Confidence

Hey EVERYBODY!
I wanted to take a minute and talk to U about confidence.
I use to have such confidence in myself in nearly everything I did. I still have confidence in somethings but others are tested on a daily basis. I use to be so on top of things and now I seem to question everything over and over again. I never had to question myself as to nearly everything I want to do. I have to think t

hings over or I will pay and I pay dearly. I have to think about things that I never use to think about before. I do get frustrated that I have to consider how much I will pay IF I do a lot of cleaning for the day. I use to be able to just go go go and now IF I do that I am paying dearly for it. This has affected MY confidence in myself greatly. I get mad and do things because I hate telling myself I can't. I have days I do NOT allow myself to do things and then I beat myself up with guilt.
I miss the Cindy I use to know. I NOW live with the fog and I really get bummed that MY memory is affected. I do NOT like that I do NOT remember things when I need to. I do NOT like I have no clarity at times. I do NOT like I have to recheck things just to make sure I turned it on or turned it off. This has knocked my confidence in myself tremendously. The questioning myself on everything is very tiresome. I really do NOT like being asked to do something because I have to think about IF I can. I have the problem that sometimes I just say yes because I hate having to think about how I am. Problem is I pay for some of those days I say yes.
Living with Fibromyalgia is a constant beating of MY confidence in myself.

Can U relate?
♥ Cindy

Involuntary muscle spasms

Causes of Involuntary Muscle Spasms....

Involuntary muscle spasms may take the form of minor twitches or larger limb jerks. The behavior goes by a number of names, including myoclonus, muscle fasciculation and benign muscle spasms. The muscle spasms may be a mere annoyance, or they may be a sign of a serious health condition. Obtaining a medical diagnosis and understanding the cause is important.

Involuntary muscle spasms may be caused by poor dietary choices or nutritional deficiencies. Involuntary muscle spasms may be linked to the presence or absence of vital nutrients in the body. A lack of sufficient vitamin C, vitamin E or potassium may trigger small spasms.

Thyroid problems may cause involuntary muscle spasms. Thyroid issues are most likely the cause of muscle spasms occurring around the mouth, but involuntary muscle spasms may also occur in the hands, arms and throat. To know if this is the reason for muscle spasms, blood tests should be performed to pinpoint thyroid levels.

Any further information can be found at Livestrong.com

MPS or Fibromyalgia

Do U have chronic Myofascial pain Syndrome or Fibromyalgia or BOTH?

I will briefly explain the difference!

Trigger points are characterized by painful cramping in muscle and connective tissue, the cramping becoming so severe that the tissue becomes bound in hard clumps or muscular knots. These knots often ache and radiate pain on a continual basis. Trigger points may exhibit increased pain when touched and this tenderness can lead to confusion with Fibromyalgia tender points, but unlike the tender point a trigger point will exhibit the hard muscular knotting.  Trigger points often radiate pain beyond the immediate location of the muscular knots.

If U have Trigger points U have -- chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome or MPS

Tender points are more characterized by their extreme tenderness and the lack of muscular knotting. Tender point pain also tends to remain more focused to the specific location with the aching or radiating to other body areas being less prevalent.
Tender points occur in 18 specific locations throughout the body. They occur in symmetry on opposite sides of the body. 

If U have 11 out of 18 Tender points U have -- Fibromyalgia
 
I have both and it is hard to deal with the sensitivity I have to touch.  My body is in pain on its own but when touched in any way it is intensified.  I have the knots throughout my body and they do hurt. DR's have a hard time diagnosing between these two conditions because of the similarities.


Key differences between these two chronic pain syndromes:

1. MPS has more localized or regional pain versus the diffuse pain of fibromyalgia.

2. MPS patients have "trigger points" which can cause pain at a distant location when pressed, whereas fibromyalgia patients suffer from "tender points".

3. MPS has a better prognosis, as the pain often resolves with treatment or the rectification of the offending stimulus (such as the ergonomically incorrect office desk); the pain of fibromyalgia has a much higher chance of being chronic.

Fibromyalia is diagnosed by only tender points. U must have 11-18 tender points in order to get a diagnosis plus other issues as well.

MPS is often present in the fibromyalgia patient, but not all MPS patients also suffer from fibromyalgia.

TREATMENT....


As there is no cure for fibromyalgia, so there is no cure for MPS. The goals of treatment should obviously include pain relief and improvement/restoration of mobility and functionality. It is important to identify any other accompanying conditions, and give treatment to these also. 

Education on how to best manage chronic pain, so that life can be lived as normally as possible.

