SylviaMarsh t1_j6zyj4q wrote on February 3, 2023 at 2:02 AM

I have fibromyalgia and (sadly) this is an eerily accurate representation of many folks' conceptions of fibro pain. It's right up there with "oh, but you don't look sick, so you must be okay, right?"

I mean, every single one of my bones and joints feel as though they're on fire and being drilled through with power tools but...yeah...I must be fine because I don't have any visible signs of illness.

This fire-body image is scarily close to depicting fibro pain; I'm going to use this when describing my pain levels to folk from this point on. Thanks for this, OP; it's most helpful!

sleepyghostmp3 OP t1_j703pke wrote on February 3, 2023 at 2:41 AM

Wow I'm so sorry to hear that dude, that sounds very difficult. I honestly didn't think the piece would have this kind of effect but I'm glad to hear that it did. I wish you well with everything in the future

SylviaMarsh t1_j718z28 wrote on February 3, 2023 at 10:07 AM

Thank you; it's not easy, but I have times where the pain and fatigue are less severe, so I've learned to appreciate those periods when they come around.

Thanks again for sharing this; it certainly resonated with my own personal experience, and it will be a most useful tool to direct folk to this when I'm trying to convey what I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. All the best. :)

_Ahri_ t1_j7ju07n wrote on February 7, 2023 at 8:42 AM

so like. you are describing literally everyone with any other problem. (like legally blind folks). without an understanding there is zero comprehension. and people will talk down the issue. but like... honestly. its also the fact that there is no "proof" persay, that doesn't help either. its like waking up after a really hard day of working. everything is stiff and sore and doesn't want to move. but what do you do when your body is in pain? you message it and put it in even more pain!(scientifically it works. just biased on the fact that your body can only produce so much pain chemical. its not an infinite pool. its does need to replace its pain juice in lamens terms. and not a body as a whole but the localized areas) but that comes down to how different people think. and that is why FMS can use anything from anti depression, to muscle relaxants, to pain pills, to bloody talk therapy. its because there is no tangible definition of what FMS is. but all the other problems associated are! its like FMS completely clouds the diagnosis by hiding the underlining problem with something that is very misunderstood. but then again. i say to myself every day "growing old aint for the weak" its why you fight through the pain while you mentally can before you just want to sit there in pain in the older years. its just a part of life

SylviaMarsh t1_j7pl5lh wrote on February 8, 2023 at 2:40 PM

I mean, for me personally, fibro is only one of several chronic conditions I have to manage in my day-to-day life (others include an inoperable herniated disc, as well as microscopic colitis).

You're right: waking up every day feeling as though you completely overdid it the previous day is hard to live with. Before I realised that caffeine was a massive trigger for my fibro pain, I'd wake up every morning feeling as though I'd been in a car crash. Without caffeine in my diet, I now have daily pain that's somewhere around a 5 out of 10; this is my "business as usual", although I still have flare-ups from time to time.

When you're dealing with one chronic health problem, it's a challenge. When you're dealing with several of them, life is damn near impossible at times.