Aa
20 years old. Just got diagnosed with fibromyalgia
Hey guys. I just got diagnosed with Fibromyalgia the other day and I do not know that much. I have been doing a lot of research. They perscribed me some medicine but I forgot what its called. I am an ex-college baseball player and have been in great health until I had back surgery on my L3, L4 and L5. I had surgery 9 months ago, and I have never been this miserable in my life. I was well for about 3 months after surgery but 6 months ago, I started getting sick. I had a minor flare up then 3 months ago I went downhill bad. I have had headaches, extreme fatigue, can't concentrate, unmotivated, tingling pain all over, severe pain in my back, hips, and shoulders. The Rhuematologist told me Fibro, but I do not know a whole lot about it. I am looking for any information I can get. Does anyone take anything that can help me get more motivated or focused and not so fatigued? I have also been suffering from insomnia and anxiety for 8 years, and my anxiety has shot up. I am looking for any info anyone can give. I just want some feedback. Any suggestions? Anything that helps yall?
p.s.- No one will give me a straight answer. I'm 20 years old, will I suffer from this forever???
p.s.- No one will give me a straight answer. I'm 20 years old, will I suffer from this forever???
No need to thank me for anything (but you're very welcome!). I'm glad I was able to provide you at least some information to help you understand how you're feeling and what you may expect.
Cymbalta is one medication that is used for fibro. I personally could not take it, but I've heard of many people that it worked quite well for. Another medication - a newer one - that I've heard some good things about from some people is Savella. Again, unfortunately, that is one that I couldn't take. I seem to have a real problem with any medication that is in the SSRI family. I did take Lyrica for about a year (maybe more) - that's another med often used for fibro and is not an SSRI - and it worked quite well for me at first. Unfortunately, I began having some pretty bad side effects from it when my doctor had raised my dose, and the lower dose was no longer working - so we made the joint decision to stop the Lyrica.
As far as sleep medications, if your doctor were to prescribe one, would your schedule permit you to take it early enough at night so that you have plenty of time to get a full night's sleep before having to be up again the next morning? All sleep aids will tell you to not take them if you cannot have 7-8 hours that you could devote to sleep before having to be active again. But they do not tell you a specific time that they must be taken - simply before bed. So, basically what I'm asking is, IF your doctor would prescribe you one, and say you had to be up at 6am for class, would your schedule be such that you could take the sleep aid at like 9pm? That actually would allow 9 hours between when you take the med and when you have to be up. There are several prescription sleep aids out there at many different strengths, so if you and your doctor decide to give one a try, I would definitely suggest trying the lowest dose possible at first and see how you react to it - whether it gives you the ability to get to sleep and stay asleep and whether it gives you a lot of next morning drowsiness. Obviously, this decision needs to be talked about and made between you and your doctor.
Another thing I can suggest is next time you've got a doctor's appointment, or when you make an appointment (probably even better) - let them know that you have several questions for the doctor - that way when you make your appointment they know to possibly allow for a little extra time for your appointment. Make a list of your questions, so that you're prepared when you see the doctor and simply ask him to sit down and explain some things to you. That is part of your medical care - making sure you understand what illness/es you have and what to expect, so please don't feel bad or awkward about asking questions of your doctor. Some doctors just don't think about automatically giving the patient as much information as possible when they are given a diagnosis - they sometimes don't think that us, as the patient, don't understand all that medical mumbo jumbo!
Another thing that helped me and may also help you (if you can) - for one of my appointments with my Rheumatologist, my mother came with me. Not only for moral support, but also to be able to ask the doctor her own questions and help me remember and explain the questions I had for the doc. It not only helped me, but it also helped my mother to understand more of what I was goign through - hearing it directly from the doctor's mouth. Since your dad suffers from RA, he would probably understand things a little more of what the doctor is saying than someone who doesn't have chronic pain, but if someone who doesn't have chronic pain were to go with you, it very well may help them TO understand.
I hope they find the right treatment or combination of treatments that help you real soon! Feel free to let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Cymbalta is one medication that is used for fibro. I personally could not take it, but I've heard of many people that it worked quite well for. Another medication - a newer one - that I've heard some good things about from some people is Savella. Again, unfortunately, that is one that I couldn't take. I seem to have a real problem with any medication that is in the SSRI family. I did take Lyrica for about a year (maybe more) - that's another med often used for fibro and is not an SSRI - and it worked quite well for me at first. Unfortunately, I began having some pretty bad side effects from it when my doctor had raised my dose, and the lower dose was no longer working - so we made the joint decision to stop the Lyrica.
As far as sleep medications, if your doctor were to prescribe one, would your schedule permit you to take it early enough at night so that you have plenty of time to get a full night's sleep before having to be up again the next morning? All sleep aids will tell you to not take them if you cannot have 7-8 hours that you could devote to sleep before having to be active again. But they do not tell you a specific time that they must be taken - simply before bed. So, basically what I'm asking is, IF your doctor would prescribe you one, and say you had to be up at 6am for class, would your schedule be such that you could take the sleep aid at like 9pm? That actually would allow 9 hours between when you take the med and when you have to be up. There are several prescription sleep aids out there at many different strengths, so if you and your doctor decide to give one a try, I would definitely suggest trying the lowest dose possible at first and see how you react to it - whether it gives you the ability to get to sleep and stay asleep and whether it gives you a lot of next morning drowsiness. Obviously, this decision needs to be talked about and made between you and your doctor.
