Posted by MERM on 6/20/2008, 10:24 am
Q. Will it ever go away?
A. For many patients, comprehensive treatment of the underlying causes can completely eliminate many of the symptoms and if not eliminate, substantially reduce the severity and frequency. It is possible for patients to achieve this level of success allowing them to lead more normal, active, and fulfilling lives.
Your goal and the goal of your health care provider should be to first identify and address all the causes of your pain and fatigue. This goal can be achieved by working with a specialized physician.
Q. Is the pain that other FM patients experience as severe as mine, and do they take as many painkillers as I need to take to simply survive from one day to the next?
A. Severe insistent pain is the most common symptom of Fibromyalgia.
Patients often describe it as experiencing the worst flu ever had and then getting hit by a truck. Many patients take relatively high doses of pain medications in order to physically manage simple day-to-day tasks.
Keep in mind the painkillers are simply masking the symptoms, not addressing the physiological and underlying problems that are causing the pain.
The use of painkillers is a commonly used option to relieve the symptoms. The temporary relief achieved by painkillers is helpful as a short-term stabilizer, but never acceptable as a long-term solution.
Q. Could this become fatal?
A. Fibromyalgia (FM), Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and Unrelenting Fatigue (UF) are not known to be the specific cause of any one person's death to date.
However, some underlying etiologies present in FM/CFIDS/UF patients may make you more susceptible to life threatening illnesses. An example of an underlying etiology is a suppressed immune system, which may cause FM/CFIDS/UF patients to develop illnesses such as staph infections, pneumonia, and viruses that may affect vital organs.
Unable to adequately fight off these illnesses or keep them in check, they can lead to some very serious consequences. Another common problem for FM/CFIDS/UF patients is that occasionally their symptoms mask symptoms of something more serious.
For instance, FM patients often experience tightness in the chest, pressure on the upper torso, tingling, and numbness in the arms or on one side of the upper body.
These symptoms are similar to those experienced during a heart attack or stroke. FM patients are warned not to take these masked symptoms lightly and seek medical assistance.
Q. My doctor thinks my FM is caused by emotional problems. Can this be true?
A. While researchers and specialists in this field are making great strides to educate, many health care professionals still think that FM, CFIDS, and UF are manifestations of psychological problems, not physiological problems.
High levels of stress can be a trigger for the onset of FM/CFIDS/UF. Therefore, health care professionals often diagnose patients with depression.
These practitioners often prescribe anti-depressants or mood altering medications, which again, only temporarily mask the symptoms and do not lead to a long-term solution.
In reality, anger and depression are often symptoms of living with the chronic pain and lack of compassion and understanding.
The key to overcoming this is to find a health care provider who understands the complexities of these conditions and acknowledges that they are real and very much based in your body, not your head source Dr J Titlebaum
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