Fibromyalgia

Specialties Emergency

Published

What are your opinions, nurses? Is Fibromyalgia a justified condition or just a basket term ? I am interested in your feedback. It seems like we see a large number of patients (usually women) with "fibromyalgia" and the numbers are getting larger and larger.

I even had a patient tell me that fibromyalgia patients were predisposed to trigeminal neuralgia. :eek:

Specializes in Emergency Room/corrections.

GREAT Post, Burke :) thanks for the info.

Specializes in M/S, OB, Pedi, HH, util review.

I must throw my hat into the ring of believers. Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) is a very real disease and I have had it for about three years now. It is often associated with other auto-immune diseases (of which I have SLE). I've been reading through parts of this thread and at first it angered me; then I read replys from some sensible people and felt better.

I am not a hypochondriac or a drug seeker (I was given a scrip for Oxycontin and I tore it up). While I do have clinical depression, which came first? Ah, the old chicken and egg theory that someone mentioned. The pain of FMS is like no other I've ever experienced. Imagine your entire body feeling like you were beaten severely with a baseball bat (or worse). The bones don't hurt, but every muscle (even those you don't even know you have) hurts. Sometimes just the weight of a sheet covering me is too excruciating to bear. Despite being exhausted to the core, I have difficulty falling asleep and then staying asleep, as every movement causes pain. Of course it's not like this every day (thank God), but some days can be this way. As for just getting out of bed and carrying on, I do this most days. I have a day every now and then when it's all I can do to physically open my eyes, as using those muscles hurts too much. Most days, I just carry on and grin and bear it, but I am never without pain.

I think that the reason we're hearing about FMS more now is that physicians have been undereducated about it. As one poster said, it was only "discovered" in the 80's. Not a lot has been taught in med school about it and it was generally thought about just like many posters here do.....it's in your head, you're a hypochondriac, you're crazy, you're making it up, or you're a drug-seeker. More is being taught now and more is out there in medical journals, so more docs are recognizing it and treating it as it should be.

Why did I rip up the Oxycontin scrip?? Because it had been tried before and it didn't do a thing. I avoid narcs like the plaque, but gave in one time, being desperate for some relief. I got none from the Tylox they gave me.

I urge any "disbelievers" to open your minds. Research FMS on the web, learn about it, and give it's suffers the same compassion you give to sufferers of other diseases. Please!

Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU, Psych, Med-surg...etc....
Boy oh boy....I'm not sure if I should even comment. I'm almost embarassed to admit I suffer from FM.......have for about 15 yrs now. Depressed?? Sometimes I am. If you can't imagine moderate to severe pain 24 hours a day, then you don't know what 'we' go through. You get really sick and tired of hurting all the time. You know how you hurt when you feel sick?? How your skin even hurts just to touch it??

Please don't judge those of us with FM as people who are babies or can't handle 'alittle pain'. We are everywhere and all we are asking is that people TRY to understand we just want some relief. Those of us who are nurses should be the most understanding. Please don't ROLL YOUR EYES when you see FM as a dx....

I also agree that the ER is just that......emergency room. I worked in ER years ago and we would have the same people come in night after night. It would be nice to have a special screening room for all those who are not in immediate need of care.

I thought I had a pinched nerve or something in my shoulders and neck until other things started happening. I had some positive tests, that I won't go in to, but a rheumatologist diagnosed me with FMS 8 years ago. I have never been to the ER for pain, I have never taken anything stronger than ibuprofen or a GOodys powder :roll (All Hail the power of the GOODY), but I know others who have to ....it is not a weakness, everyone is an individual and react to things differently, or are affected differently...I hope if I ever have to face the embarrassment of going to the ER for my pain, that I have a nurse who is kind and understanding....not as some of the posts here. I also agree, the ER is for emergencies....but what's trival to us who are used to it, is an emergency or a downright disaster to others... we just go on......

Hello, again;

After Teeituptom wrote about a scale of WOWSA, I backed off this thread for awhile to think about things. Pain is a very SUBJECTIVE sign...there

are some of us out there who are Stoics or Amazons, and more power to those

who are!!! Although, it is my thought that you all are destined for wheelchairs

sooner than the rest of us!!:p And that was a J-O-K-E.

FMS...I wonder if there is a link between FMS and Staphyloccoccus Aureus,

as well as Osteomyelitis?? Or could the nasty that causes osteomyelitis be

one of those DORMANT buggers? Tell y'all what...I'll go look!!!

FIRST thing I learned as an EMT was this particular lesson in

LIFE from an instructor...there is no such thing as "normal" or "average".

The SECOND thing I learned was BE PREPARED. The THIRD thing I learned

was that in all things have an open mind. You tell me that you hurt, I'm gonna believe, DESPITE everyone else's opinion. For they are NOT you, and sometimes(if not MOST of the time) it is hard to clarify just HOW much pain

a patient is experiencing.

FOURTH RULE: BELIEVE YOUR PATIENT, unless you suspect otherwise. THEN

check it out, but give the patient the benefit of the doubt.