Another thing I can suggest is next time you've got a doctor's appointment, or when you make an appointment (probably even better) - let them know that you have several questions for the doctor - that way when you make your appointment they know to possibly allow for a little extra time for your appointment. Make a list of your questions, so that you're prepared when you see the doctor and simply ask him to sit down and explain some things to you. That is part of your medical care - making sure you understand what illness/es you have and what to expect, so please don't feel bad or awkward about asking questions of your doctor. Some doctors just don't think about automatically giving the patient as much information as possible when they are given a diagnosis - they sometimes don't think that us, as the patient, don't understand all that medical mumbo jumbo!
Another thing that helped me and may also help you (if you can) - for one of my appointments with my Rheumatologist, my mother came with me. Not only for moral support, but also to be able to ask the doctor her own questions and help me remember and explain the questions I had for the doc. It not only helped me, but it also helped my mother to understand more of what I was goign through - hearing it directly from the doctor's mouth. Since your dad suffers from RA, he would probably understand things a little more of what the doctor is saying than someone who doesn't have chronic pain, but if someone who doesn't have chronic pain were to go with you, it very well may help them TO understand.
I hope they find the right treatment or combination of treatments that help you real soon! Feel free to let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Thank you so much. That is very detailed, and I truly appreciate the time you put into this. I have had a lot of trial and error on my anxiety medicines, and currently am on Cymbalta, which is a medicine, I have been told, is used with Fibro. The sleep cycle is horrible. I constantly fight the needing sleep, but can't take sleep meds because I have early classes in which I cannot oversleep, which I have anxiety about doing. It truly is a vicious cycle. The book idea is a very good idea, because only my dad, who suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis since he was 23, understands the constant uncomfortable pain. My doctor just diagnosed me and told me to start a medicine. He did not explain how odd this condition is. There is a lot more to this condition than I thought. It finally explains so much that has been going on with me. Again I thank you so much for the reply.
Unfortunately, there is no "cure" for fibro, however, it can have it's ups and downs. Some days/weeks/months you may feel perfectly normal and then you may get days/weeks/months that you feel lousy. A lot of the treatment for fibro is trial and error, both for medications and also for discovering what activities, etc., affect how you feel.
Insomnia is also very common among fibro patients and many patients find they need some sort of sleep aid. It's actually a vicious cycle when it comes to the sleep - we can't sleep because we are hurting and we are hurting more because we aren't sleeping well. Depression and/or anxiety is also common among fibro patients - a good part just plain due to feeling lousy. Some of the medications that help with fibro symptoms also help with depression/anxiety.
When I was first diagnosed many years ago, I purchased myself a book called Fibromyalgia for Dummies. I found it contained a lot of good information that not only helped me to understand what I was feeling, but also to help my family and friends to understand it. It's often quite difficult for people around us who don't have to contend with daily pain and fatigue to understand - especially when very often with fibro, an activity that you can do quite easily one day will also very easily send you to bed the next time you do that same activity.
As I said, finding the right medications and other treatments for your symptoms sometimes takes a lot of trial and error, so try not to get discouraged if the first thing the doctors try doesn't help. While it's important to give a new treatment a try and a chance to work, it's also important to keep your doctor informed as to HOW it's doing (or not doing) and if you don't feel like it's helping, so that they can try something else. Fibro definitely does not affect each sufferer the same, so the treatment also is usually not the same for everyone.
I wish you the best of luck, hope I've helped to answer some of your questions, and if you have any other questions, I'd be glad to answer anything I can.
Insomnia is also very common among fibro patients and many patients find they need some sort of sleep aid. It's actually a vicious cycle when it comes to the sleep - we can't sleep because we are hurting and we are hurting more because we aren't sleeping well. Depression and/or anxiety is also common among fibro patients - a good part just plain due to feeling lousy. Some of the medications that help with fibro symptoms also help with depression/anxiety.
When I was first diagnosed many years ago, I purchased myself a book called Fibromyalgia for Dummies. I found it contained a lot of good information that not only helped me to understand what I was feeling, but also to help my family and friends to understand it. It's often quite difficult for people around us who don't have to contend with daily pain and fatigue to understand - especially when very often with fibro, an activity that you can do quite easily one day will also very easily send you to bed the next time you do that same activity.
As I said, finding the right medications and other treatments for your symptoms sometimes takes a lot of trial and error, so try not to get discouraged if the first thing the doctors try doesn't help. While it's important to give a new treatment a try and a chance to work, it's also important to keep your doctor informed as to HOW it's doing (or not doing) and if you don't feel like it's helping, so that they can try something else. Fibro definitely does not affect each sufferer the same, so the treatment also is usually not the same for everyone.
I wish you the best of luck, hope I've helped to answer some of your questions, and if you have any other questions, I'd be glad to answer anything I can.
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