Just because there is no cure for MPS, do not think there is no treatment. Treatments include physical therapy and stretching exercises, massage therapy, trigger point-injections, and medications such as anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants, anti-depressants, and anti-seizure meds.

<3 Cindy

Fibromyalgia or Polymyalgia

Do U have FIBROMYALGIA or POLYMYALGIA?
I do, I actually have both of these issues.
Are U aware of the similarities and the differences?
♥ Cindy

Difference Between Fibromyalgia and Polymyalgia

What is the distinction between polymyalgia and fibromyalgia? What is the treatment for polymyalgia?

It is easy to get these 2 conditions confused....

fibromyalgia and polymyalgia; the names and, to an extent, the symptoms of both conditions are similar.

The word myalgia means pain within the muscles. Both fibromyalgia and polymyalgia are characterized by muscle pain, but many other aspects of the two conditions differ.

Polymyalgia, or polymyalgia rheumatica, is an inflammatory disease of muscle. The cause is uncertain but it is believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks the connective tissues. The primary symptoms are severe stiffness and pain in the muscles of the neck, shoulder and hip areas. People with this condition also may have flulike symptoms, including fever, weakness and weight loss, and approximately 15 percent develop a potentially dangerous condition called giant cell arteritis – an inflammation of the arteries that supply the head.

Fibromyalgia is not an inflammatory condition. It is caused by abnormal sensory processing in the central nervous system. People with fibromyalgia may be extremely sensitive to pain and other unpleasant sensations. To be diagnosed with fibromyalgia, one must experience pain on both sides of the body and in both the upper and lower half of the body. They are also typically tender points throughout their body. Other common symptoms of fibromyalgia include fatigue, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, irritable bowel syndrome and headaches.

Treatment differs, too. Fibromyalgia is treated with exercise, relaxation techniques, analgesic medications and antidepressants to relieve pain and promote sleep. Treatment for polymyalgia is targeted at relieving inflammation. For some people, daily doses of NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), are sufficient, but more often corticosteroids, such as prednisone, are required to control inflammation.

Although your polymyalgia will eventually go away completely, it’s important that you be mindful – both now and after your disease resolves – of symptoms such as headaches and blurred vision, which could mean giant cell arteritis. If you develop arteritis, high doses of corticosteroids may be necessary to control the condition and prevent vision loss.

Daniel Clauw, MD, Rheumatologist

Tips

TIPS FOR DEALING WITH PEOPLE IN PAIN

1. People with chronic pain seem unreliable (we can’t count on ourselves). When feeling better we promise things (and mean it); when in serious pain, we may not even show up.

2. An action or situation may result in pain several hours later, or even the next day. Delayed pain is confusing to people who have never experienced it.

3. Pain can inhibit listening and other communication skills. It’s like having someone shouting at you, or trying to talk with a fire alarm going off in the room. The effect of pain on the mind can seem like attention deficit disorder. So you may have to repeat a request, or write things down for a person with chronic pain. Don’t take it personally, or think that they are stupid.

4. The senses can overload while in pain. For example, noises that wouldn’t normally bother you, seem too much.

5. Patience may seem short. We can’t wait in a long line; can’t wait for a long drawn out conversation.

6. Don’t always ask “how are you” unless you are genuinely prepared to listen it just points attention inward.

7. Pain can sometimes trigger psychological disabilities (usually very temporary). When in pain, a small task, like hanging out the laundry, can seem like a huge wall, too high to climb over. An hour later the same job may be quite OK. It is sane to be depressed occasionally when you hurt.

8. Pain can come on fairly quickly and unexpectedly. Pain sometimes abates after a short rest. Chronic pain people appear to arrive and fade unpredictably to others.

9. Knowing where a refuge is, such as a couch, a bed, or comfortable chair, is as important as knowing where a bathroom is. A visit is much more enjoyable if the chronic pain person knows there is a refuge if needed. A person with chronic pain may not want to go anywhere that has no refuge (e.g.no place to sit or lie down).

10. Small acts of kindness can seem like huge acts of mercy to a person in pain. Your offer of a pillow or a cup of tea can be a really big thing to a person who is feeling temporarily helpless in the face of encroaching pain.

11. Not all pain is easy to locate or describe. Sometimes there is a body-wide feeling of discomfort, with hard to describe pains in the entire back, or in both legs, but not in one particular spot you can point to. Our vocabulary for pain is very limited, compared to the body’s ability to feel varieties of discomfort.

12. We may not have a good “reason” for the pain. Medical science is still limited in its understanding of pain. Many people have pain that is not yet classified by doctors as an officially recognized “disease”. That does not reduce the pain, – it only reduces our ability to give it a label, and to have you believe us.

