Save Yourself from Fibromyalgia
A patient, Mrs. H., wrote me this letter and had sought my medical advice, it reads:
“Dear doctor, I woke up on a Monday
morning experiencing pain all over my body. I was rushed to the hospital
as I was in severe pain and could not turn my neck sideways. It was
like a stiff neck.
“It started in my wrist, radiating to my
fingers and slowly made its way up to my elbow and felt bad. I have
been experiencing burning and tingling sensation in my hands and my
feet. I was sent home when I initially had symptomatic relief.
“My doctor ran some tests, including the
test for rheumatoid arthritis — they came back negative. I now have
pain in my feet like a crushing sensation, especially in the mornings,
back and hip pain and pain in my knee and ankle. My husband thinks it
requires local massager/traditional bone doctor. What could be wrong
with me?”
I replied her, telling her to send all
her test results and the medication she was on. In one of the test
results, there was a provisional diagnosis of fibromyalgia, which was in
keeping with all her features.
I informed her that I agreed with the
provisional diagnosis of the physician and told her to go for a second
opinion consultation with a specialist.
Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterised
by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, stiffness,
sleep disturbance, memory and mood issues. It is pain in the fibrous
tissues and muscles.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition,
meaning it lasts a long time — possibly a lifetime. However, it may be
comforting to know that fibromyalgia is not a progressive disease.
It is never fatal, and it will not cause
damage to the joints, muscles, or internal organs. In many people, the
condition does improve over time.
For unknown reasons, between 80 and 90
per cent of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia are women; however, men
and children can also be affected.
Risk factors: Some risk factors that can
either make fibromyalgia more likely, or act as a trigger for the
condition, include: physical trauma (damage to the body’s tissues),
psychological trauma (an incident that causes emotional damage, such as
the death of a loved one), a viral infection (such as hepatitis B,
hepatitis C or HIV/AIDS), and malaria.
Other risk factors are: being depressed,
metabolic disturbances such as an hypothyroidism — when the thyroid
gland does not produce enough of the thyroid hormone; inflammatory
disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis — a condition that causes joint
pain and stiffness, among others.
Symptoms: The symptoms sometimes
begin after a physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant
psychological stress. In other cases, symptoms gradually accumulate over
time, with no single triggering event.
The symptoms are listed below: chronic
muscle pain, muscle spasms, or tightness, fatigue (extreme tiredness),
decreased energy, insomnia or waking up feeling just as tired as when
you went to sleep, stiffness upon waking or after staying in one
position for too long, itchy/burning sensation on the skin.
Other symptoms are difficulty
remembering, concentrating, and performing simple mental tasks,
abdominal pain, tension or migraine headaches, jaw and facial
tenderness, feeling anxious or depressed, numbness or tingling in the
face, arms, hands, legs, or feet, increase in urinary urgency or
frequency (irritable bladder), reduced tolerance for exercise and muscle
pain after exercise, a feeling of swelling (without actual swelling) in
the hands and feet.
Treatment
There is no total cure for fibromyalgia,
but treatment eases the symptoms and improves the quality of life. As
fibromyalgia has a number of different symptoms, no single treatment
will work for all of them.
A variety of treatments — normally a combination of medication and lifestyle changes — will improve the quality of life.
Analgesic/pain killers: such as
Paracetamol, can be used to treat pain. If Paracetamol is not effective,
a stronger pain killer, such as Codeine or Tramadol can improve pain
and may also help one to function better in one’s daily activities.
Antidepressant medicines for
fibromyalgia are not prescribed specifically to treat depression. They
are used to boost the levels of certain neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages to and from the
brain. A new anti convusulatant is also used in treating fibromyalgia.
Sleeping pills and muscle relaxants are also adjuvant in the treatment of fibromyalgia.
Exercise, relaxation, and better sleeping habits also improve the quality of life.
In conclusion, fibromyalgia can make
sleeping difficult. The following advice may help if fibromyalgia is
affecting sleep: Go to bed and get up at the same time every night and
morning; try to relax before bed, avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol
before going to bed; avoid eating a heavy meal late at night.
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