Fibromyalgia and diet

I've been reading again. I had heard of Fibro diets but never really considered that my diet might be affecting by fibro pain and energy level. If you haven't been to the National Fibromyalgia Association site you need to go( www.fmaware.org/site/PageServer). They have numerous articles on Fibro and Diet.

Also they have an article about coping with fibro that is informative. The article mentions celiac disease, which I had never heard of before (and I'm a nurse). On further reading I find that celiac is common in fibro patients and is very under diagnosed. (http://www.fmaware.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6726). I checked out the Celiac Disease Foundation site (www.celiac.org/) which gives a lot of information. Needless to say my doctor will be ordering the tests for me as soon as I can get an appointment.

Fibromyalgia and the holidays

We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family. My husband and son-in-law slept in front of the tv and my daughter and I played games all afternoon with the kids. We all enjoyed the day. Of course we ate too much ( I gained 2 pounds). The bad part of the day for me was preparing dinner. My daughter and I shared the work but I still wound up having to stand for quite a while which made me hurt pretty bad. I had to take a pain pill which I don't like to with the children around. But by the time we had eaten I was feeling better.

Another problem I had with Thanksgiving dinner is a problem I have with every meal. I have lichen planus in my mouth and I have dentures. It is amazing that I can eat as much as I did because every bite is painful. It is particularly bad if I get food under the dentures, which unfortunately happens frequently. I have had to give up a lot of foods that I like because of the pain. I can't eat anything even mildly spicy or very sweet because those foods burn my mouth so bad. I can't eat anything hard because it hurts to chew. I do on occasion eat things that really bother me just because I like them, but those times are becoming less frequent. Everything I've read about lichen says that it usually goes away after a year or two, but I've had it for about 7 years. I also have vuvular lichen and lichen in my fingernails. I'm told it is rare to have more than one form but that's me, if I can have anything that makes a person miserable I will get it.

I have been doing some Christmas shopping but I find that I need to know what I going to buy because I can only stand to walk around in the stores for a few minutes. When I go to buy groceries or if I try to wander around the store and look for things I wind up hurting big time.

I got our store decorated for Christmas but that took more than a week. It is very hard to get done the things I need to do.

But despite all my problems the holidays so far are going well. I've almost finished my Christmas shopping and I'm wrapping the gifts 1 or 2 at a time, instead of waiting til the last minute and having to do them all at once like I usually do. I spent some time yesterday addressing and writing cards to go our troops overseas. Now I need to do cards for family and friends. We didn't decorate at home last year and I haven't decided if we will this year; it takes an awful lot of work and pain.

How to lose 10 pounds

Howto lose 10 pounds by Peter Zijl


Imagine what a pound of weight off your waist line could do for your confidence. Now imagine what 10 pounds could do. It could change your life!
With day to day life getting more and more stressful people are finding it difficult to eat correctly and even more difficult to find time to exercise. With a little bit of dedication and the right mindset you can be on your way to losing those pounds, one pound at a time! Here are 4 great tips to get you started on your way to losing 10 pounds:
* Eat correctly. This is more powerful than any medication you can ever take. Medications are expensive and often very unnecessary. What you are not told is they need to be taken with a good diet and regular exercise to work! A proper diet is essential to weight loss.
* Regular Exercise: Ok this can be a little tricky if you have a hectic life style. Changing your habits slightly with things like walking up the stairs to work, cycling to work if possible or even taking an evening stroll can reduce weight considerably.
* Cut down on alcohol. Do you spend you weekends drinking on Friday and Saturday nights? Alcohol is adds to your weight dramatically, so why not only go out on one night of the weekend.
* Take up a hobby. Sometimes we eat because we are hungry. Sometimes we eat because we are just plain bored! Do something about your boredom. Take up a hobby. Do something you love or are interested in to take you mind that burger and chips you were about to devour.
* Set yourself goals. Make sure your goals are reasonable though! Don't try and lose 10 pounds in 3 days! Keep at it one pound at a time.
Ok so sometimes this is easier said than done I can understand. The key points I have highlighted here are a very good start though and they are not difficult to maintain.
About the Author
Peter managed to lose 32 pounds in 6 months eating correctly.

More Fibromyalgia

Back when I was diagnosed with fibro, I looked up everything I could find on the subject. But this was 15 years ago and althought there was some stuff out there their wasn't a lot. From time to time a go looking again and as time passes there is more and more information. Some is helpful, some is not. Some is true and some is very doubtful. But the think that really gets my attention is that over time the information available sounds more and more like the fibro I have. At first, when I read discriptions of fibro symptoms I said that just doesn't sound like me.

