. I think it is kind of both in the mind an in the body - there is a connection and it is skewed and we do suffer and it is real! Although it is real we still have some choices - we can learn (in fact we have to to survive) how to select which activities are important and which we can let go, we can learn how to best pace ourselves to get the best we can out of life and this will be different for each of us, and we can choose to allow ourselves a healthy range of emotions or we can choose to limit ourselves in our emotional response. Now re the chocolate box experience - we have favourites but sometimes our tastes change and trying out a different one every now and again I think is a good idea. I haven't come to terms yet with the limitations or changes that fibro brings to my life and I am choosing to be careful in which chocolates/emotions I select to have regularly and which I will indulge in less often. For example I will choose the very rich stomach churning ones on rarer occasions - such as when I choose to get cross with a medical person or member of staff when I need my claim to go through so that if my stomach has to churn it does so for very good reason - no point having a gripping stomach for no enjoyment is there? So when I choose to get cross about my claim etc. I will have a very careful account recorded ready to trot out so that I am in control of me - I may not be able to fully control my condition (the fibro), I may not be able to control the offices to where I need to apply (how do I know whether or not they have a good/bad hair day or a fight with their other half before they came to work or if they are about to lose their job? I cannot, but I can choose my emotional interaction with them.

I actually spent time with my arms this very week with my brain telling me that they both needed to be in separate slings (picture the criss cross inconvenience if you will) so I double checked this with my brain - 'is this really the case? will my arms really explode/drop off if they are not in slings? what does my body really need my brain to know? - it turned out that all of me needed my brain to know that it really was time to stop what I was doing and have some time doing something less active for so long that it could forget - meanwhile the brain was quite happy to fetch a full medical team on standby - I settled for a nice english cup of tea, a read of a chapter of a good book and a complete break from the activity that I was doing - if I hadn't done that I knew that my brain would have taken me off line altogether somehow and I know how crafty my brain can be when it is trying to protect my body. I have run out of time now, misjudged myself (again) but hope I entertained and wrote something that helped someone somewhere. x darri x

deelightful profile image
deelightful

Hello Darri and thanks,

This is amusing but also very informative, I suggest that you put this on a blog, because I feel so many would benefit from your words, I know I have. Thank you. It reads like you are a bit of a writer. Maybe you could team up with Fibroaction and create a factual and amusing way to help understand and cope with F.M.S,

Thanks again and to your Pain Management Specialist.

regards deelightful

I read somewhere that fibro sufferers are more prone to tennis elbow. My right arm is really bad and my doctor said its because ive over done it and my body cant take the strain anymore. He said work with fibromyalgia, dont fight it or over do it!! I did it lifting the kettle lol no hope then Terrie x

MaryroseAScott profile image
MaryroseAScott

Hello, I am new to this website. I have been doing research into this "broken arm" feeling, and it is apparently related to the tendons which attach the muscles to the arm. The lining of the tendon gets inflamed and swollen. I am learning that it is associated with what I eat, since I am chemically hypersensitive and my body is not processing the things I eat properly. So, go on a "green" diet for a few days, avoiding all things white, drink a lot of distilled water, and take probiotics.

superfinechef profile image
superfinechef

I have same issue, dealing with it right now, for me its my left wrist. It funcutions but at times feels as if it is shattered.

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