Experiencing Fibromyalgia – How the Pain of Fibromyalgia Feels Like

My Personal Fibromyalgia Experience:

I remember the exact moment when I knew there was something very wrong with me. It was like a tornado whirling around and around me, causing me to be completely disoriented and to experience a fear unlike any fear I had ever felt before.

As I searched for an understanding of what was happening to me, pain surged throughout my entire body. It was like the tornado had picked me up and then slammed me to the ground. The reality was that I was laying face down on my bathroom floor, unaware of how I had gotten there, desperately trying to bring things back into focus.

But all I could concentrate on was the fact that my entire body felt like it was on fire and my insides felt like they were tied in knots. The cold tiles of the bathroom floor coaxed me back to consciousness, and as I tried to get up, I realized that my husband was there frantic with concern.

That morning I had a routine laparoscopy for endometriosis. I was so excited about having the procedure because I was looking forward to the answers that would help my future be void of the horrendous monthly episodes of headaches, cramping, and excruciating pain. But only a few hours after the procedure, I felt worse than I could have ever imagined.

Now the pain was everywhere and not only was it a sharp, cramping kind of pain, but it was an aching, burning, gripping pain that makes you want to cry out in misery.

My husband got me back into bed and I tried to explain to him what I was feeling. Throughout my life I had always been “sensitive” to pain, but I had refused to let it slow me down. I had come to the conclusion that everyone must feel like this and that it was just something that I had to put up with. But now something told me that I did feel pain more than others.

The doctor had told me that I might experience some discomfort, but this was intolerable pain. As always I started to feel guilty, trying to understand why I was such a wimp and why I couldn’t tolerate pain like others.

But my guilt slipped away as I begged my husband to help me understand what was happening to me.

Over the next few weeks I began experiencing an array of symptoms. Each one made the situation more and more distressing but my doctor told me that I was fine and that I just needed to give it some time. Two months later as I sat in a fog at our companies’ annual Christmas party I kept thinking, “When am I going to feel better?”

Little did I know that this was just the beginning. Over the next two years I was going to have to fight to find the answers and dig deep within myself to find the strength and courage to deal with whatever each day dealt me. It was a time in my life that I would never want to experience again, but it was also a time that I learned a lot about myself, and even discovered a new purpose for my life.

A multidisciplinary approach is when a patient selects and utilizes the expertise of different specialists who practice both traditional and nontraditional medical approaches to treat the symptoms of their illness.

Fibromyalgia is Painful:

Fibromyalgia is real. For those who have experienced chronic widespread pain and nagging fatigue, along with a variety of other “fibro” symptoms, there is no debate over its existence.

The pain is not just something that we make up, nor is it something we can “will away.” Fibromyalgia is a condition that involves chronic pain amplification that is caused by neuroendocrine abnormalities.

When living with fibromyalgia, justifying that your pain is real can be as frustrating as the pain itself! When your friends and family look at you and say, “… but you don’t look sick!” their lack of understanding and support can be daunting. So the everyday challenges of living with fibromyalgia go beyond the actual symptoms.

Learning to live with an “invisible” illness means not only finding valuable treatment options and developing a lifestyle that helps to decrease symptoms, it also means remaining positive and educating those who are skeptics.

Fortunately, the medical community has begun to identify and better understand fibromyalgia’s causes and treatments. Although the constellation of symptoms, now known as fibromyalgia syndrome, have been referenced throughout history (going back as far as biblical times), it is considered a relatively new illness. It has only been over the past 20 to 30 years that research has advanced our understanding of the condition.

Although there are currently no laboratory tests, x-rays, or definitive markers to test for fibromyalgia, more and more research is identifying physical abnormalities in people with fibromyalgia.

Fast Fact

Great figures of the nineteenth century, such as English nurse and founder of the Red Cross, Florence Nightingale (1820-19101 and scientists Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-18961, probably had fibromyalgia. Nobel wrote, “Sometimes I cannot sleep a moment for an entire week and thus have developed an indescribable nerve irritation.’

As with most new medical conditions, it takes time for it to be accepted and understood by the public and for the medical community to advance its research to determine theory from fact.

It’s Not All in Your Head!

Today, for those of us who have received a fibromyalgia diagnosis, the future is not bleak. Fibromyalgia should not define your existence or mean that quality of life is not possible.

Although living with this chronic illness can be challenging, it is important to focus on the positive and know that treatment options exist. The future holds much promise for a better appreciation of this previously misunderstood condition and, even though there are still naysayers who believe that fibromyalgia is “all in your head,” the vast majority of the medical community has abandoned the myth and has instead begun to focus on what therapies are effective for patients.

Although there are still people who have never heard of fibromyalgia, the Food and Drug Administration estimates that it affects between 8 and 10 million people in the United States. Chronic pain can have far-reaching consequences upon individuals, families, and society as a whole. There is now national recognition that scientific understanding of the process of pain is needed. For people with fibromyalgia, this means that there is hope for a better future.

In the meantime, you must concentrate on the current treatment options that make up a multidisciplinary approach to living with fibromyalgia.

When you become educated about this approach and learn how to adapt to a healthier lifestyle, you will be taking the steps necessary to recapture a happy, productive existence. This post focuses on how you can become an active self-manager of your fibromyalgia and have a better quality of life!