Author Unknown

♥ Cindy

Release Therapy

MyoFascial Release Technique....
Have U had this done?
I have and it is quite painful at times BUT very beneficial!
This is very informative!
♥ Cindy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzQomSkjxxU

TENS Unit

Do U have a TENS Unit.
IF U do does it help U?
IF it doesn't what are some of the issues?


EXPLANATION OF PAIN:

Pain is a warning system and the body ’s method of telling us that something is wrong. Pain is important; without it abnormal conditions may go undetected, causing damage or injury to vital parts of our bodies. Even though pain is a necessary warning signal of trauma or malfunction in the body, nature may have gone too far in its design. Aside from its value in diagnosis, long-lasting persistent pain serves no useful purpose. Pain does not begin until coded message travels to the brain where it is decoded, analyzed, and then reacted to. The pain message travels from the injured area along the small nerves leading to the spinal cord. Here the message is switched to different nerves that travel up the spinal cord to the brain. The pain message is then interpreted, referred back and the pain is felt.

EXPLANATION OF TENS:

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation is a non-invasive, drugfree method of controlling pain. TENS uses tiny electrical impulses sent through the skin to nerves to modify your pain perception. TENS does not cure any physiological problem; it only helps control the pain. TENS does not work for everyone; however, in most patients it is effective in reducing or eliminating the pain, allowing for a return to normal activity.

Pelvic Pain - TENS has been used to treat several sources of pelvic pain, including interstitial cystitis (also known as painful bladder syndrome), menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea) and prostatitis. With interstitial cystitis, TENS has been most effective in helping patients who have painful sores known as Hunner’s ulcers, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). TENS might reduce pelvic pain and urinary frequency by increasing circulation to the bladder, strengthening pelvic muscles or causing the release of endorphins, according to the agency.

In some cases, TENS has been used to relieve labor pains. However, this use remains controversial because of the lack of research on how the fetus is affected by the electrical impulses. In general, pregnant women should avoid using TENS unless under the strict supervision of their physician.

Back Pain - TENS may relieve the severe pain and muscle spasms that sometimes develop after a vertebral fracture caused by osteoporosis, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). It has also been used for conditions including spinal cord trauma, spinal stenosis, sciatica and herniated discs.

Shoulder Pain - TENS has been used to reduce pain associated with conditions such as frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) and rotator cuff injuries.

Post-Surgical Pain - Some evidence suggests that TENS may be effective in treating post-operative pain, including in open-heart surgery patients. It may also help control mild to moderate acute pain after an operation such as arthroscopy or arthroplasty.

Tendinitis and Bursitis - TENS may help patients with these and similar inflammatory conditions, such as tennis elbow.

Arthritis - Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and other types of this disease have been treated with TENS.

Other forms of Joint Pain - TENS may, for example, benefit patients with neck pain caused by whiplash.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) - TENS sometimes relieves the chronic pain of this condition.

Peripheral Neuropathic Pain - TENS may be a treatment option for neuropathy caused by diabetes or other conditions, in which nerve sensation remains intact or sufficient. It may be possible to use TENS in cases of sensory neuropathy by delivering it through an intact nerve of the peripheral nervous system. For example, TENS applied on the thigh may relieve pain in a foot that has neuropathy. TENS may also be used in this way to avoid placing electrodes over areas with skin impairments such as a diabetic foot ulcer.

Postherpetic Neuralgia - This complication of shingles causes nerve and skin pain that TENS sometimes relieves.

Phantom Limb Pain - Techniques including TENS have been used to prevent or control chronic pain that may occur after an amputation.

Cranial Neuralgias and Facial Pain - Conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia and TMJ disorder have been treated with TENS.

Headaches - TENS has been used as a treatment for tension headaches, migraines and other types of headaches.

Dental Pain - TENS has been used a form of dental anesthesia.

Cancer Pain - According to the National Cancer Institute, TENS is a low-risk treatment that might benefit cancer patients with mild to moderate pain.

Costochondritis - TENS may help relieve costochondritis, the most common cause of pain in the chest wall.

Fibromyalgia - The National Fibromyalgia Association reports that some fibromyalgia patients have been treated with techniques such as a pen-like metal roller that produces a mild electrical current as it is rolled on the body. In addition, stroke rehabilitation programs sometimes use TENS to stimulate nerves in weakened or paralyzed limbs. Healthcare providers may also use TENS to reduce edema (swelling due to fluid buildup), and it may have a role in treating pressure ulcers or other wounds. The role of TENS in treating neuromuscular conditions such as multiple sclerosis is being investigated.

Hope this info helps U make a decision on a TENS Unit.
<3 Cindy