I guess what I've taken the long way around to say is that the medical community has finally gotten around to understanding that all fibro is not created equal. And in doing this reading I can at least find out that I am not and alone and completely weird.

I'm going to talk a little about my symptomalogy, it might help someone else. Who know?

Since I was a child I have had sharp shooting pains all over my body. Of course as a child everyone said they were growing pains. As I got older doctors would shrug and say they didn't know what caused them and if they didn't last more than a few seconds there was no point ind trying to find a cause. I have also for most of my adult life had transatory pains. You know the ones where your elbow or side or you ankle will hurt so bad that you can't perform normal task, but they only last hours or some times a day or two.

I started having migraines the summer I graduated from high school. The first few years they were very bad; sometimes 1 or 2 a week and often lasting 2 or 3 days. This was in the 60's and at that time there were no magic pills for migraines. The only medication available was Cafargot. Sometimes it stopped the headaches and sometimes it didn't but it always made me sick as a dog. So after a few months I refused to take it any more. The only other help was Demerol and all it did was let me sleep through the headache. Until Maxalth came along a few years back I had never taken anything that actually stopped a headache. Now I take Toprimate to prevent the headaches and I have very few. I have to say its one of the few things the doctors have ever been able to improve.

Back when the migranes were so bad I used to tell people that as long as I could sleep through my pain I would survive. Back in those days I never had any trouble sleeping. In the last 15 years the only time I have slept through the night is when I have been drugged. For a while I took Ambien and it really did help me sleep but it left me sleepy in the daytime and I walked in my sleep when I was taking it. The first time I woke up and found my kitchen rearranged it really freaked me out. I quit taking the Ambien after I realized that it was causing as many problems as it was helping. For the last 3 or 4 years I have been going to bed for about 10 hours a night. And I do sleep most of that time but I am up and down all night. Needless to say I don't usually feel very rested.

There is a ton more stuff. Like most fibro sufferers I have had and still do have all kinds of medical problems. Ill talk about some of them next time. I hope some of this can help someone. If anyone wants to comment I'd be glad to hear from you.

Weighty Issues

Lets not complain today. I want to brag. My husband and I have been dieting since the first week in August and we've been doing very well thank you. I have now lost 26 pounds and he has lost 19. That's a whole small person. Believe me we both feel better. Of course we'll feel even better when we get down to the weight we should be.

Being overweight has been a life long problem for me. I have never been more truly obese until the last 4 or 5 years. but in late 2004 and early 2005 I lost 50 pounds to get back to a comfortable weight and then gained it right back. I used Weight Watchers that time. Spent a fortune. It really is a good way to lose weight. And it wasn't their fault I gained it back, it was entirely mine. If I had continued to follow their program I would never have gained the weight back.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you but I am a big believer in COMFORT FOOD. When I feel bad I want to eat ( you see where this is going) so of course I gain weight. Add to that the fact that I get absolutely no exercise and you have the perfect formula for obesity. Oh, and for icing on the cake add in depression with a capital D. This time last year I didnt care if I ate myself into a super humongous sized coffin, but we got my medications adjusted and now I feel a little better and decided to lose some weight.

You know what happens when you look better? You feel better! Even though the weight loss has absolutely no effect on the fibro I do feel better about things in general. It really does make it easier to face tomorrow. In fact, I have started getting out of bed earlier because I can't wait to weigh. ( I know you aren't supposed to weight every day, but who cares, I do it anyway.)

So do you want to know about the marvelous diet we're on? It's really great. It's called watching what you eat and how much you eat. Believe it or not we eat anything we want but (and this is a big but) if something is high calorie/high fat) we only have a little bit or we cut down somewhere else.

This is the first time my husband has ever had to diet. But he is one of those aggravating people who can go all day without eating. Anyway he hasn't had any problem with smaller portions and it has been the easiest diet I've ever been on.

Only one more thing to say. If you are like me a are gaining a lot of weight and are feeling bad about how you look, think about losing the weight so that you can feel good about yourself. With the problems we have we often don't have a lot of control over our lives, but this is something we can control.

Have a good day, Diane

More pain and more pain

It's another day and of course there is more pain. I have most of my pain through the middle of the day. It does't take anything to trigger it but somethings are guarranteed to do it. Taking a brisk walk, standing for more than a few minutes, lifting anthing more than 5 or 6 pounds, reaching a long way or bending to do anything will all start the chest pain. Sitting at the keyboard for more than a few minutes starts the pain in my neck, shoulders and arms. But changing activities usually relieves some of the pain. Pain medicine takes the edge off. And if it gets too bad I can go into the back of the shop and lay down.

