Does Fibromyalgia Cause This?
How to Describe Fibro to Non-Fibros
In the image on this page, you’ll see all the nerves in the body. When I explain fibromyalgia, or FMS, to people who ask, "What is fibromyalgia?" I refer to this diagram and say, “It hurts here sometimes.” And that’s the truth!
Read Shauna's Fibromyalgia Story!
Many researchers and medical professionals believe that fibromyalgia is caused by the central nervous system (CNS) misinterpreting pain signals, making pain more intense. In fact, FMS pain moves around the body and sometimes a patient feels pain with no stimulus. Examples include a feeling of sunburn on the skin, a deep and tired ache in large muscles, pain between the ribs and at the sternum, migraines.
From head to toe, fingertip to fingertip, the entire human body can be affected in people with fibromyalgia. Worse than that news is the fact that fibromyalgia is chronic–there’s no cure, and no one knows the cause. It is not considered degenerative or progressive. This can make it difficult for a bedridden FMS patient to receive disability.
diagram of body parts affected by fibromyalgia symptoms and pain
My Fibromyalgia Symptoms
I’ll share a list of my symptoms here, but your list may look different. Very likely, your list and mine will overlap on many symptoms.
- Headaches/migraines
- Brain fog/detachment/memory issues
- Earaches
- Hearing loss (not diagnosed)
- Buzzing throughout body
- Brain zap
- Balance issues
- Tremors/shaking
- Dizzy upon standing sometimes
- Poor stamina
- Post-exhertion malaise
- Sore jaw/teeth
- Spastic/burning tongue
- Pain at base of skull
- Randomly poor eyesight
- Sore throat
- Sore/stiff neck, shoulders, back
- Left shoulder may be injured because it hurts differently
- Costochondritis (sore ribs)
- Gut and digestive pains (IBS)
- GERD (reflux)
- Gas/bloating (I get loud hiccup burps that my husband finds hilarious.)
- Sharp, nagging pain under ribs, rt side (since gallbladder removal, 2015)
- Spastic stomach
- Spastic bladder
- Minor incontinence
- Irregular bowel movements
- Sharp, nagging hip pain
- Sciatica
- Degenerative disc disease (DDD)
- Low back pain
- Bulging disc
- Menopause
- Stiff knees/elbows, wrists, ankles, fingers
- Painful big right toe (feels broken)
- Burning feet
- Restless legs
- Neuropathy in low back from rizotomies
- Fatigue
- No energy
- No appetite
- No desire to do hobbies
- Depression
- Anxiety
Weird Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
Even knowing that the central nervous system, which runs throughout the body, is responsible for fibromyalgia symptoms, sometimes the symptoms are just too weird. I’ve mentioned before my experience of waking in the night with my tongue in spasm. It wouldn’t go into my mouth, it just stuck out and twitched for maybe 20 seconds, then it stopped. I fell right back asleep.
Another strange experience occurred when I was alone, in a sitting position, not doing anything important when a lightning-bolt-feeling zap occurred in my head. It nearly knocked me off my seat. But it didn’t cause lasting pain and it only happened once.
Some symptoms, like muscle and joint pains, migraines, fatigue, and general pain are common to all FMS patients, but not everyone has all the symptoms. Sometimes symptoms occur just once, and other times they persist for years. There really is no rhyme or reason to it.
The Ridiculous Pain Scale
If you’re like me, you’re not fond of the 1-10 pain scale with the little emoticons expressing contentment and agony. It may work well for others, but not for us! With fibromyalgia, our 0 is really a 4. Our scale starts at 4 because with FMS, some symptoms never go away, never take a breath. They consistently nag us.
We learn to live with moderate pain as our baseline.
A chiropractor once told me that our scale is at the tipping point every day. Any stressor could land us in a flare–even good stress. This makes sense to me.
But with fibromyalgia, pain is only one aspect of the condition. I feel like the 1-10 pain scale isn’t accurate for FMS patients because pain is not the only factor contributing to our lack of homeostasis. Cognition, energy, and mood play vital roles in how we feel because FMS is a brain issue–a nervous system issue.
So on a normal day, I’m at a 4 on the pain scale from the moment I wake up. I can do a lot of things with a pain level of 4. However, I have brain fog, so I’ll make mistakes at work and shouldn’t do anything that takes concentration, like cooking from a recipe or working on the budget. As for energy, I feel like I could sleep for another 10 hours. I also woke up in a cranky mood, and I’m feeling a bit depressed. In light of all this, my overall capability today is at 60% (based on a scale of 0–dead–to 100–amazing.
I like to use percentages to record how I’m feeling in my body, mood, cognition, and energy.
Assigning a percentage to each factor, I can then find the average and that’s how I’m feeling, sixty percent of “normal,” overall.
I plan to create a journal that incorporates the percentage scales, so stay tuned for that!
Spoon Theory
Another popular way to measure a fibromyalgia warrior’s level of function is to ask how many spoons they have left today.
Spoon theory is a way to relate an intangible (how you’re feeling) with the tangible (spoons).
At the beginning of the day, you’re given a number of spoons based on your body’s energy, mood, pain level, and cognitive function. Some days, you’ll start with 12. Other days, you may only get two spoons.
Throughout the day, you have to spend spoons when expending energy or effort. The cost of a shower, for instance, may be 2 spoons because you plan to wash your hair. If you had 12 spoons, you’ll have 10 after your shower.
I’ve added something to spoon theory in my house. Once I’m out of spoons, I’ll start spending knives, and no one likes that!
My husband understands spoon theory and uses it as a kind of love language.
Yes, Fibromyalgia Can Cause That
Most of your crazy symptoms could indicate a number of potential health issues, but if you’re a fibromyalgia patient, there’s a good chance those crazy symptoms stem from CNS misfires.
Of course if you notice symptoms of stroke or heart attack, go to an emergency room. And always, always discuss your symptoms openly with your doctor. If your doctor doesn’t believe fibromyalgia is real, you need to find a new doctor.
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It’s great to have a community to talk about things like this. You can join the chat on Facebook here. Please contribute–tell us how you feel and what helps you cope with fibromyalgia symptoms.