Life, my dears, is not easy. Neither is living life with pain, and it matters NOT ONE WHIT what sort of pain is being suffered...what comes to the fore is, ultimately, the quality of life is being marred. I don't have an answer, but I

have LOTS of questions, and THAT IMHO keeps me alive, if not vital. I'm only spouting cause I can't speak for the rest of the colleagues on this thread...

Spiritus

Specializes in med/surg, neuro, ortho, cardiol.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 9 years ago after 5 years of pain, chronic tiredness, feeling like I had the flu all the time. The many different doctors that I saw or were referred to during those first 5 years made me feel like many of you "oh, so caring nurses" are making me feel again as I read these posts. Comments like, 'I know it's not funny, but....', 'just a fashionable disease', 'why did fibromyalgia just come about in the late 80's?', ' just drug seekers', 'hypochondriacs' ,'whiners', 'we all have aches and pains, get over it', etc. I went to a fibromyalgia seminar a few years ago, the speaker was wonderful and asked us this question...... Did any of you know that before the discovery and diagnosis of MS, the patients complaining of those type of symptoms were told it was all in their heads, to quit whining and complaining, and just get up and get over it. I truely hope that I will never have to be in the care of some nurses that have posted here.

This disease in is the New England Journal of Medicine.It is a real disease and people are suffering with it. The biggest enemy of those suffering are ignorant people who blurt out opinions they have heard from one another instead of doing their own investigation, and correcting the wrong.Imagine if people said M.S. was fake? You do realize that there are those people who have M.S. without having positive lab results.So lets be more sensitive to those suffering.

Specializes in Emergency Nursing Advanced Practice.
i could go on and on...but who cares....not many of the er nurses on this thread.

i want bill back!!!

you can have him, we don't want him.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 9 years ago after 5 years of pain, chronic tiredness, feeling like I had the flu all the time. The many different doctors that I saw or were referred to during those first 5 years made me feel like many of you "oh, so caring nurses" are making me feel again as I read these posts. Comments like, 'I know it's not funny, but....', 'just a fashionable disease', 'why did fibromyalgia just come about in the late 80's?', ' just drug seekers', 'hypochondriacs' ,'whiners', 'we all have aches and pains, get over it', etc. I went to a fibromyalgia seminar a few years ago, the speaker was wonderful and asked us this question...... Did any of you know that before the discovery and diagnosis of MS, the patients complaining of those type of symptoms were told it was all in their heads, to quit whining and complaining, and just get up and get over it. I truely hope that I will never have to be in the care of some nurses that have posted here.

________________________________________________________________

Hon, I'm not sure why you sent your derogatory reply to me...read MY post at #162...I've had Fibromyalgia for 26 years...I KNOW IT'S REAL...God Bless, Pam

Spiritus,

Your post at first sounds rather negative...and perhaps that is why SRbear became upset about it...but actually, what I read into your reply, is that it is not your job to judge another's pain...but only to treat that pain...which is exactly right...

I also have ER experience, and that is my attitude about pain...not only at work, but in life in general, as I meet many more people OUTSIDE of hospital ER's that have chronic pain than I do IN ER's...

Your following statement was not kind however...

"Although, it is my thought that you all are destined for wheelchairs

sooner than the rest of us!!:p And that was a J-O-K-E."

As a nurse of many, many years now...I didn't much care for your JOKE...a joke is a JOKE when BOTHS SIDES CAN LAUGH ABOUT IT.

God Bless all...not only those in chronic pain,

Pam

Specializes in med/surg, neuro, ortho, cardiol.

I just typed this long response, telling you I did not know I was posting in response to your post.....I thought I was posting to the general thread. Then before I could send it, somehow I deleted the whole thing........am now going to go and find some instructions for posting !!!!!!! So please accept my apology for any ill feelings I might have caused you.....the post was not directed at you. I hope this posting goes to the right place..so maybe I should apologize in advance.

No offense taken at all. I see that we are about the same age. I know what you're going through and wish you the best. Most people don't know squat about this syndrome, and you are right that some of them open their mouths nd spout off. It is only because theu are uneducated about this malady. It is aggravating at times!! Holer back if you want to sound off at any time... :) Pam

I do not have fibromyalgia. However, I DO know about being uncomfortable in my body.

Along with being an RN, I also am a Healing Science Practitioner. That means, that I work with the multidimentional Human Energy Field that iminates through and around our bodies, to assist the restoration of balance and health.

A woman came to see me, who suffered from fibromyalgia, also, interstitial bladder disease. She had all of the symptoms the sufferers here have described, along with being Obsessive/Compulsive, thereby increasing her stress level.

During our ONE time together, while standing at her feet, (she was lying on a massage table), I "saw" a thick, white cloud form float up from her body and form over her full length. Using the techniques I have learned, it dissapated.

She got off the table and was symptom free FOR 5 MONTHS! Because she didn't do any follow up work, her symptoms eventually returned, and she discounted that "anything ever happened."

My suggestion to anyone who suffers from this debilitating problem would be to INCLUDE energy work of all forms. Learn techniques you can use yourself. We are living in fantastic times, and these things ARE available.

Often, medications are not energetically compatable with our HEF. They may help for awhile, but eventually create problems of their own. Perhaps that is why many of you instinctively avoid the pharmaceutical management you have been offered.

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