Men, Pain & Fibromyalgia

I've suspected for a while that TB might have fibromyalgia in addition to the joint and other related issues that causes him so much pain he can't sleep and the doctor needed to increase his meds.

Here is a fact that is very frustrating: men are not "supposed" to suffer with pain. They are "supposed" to suck it up and tough it out and go do whatever even if they are ready to drop because of agony. That makes me crazy. I can tell you times when we weren't able to go to some function and someone said something to the effect that TB should just tough it out.

And fibromyalgia? Hey, that's "a woman's thing". Guess what. No it isn't! There are websites out there with information about men and fibromyalgia like this one.

Men are raised to believe that men don’t cry. They are told to "shake it off" and to "take it like a man." Men fix things, men are the hunters, men are supposed to be the breadwinners, the head of the household. Men are inundated with these concepts from a very early age. Showing pain is showing weakness to so many men. Fibromyalgia does not shake off. Fibromyalgia does not give up. It does not stop for anyone, or anything.

Even TB's doctor, the one who increased the level of his really scary-heavy-duty-narcotic pain medication scoffs. He agreed to check the trigger points from head to waist. Although TB was sensitive in all those places, the doctor thinks TB's got neuropathy or that all this pain is from "the loss of all that weight". Right. The pain in his neck and skull is from weight loss. Suuuuuuuure.

Like me, TB's also experiencing this scary thing called fibrofog. I think of it as like having cotton-candy-in-the-brain. It doesn't happen all the time but when it does, it's really debilitating! Now, have this happen to a man who's already saddled with all these expectations about what a guy is supposed to think and feel and it's even more debilitating because now they're beating themselves up because it's happening. Grrrrr!

That's okay. We're going to a chronic pain management specialist, one who deals with fibromyalgia and one who can advise us the best way to manage all that pain.

And everyone else? We're doing the best we can. We're not pushing past the point of endurance and no more sucking it up either.

A New Puzzle

Quick update: TB and I both went to a new pain management doctor--we like him very much! He confirmed that yes, I do have fibromyalgia, gave me a shot of cortisone in the base of my right thumb (the joint was very inflamed) and is sending me for an MRI because I might have disk problems which are causing the troubles I'm having with my legs and feet. So it goes.

Puzzles like this help distract me! I think you have to have Flash Player but I'm not sure...please let me know if you have any troubles with it!

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Stress and Chronic Pain Are Baaaaad For You!

I knew all about chronic stress being bad for you. When you are under stress, your levels of cortisol increase. Cortisol helps you in an emergency--it's very much involved in the "fight or flight" response." But it can be a particularly nasty hormone that wreaks havoc with your ability to use insulin properly...in other words, you get fatter from it even if you don't overeat. It raises your blood pressure. It messes with your thyroid function. It does all these things if your body doesn't come down from the "fight or flight" state. Your body has to have a recovery period and if it doesn't, bad things happen. I know all that and have been learning how to cope with heightened stress levels and learning how to relax.

I should have known that chronic pain would be very bad for you too--I mean, other than the fact that you hurt all the time. Here is an article I just read...and with my stress levels, I am sure I shouldn't have been reading it this time of the night!

The Brain Is Harmed By Chronic Pain
06 Feb 2008

People with unrelenting pain don't only suffer from the non-stop sensation of throbbing pain. They also have trouble sleeping, are often depressed, anxious and even have difficulty making simple decisions.

In a new study, investigators at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine have identified a clue that may explain how suffering long-term pain could trigger these other pain-related symptoms.

Researchers found that in a healthy brain all the regions exist in a state of equilibrium. When one region is active, the others quiet down. But in people with chronic pain, a front region of the cortex mostly associated with emotion "never shuts up," said Dante Chialvo, lead author and associate research professor of physiology at the Feinberg School. "The areas that are affected fail to deactivate when they should."

They are stuck on full throttle, wearing out neurons and altering their connections to each other.

