Fibromyalgia: Whether The Agony Is A Flare or Will Become The Status Quo ?

If you have fibromyalgia, pain relief is foremost in your mind. There is nothing worse than chronic pain and finding out how to relieve the pain occupies many of your thoughts. As soon as you think you have chronic pain controlled, something happens to knock you back to square one. Even a slight injury becomes traumatic. You know you have to be careful, but you forget.

Eight days ago, I had a new bed delivered. I was ready for the delivery. The dog was in the backyard, I opened the kitchen door and sure enough, the bed wouldn't fit through the door. The delivery men had to come through the other door, where the dog was. I told them to wait outside while I moved the dog. I let the dog in and led him by the collar. I was going to lock him in the spare room and everything would be fine.

Suddenly, one of the delivery men decided to come back into the house. Big mistake! Someone had just walked through the door without being invited. Our dog has never attacked anyone, in fact I always had doubts about whether he would protect us from burglars. Figured he would hide under the bed. I figured wrong. There was no holding him! 120 pounds of rot/shepherd mix on a mission! He was too much for me to hold. I got to him as he was mid-air. Somehow, I squeezed between him and the delivery man. His face, with his mouth wide open, met mine. He saw it was me that he was about to bite and he dropped to the ground, like dead weight. He didn't move. He was still growling, intent on eating this stranger. I had to literally push him all the way to the spare room and lock him in. The entire time I was pushing him, his eyes were locked on the man's face. Well, the bed was delivered, the men left and I let the dog out of the room. He checked the entire house before he would rest. And then the pain started.

The first day wasn't so bad. The second day was awful. I felt as if I had been hit by a truck! I take Lyrica and have also been prescribed pain medications for quite some time. Lyrica is what helped to get me to a point with my fibromyalgia treatment that I felt human again, but now, 8 days after the dog incident, the medications are not helping.

I did call my doctor. If I am still in pain by the end of the week, I will be sent for X-rays, but I know nothing is broken. I didn't realize that people with fibromyagia take longer to recover from muscle strains. I thought I knew everything about this disease, but this was one thing I didn't know. I have neck pain, combined with back pain. I am still walking hunched over, the weight of my head being too much for my body to hold. I haven't seen enough research being done to find the cause or cure for this disease. When the medical community has no cure, they are only able to treat the symptoms. Treating fibromyalgia symptoms alone does not work too well.

With fibromyalgia or any chronic pain, treatment is inconsistent at its best. Doctors know so little about this illness. It is mostly trial and error, mostly error. Fibromyalgia is not high on the list of disorders to research and cure. Mostly women fall victim to this disease and that may be why there is no great rush to find a cure. Even though women have achieved power in this country and have access to almost everything on an equal basis, women's diseases with the exception of breast cancer, see very little in the way of research or even funding for research.

With Lyrica advertised non-stop on television as the miracle cure, most people probably think that is the answer. The general public probably assumes that the issue of fibromyalgia is resolved. It is not resolved. The drugs that are available for fibromyalgia are few: Cymbalta, neurontin and Lyrica seem to be the most popular and most widely prescribed. While they may help to control the symptoms for some, they are not the answer. They all have serious side effects. Their effectiveness is not proven. They might give a little bit of help with the pain, but not enough.

I don't have any answers. A week ago, I thought I had this thing well in hand. I have changed my lifestyle to accomodate my illness. I have been careful to avoid stress as much as possible. I have done everything I have been told to do and today I am back to square one.

On the bright side, I now know that our dog will kill anyone that comes into our house without being invited. Of that, I have no doubt!

I am afraid the pain is becoming the status quo. It has not gone away. It has been almost a month. Other symptoms have emerged. I will see the rheumatologist again. And again, he will be "hopeful".

Update 07/23/11: The flare, which has persisted until just recently, has finally gone into hiding! Never knew a "flare' could last so long!