Rheumatism?

[aliceinwonderland]

Hi, following an injury 10 years ago i have had terrible neck and arm pain, with shoulder dropping and feeling of arm weakness. following various diagnosis's the pain spread, now all over in bones nerves and muscles. Have osteoarthritis def in lower back, neck and shoulder. Fibromyalgia mentioned but now told don't think is but saw they wrote rheumatism as primary diagnosis. Am constantly exhausted but told result of chronic pain, not me. Has anyone else had this catch all diagnosis? I understand not commonly used term now but got it from an excellent hospital.

[croc644]

Dear Aliceinwonderland,

I too had an injury - severe whiplash, that has left me with chronic pain. Osteoarthritis in my neck and nueropathic pain in one arm and hand - weakness so bad i can't even lift my wine glass!

The best thing i ever did was the Pain Management Programme over 10 weeks with follow ups over a year. This helped with everything - pacing activities - how you think about your pain. I am now doing more than ever. There are still days when i can't peel a potato - but I can open the freezer for the meal i did another day.

Chronic pain can be very debilitating - so you need all the help you can get, hope there is a PMP at the hospital where you got your diagnosis.

regards Sheila

[peaceandserenity in reply to croc644]

Thanks for sharing your experience Sheila - sounds very similar symptoms and problems - with your hand and arm did you have nerve conduction tests? it's just that my arm and hand feels heavy, weak and uncomfortable all the time (with the added neuropathic pain thrown in for good measure) but nerve conduction tests done at time of injury did not show anything significant and because can use it you can't 'see' the difficulties (did have rib taken out though as thought might be thoracic outlet problem). I did a pain management programme, which was useful...think I need to relook at mindfulness...and be better at pacing.

thanks

Best wishes

xx

[johnsmith]

You have a diagnosis which is meaningless. What can you do with it other than say I have rheumatism.

You need to obtain help to deal with muscles which are contracting when they should not in all sorts of places.

People who can help with problematic muscle contractions are Yoga Teachers. Alexander Teachers. Various types of masseurs. Also McTimony Chiropractors may be able to help.

Muscle contraction problems is something that you have to continually work at to keep on top of.

have a long at

stat.org.uk/

Hope this helps

[Hidden]

After reading about all your suffering, I must say that I have similar problems. Mainly osteo-arthritis in practically every joint in my body. Every day I suffer a lot of pain but now and again I become really ill with pain in my neck, back, buttocks, arms, legs and hands. Chronic pain. I'm on patches and now trying Amitriyline, a few days ago, to see how I get on. I'll let you know how I get on because I'm having to take a couple of co-codomol inbetween as well.