This is the first demonstration of brain disturbances in chronic pain patients not directly related to the sensation of pain. The study will be published Feb. 6 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Chialvo and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of people with chronic low back pain and a group of pain-free volunteers while both groups were tracking a moving bar on a computer screen. The study showed the pain sufferers performed the task well but "at the expense of using their brain differently than the pain-free group," Chialvo said.

When certain parts of the cortex were activated in the pain-free group, some others were deactivated, maintaining a cooperative equilibrium between the regions. This equilibrium also is known as the resting state network of the brain. In the chronic pain group, however, one of the nodes of this network did not quiet down as it did in the pain-free subjects.

This constant firing of neurons in these regions of the brain could cause permanent damage, Chialvo said. "We know when neurons fire too much they may change their connections with other neurons and or even die because they can't sustain high activity for so long," he explained.

'If you are a chronic pain patient, you have pain 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every minute of your life," Chialvo said. "That permanent perception of pain in your brain makes these areas in your brain continuously active. This continuous dysfunction in the equilibrium of the brain can change the wiring forever and could hurt the brain."

Chialvo hypothesized the subsequent changes in wiring "may make it harder for you to make a decision or be in a good mood to get up in the morning. It could be that pain produces depression and the other reported abnormalities because it disturbs the balance of the brain as a whole."

He said his findings show it is essential to study new approaches to treat patients not just to control their pain but also to evaluate and prevent the dysfunction that may be generated in the brain by the chronic pain.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Chialvo's collaborators in this project are Marwan Baliki, a graduate student; Paul Geha, a post-doctoral fellow, and Vania Apkarian, professor of physiology and of anesthesiology, all at the Feinberg School.

For more information on Dante Chialvo visit: http://www.chialvo.net/index.html

Source: Marla Paul
Northwestern University

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96328.php

Main News Category: Pain / Anesthetics

Also Appears In: Depression, Neurology / Neuroscience, Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia,

Between the yapping neurons in my cerebral cortex and the river of cortisol flowing through my body, I am curious to know what my brain would look like! I'm beginning to understand fibro fog a lot better!

Ten Reasons I Haven't Updated In Over A Week

It's not just procrastination...it's the holidays! For my Ten on Tuesday, I choose not to do resolutions for the New Year. It's too early for one thing and for another I procrastinate and for yet another, I find them discouraging when I review at the end of the year and see how many I broke or didn't accomplish. So, instead, here's a mini-update of the way things are around here and why I haven't posted in over a week:

1. I lost my wallet...very traumatic. I spent many hours tearing apart my disorganized living area, didn't find it and had to put everything back. Now I need to replace everything, including my social security card and driver's license.

2. It took a while to do the Christmas cards, especially when I kept misplacing the list

3. Even though we didn't buy much this year, there still seemed to be a lot of presents to wrap. I decided to get it done the other day so I wouldn't be faced with it Christmas Eve

4. We've been sick...colds, fevers, puke-ups, upset tummies, the runs, insomnia--the whole works from TB on down to little T

5. There've been a lot of doctor appointments and I'm going along for the ride or being poked or prodded. Mostly they've been doctor visits for TB and the very latest in bad news is that he has more retinopathy, which means bleeding, in his right eye. There's also a micro amount of protein in his urine--I'm not supposed to worry because it's small? The good news--and there is some good news--is that his A1C is coming down, from 10 to 9. It was 13 at one point.

6. I'm stilll trying to figure out how to edit the mpegs the camcorder takes. I haven't been able to figure out how to piece them all together. Windows movie maker won't take mpegs. The software that came with the camera doesn't splice--or what ever you call it. Freeware--well, you get what you pay for. Right now we can't afford software.

7. I feel disorganized, discouraged and overwhelmed a lot lately.

8. On the upside, Bill's got a job for the winter break that guarantees at least 20 hours. He'll be working as a cashier for a grocery store not far from here--the same place where Linda just got a job.

9. On the downside, Toyota sent someone to repossess Linda's car.

10. And what did Blogger do to my banner????? It's bad enough that my virus infected computer went bonkers on me this week on top of everything else but to come and look at my blog and see a decimated picture is just too much!

