Well, you could very well be a candidate for Fibromyalgia diagnosis. Find out what I had to go through before I was diagnosed with it.
I was struggling with my shoulder pain,mostly, for a very long period of time. I blamed the initial pain to the ergonomics, as in the improper posture at my workplace and when I work from home, especially. After complaints to the Environmental,Health & Safety coordinator, I was given a under tray for keyboard and mouse to neutralize the positioning of my arms close to my body . That makes it better for a while. But,being that the damage was done, my arms continued to feel the pain and numbness and my shoulder cramps hardly subside. I furthered my symptom validation with the doctors and to ease the numbness of my hand, I was diagnosed having a Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,for which I had to undergo a minor surgery. While I was home recuperating, I felt the pain on my shoulder was slightly better.
For the first time in my adult life, I tried body massage. Ohhh,that felt heavenly when the masseus manage to hit the right spot and tried to undo the 'knots' of the muscles...oh yeah! The massage helped and not to mention,the fact that I was away from computer for couple of weeks helped me to resume my work as normal for a while. However, as I hit extensive work schedule, the pain returned. I survived with massaging every month or so, but it seemened ridiculous for me spending RM100 p/m on it! My quality of life was severely impacted. I was feeling tired-lethargic even, and I just wanna lay down when I'm back from work without moving my body cos I'll feel so exhausted and dont want to aggrevate the pain. Imagine asking your mom or siblings to rub your back each time you feel you can't stand the pain! It was getting to annoy them as much as it annoyed me. There had to SOMETHING that could be done, right?
To make matters worst, my eyesight was giving me problems. It was dry, it was sore , it was sooo strained! I could literally feel my eyeballs burn when I pour on the eye drops.Having headaches and coupled with the non-stop shoulder (upper back) pain, affected my mood. I got easily agitated though I try to calm myself as much as possible from snapping at everyone.My trip to General Practicioners resulted in them suspecting I have migraine issue. The pain killer they gave, helped to an extent that I believed that, that could be it. But as usual, the pain comes back, regardless if I wear my spec (which I recently had to acquire to due an asticmatism diagnosis), or not.
If you have been reading this far, you'll be confused as to WHAT is the main cause of my problem since my pains seems to be widespread -from head, to dry and sore eyes, to arm and the neverending shoulder /upper back pain- right? Well, so thought a GP and he diagnosed me with a Ankylosing spondylitis ,which seemed quite accurate at that moment - with the joint pain and all. So I was referred to a hospital for further tests. It was after few MRI sessions that I was then re-diagnosed with Fibromyalgia-when they couldn't find nothing wrong with my brain,bones/spine.
You can find more information about Fibromyalgia here. Basically fibromyalgia is related to a widespread of pain related to muscles. It would impact your sleep, your quality of life and even your eye-sight if left un-treated. It's a nerve issue where your brain has an increased perception of pain. The doctor who treat you would prescribe nerve vitamins , muscle relaxants and sleep aids to help you recuperate. Here are list of medications I was dispensed with :
- Neurontin (GABAPENTIN) -100mg < a powerful drug,causes drowsiness and makes me sleepy
- NEUROBION - This is nerve vitamins B1,B6,B12 all encompassing
- AMITRIPTYLINE-10mg -only to be taken at night.
- CONTROLOC Pantoprazole - this is for gastric patients , to be taken b4 meals
Be sure you to take note on the pains you are experiencing and the symptoms and be sure to tell your doctor ALL about it, regardless of how silly and un-related it may seem. You could just save yourself further torture and get the right medicine to help make you feel better. The medicines, along with physiotheraphy sessions will help you feel much better in short period of time.
End your suffering. Get treated soon.
May you scintillate!
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