There are a lot of things I would like to do that I can no longer do. I had to give up bowling, working in my yard, playing with my grandchildren, walking nature trails, and my house is never as clean as I would like. But I can still read. I do the displays a windows for our store with my husband doing the heavy work and with lots and lots of breaks. I've thought seriously about going on disability but I know that if I do I will become bed bound and that is something I want to avoid if I can.

Still with all of this life is good. I have 4 beautiful grand children. The oldest is a beautiful 16 year old junior in high school who says she wants to be an engineer. She is very smart, on honor roll every year and won't have any trouble being anything she wants to be.

The next oldest is also a beautiful young lady who is in the 4th grade and she is also on honor roll on every report card. She hasn't decided what she wants to be yet but she has a great imagination and would make a wonderful actress or director.

And then there are the twins. The boys are 7 years old and in the 2nd grade. They are doing well in school. They are two very different boys one is very outgoing, he is into everything, he tries everything and he wants to know about everything. The other is shy and emotional, he has very tender feelings.

You can tell these kids are the light of my life. Of course their mother was always my favorite (only) child. I am particulary proud of her right now. She dropped out of college in her freshman year because she just wasn't interested. Now at 30 she's going back. And not only that but she's doing very well, and doing it while working and raising a family.

I added a link today about the new drug for Fibromyalgia. You might want to look at it. I don't know anything about how it might work. I go to the VA and they don't have it yet.

Enough for today.

More on Fibro

I've been catching up on my reading on the net. There are some good sites out there and then there are some real winners. You know the ones I mean. The ones that promise "a complete cure in 2 weeks" or "you're fibromyalgia symptoms will miraculously disappear" if you buy whatever it is they're selling.

It would be nice if those things worked but I don't think I'm going to waste my money. It's getting really hard to know what is really true anymore. Most research is funded by drug companies and the minute they think they might have something they send out press releases and there is all kinds of hype. Then by the time the drug is available everyone rushes out to buy it and half of the time, it doesn't work any better then the last useless, expensive drug. And the FDA is no help. They are useless these days. They let the drug companies put out medications without long term testing to find out what the side effects will be and that is really dangerous.

Personally, I've been maintaining for the last few years on a combination of Wellbutrin, Celexa, and Restoril with pain pills thrown in when needed. That keeps me functioning, but unfortunately I have periods, that sometimes last months, when the pain becomes much worse. During those times I live on pain pills. The worst of my pain centers in my chest. My doctors do EKGs and stress tests periodically because frankly I couldn't tell if I was having a heart attack as opposed to fibromyalgia pain.

Well I need to get back to work. I'm going to find somemore good sites to bookmark later. Everybody have the best day you can.

This is my first blog

This is my first post on my first blog. I am a 62 years old. I am a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, retired nurse and shop keeper. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 15 years ago and a multitude of other ailments before and after. There you have the sum total of who I am.
When the doctor finally confirmed the diagnosis of fibromyalgia he told me there is no cure, we can only treat the symptoms. Then he told me the B-I-G lie; he said the good thing is it won’t get any worse!!!!. Have I got news for him - it gets worse every day. If you have it you know. There are days when you feel like there is no way no can face even one more minute of pain, forget another day or week or year. And forget pain medicines. They are a joke. I haven’t found a single one that really stops the pain, some help but none really stops the pain. You just have to grit your teeth and bear it until it lets up and then go on. Or at least that’s how I do it.
My husband fusses at me; he says ” you’ll start your self hurting doing that”. And I tell him I will start hurting just breathing.
Speaking of family. Mine are wonderful. They are literally the only thing keeping me alive. If it wasn’t for them I would have checked out long ago. But I love them too much to leave now so I’ll keep on bearing the pain. They are very loving and understanding. At least they think they understand, but they really can’t understand. No one can unless they have been there.
I happened onto a site about invisible disabilities the other day. I never heard it called that before but it sure fits. I have always marveled that I could feel so bad and look so healthy. Back when I was working for other people instead of myself, I would get to feeling so bad sometimes that I would have to go home and I would get the funniest looks because obviously there wasn’t anything wrong with me. It really didn’t look like I was sck.
You know how when a small child falls down and bumps her head, she really cry hard until mama or daddy picks her up and cuddles her and loves her and then its all better. Wouldn’t it be great if it worked like that for us?