I did make a slideshow of pictures and screen grabs from the past weekend. Amber would not sit still to be photographed for love or money, not even fish.



It’s beginning to look more like Christmas

Through The Fibro Fog

Fibro Fog frustrates me when I become cognizant enough to realize I'm getting nothing done. I can never predict when it's going to hit. Sometimes it comes along with the associated aches and pains and sometimes it doesn't. So this morning I sat down in front of the computer to work on my Nanowrimo novella of 50,000 words--no I'm nowhere near that number yet! I have a progress bar on my side bar that tells me I'm 26% there.

Thing is, I was 26% there yesterday when I also was in a fog and in pain. It must have been a creative fog. When I opened my eyes just a few minutes ago, I realized that in the almost 3 hours I've been messing around with the computer I have not written a single word that had anything to do with the story. I've done lots of other things but exactly what I couldn't tell you at the moment. It's like my brain took a trip to the beach without me and is surfing and lying in the sun and forgot to bring the tired achy body along.

Well, it hasn't all been for naught. I finally figured out who it is that sings the version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" thanks to Jorge Garcia. He has a blog but I'm afraid to link to him because I don't want him to stop writing. It's not like I have so many readers who are also Lost fans and would flock right over there and overwhelm him so I don't know why I think linking to him would be a problem. Anyway, he mentioned going to the movies and that they all seem to end with that version of "Rainbow" ... and he mentioned the artist!

So I ran right over to youtube to watch several versions. This is the one I like best.



Anyway, so have accomplished one thing: a post for NaBloWriMo!

The dreaded colonoscopy

I have gone out of my way to avoid a colonoscopy not because of embarrassment or squeamishness but because I'd heard the details too many times about the prep leading up to it. The thought of trying to get through an entire day on just green or yellow jello, chicken broth, water, other clear fluids--no milk in the coffee!--was just totally incomprehensible and inconceivable to me. And that's not the worst of it...you have to drink 32 ounces of this foul concoction that is supposed to clean out your intestines. "It really cleans you out," everyone said to me. Yeah? Not always!

Anyway, I've been suffering from IBS type symptoms for at least five years and although troublesome at times, I never wanted to see a gastroenterologist for it because of the dread colonoscopy that would be recommended. When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, my doctor said IBS is part of the umbrella of problems associated with it and I figured, so it goes.

In the last six months, though, the pain in my gut was enough to send me to the internist and both times, those doctors thought I had diverticulitis. Now, how can that be? I wondered. I eat a high fiber diet, or I think I do. After the second occurrence and after the doctor noted my age, the dreaded test word came up.

And so I went to a gastroenterologist and scheduled myself an appointment.

The no-eating-anything mandate really wasn't so bad and it would have been fine if I didn't have to chase a 3 year old. Lots of sugar free green jello, Diet sprite, water, and Diet Coke fills you up. I did feel a little lightheaded walking around but that might have been psychological. The concoction part was--make no mistake--pure torture. The stuff wasn't that bad to swallow and I was feeling okay after the first 32 ounces. Then I had my water and the cramps started.

I was supposed to wait 90 minutes and then drink another 32 ounces of this vile stuff. Except for the cramps, I was still managing okay and not much happened after that first hour. After the second dose, though, I literally couldn't leave the bathroom for almost an hour. It was gross and uncomfortable and painful...and I had bouts of get-out-of-my-way urgent rushes to the bathroom right through 4 a.m. Even when I got up at 6, I had to make a visit...and yet another visit after I got to the doctor's office.

The result of it was that I learned:

1. that particular brand of brew didn't work so great for me--as much as I went through, it didn't totally "clean" me out

2. I do have diverticulosis which can become inflamed or infected (diverticulitis)

3. The doctor didn't really see anything of significance although he took some small biopsies to rule out any infections or parasites. Ewww.

Thank God that's over with.

I might get scheduled for an endoscopy next--a less traumatic procedure I understand. But I don't want anyone to tell me about it or I might not do it, heh!