More and more, I realise the daily effects on my life are as impacting as the pain or debilitating exhaustion.
In the past, I’ve tried to see the funny side of fibro fog, or brain fog as some call it – the cognitive impairments associated with fibromyalgia.
My former manager would say that I was no more forgetful than people without fms.
But in truth, it is worse. Trying to function in a head that’s so fogged up is darn scary.
I had found several weeks ago the degree of forgetfulness had exacerbated. On the bus on my way home, I nearly got lost. I mean, I couldn’t remember where I was, and how to get home.
Forgetting yesterday’s conversations, and the names of your friends, particularly in a work environment aren’t quite attractive either.
Curing the fog
I’ve been reading about some of our fellow fibromyalgia family who have had to give up driving, or get confused when they are.
I forgot what the point of this blog was. Not joking here. Anyway, I think I was going to tell you that I think many medical practitioners still haven’t realised the extent to which these cognitive impairments impact us, especially where it pertains to memory loss and focusing.
I still work full time (thank God though it’s tough) but the embarrassment of forgetting what you were saying mid sentence in a meeting, isn’t any trifling matter. I also have to work hard to keep my little pride in tact after such meetings! When will the doctors and researchers start doing some real work to help us?
We are past the stage of debating whether it’s all ‘in our heads.’ Are we any less deserving of the support, help and research than the people who suffer from auto immune diseases or other well known conditions?
While we wait and pray for a cure, the article I linked above, mentions some things that could potentially help with fibro fog. Among these are getting sufficient sleep (yeah right-please pardon my pessimism darling), staying hydrated, avoiding caffeine, B-12 injections and daily intake of ribose.
If you’ve found something that alleviates the fog, please share with us.
16 months ago I started a health plan. The first 2 things I gave up at the same time were dairy and gluten. Within 3 days of this I suddenly realized I was not having pains in all the usual places! After 1 week I was almost pain free and my mobility improved dramatically.
Why am I telling you about this pain? Because it also affected my neck, shoulders, spine, elbows, knees, mental fog and I had these weird sore spots that felt like I had bruises near my elbows but there was no visible marks. Also, I felt exhausted and hurt like someone had beat me up. These symptoms come upon me after 1-2 days of eating dairy and gluten worse with dairy. When I clean up my eating it goes away within 2-3 days.
This tells me these 2 things cause severe inflammation in my body which results in nerve, tendon, muscle, arterial inflammation. This effects almost everything in your body. Allergens dont necessarily appear outwardly or in the usual obvious forms such as hives and itching but can appear in many forms.
Yesterday I had an ice cream cone and some cheese and I awoke at 5 am in pain all over. My elbows feel like I whacked my funny bones, and I have all the symptoms I listed above. Not sure why I just have to have that occasional ice cream and cheese and gluten when I know there will be a hefty price to pay…. But, I am very thankful I realized what caused all this pain within my body. I lived with severe pain from the time I was 30 – 53 years old. I only found out a few months ago that fibromyalgia symptoms were similar.
I pray this helps some of you that live in pain and exhaustion.
Blessings,
Barb
Hi Barb,
Thanks so much for sharing with us.I know alot of people with fibromyalgia, other chronic pain conditions and IBS who say that quitting gluten and dairy helped. My major concern on quitting gluten is gluten free food is so much expensive here, otherwise I’d have tried for longer.Thankfully my pain is now better managed and much better than it used to be. I still eat gluten and dairy (mainly cheese) but not as often as before. I hope too that this will help others reading. Thanks so much, and glad youre much better 🙂
Bless you,
Alisha
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16 months ago I started a health plan. The first 2 things I gave up at the same time were dairy and gluten. Within 3 days of this I suddenly realized I was not having pains in all the usual places! After 1 week I was almost pain free and my mobility improved dramatically.
Why am I telling you about this pain? Because it also affected my neck, shoulders, spine, elbows, knees, mental fog and I had these weird sore spots that felt like I had bruises near my elbows but there was no visible marks. Also, I felt exhausted and hurt like someone had beat me up. These symptoms come upon me after 1-2 days of eating dairy and gluten worse with dairy. When I clean up my eating it goes away within 2-3 days.
This tells me these 2 things cause severe inflammation in my body which results in nerve, tendon, muscle, arterial inflammation. This effects almost everything in your body. Allergens dont necessarily appear outwardly or in the usual obvious forms such as hives and itching but can appear in many forms.
Yesterday I had an ice cream cone and some cheese and I awoke at 5 am in pain all over. My elbows feel like I whacked my funny bones, and I have all the symptoms I listed above. Not sure why I just have to have that occasional ice cream and cheese and gluten when I know there will be a hefty price to pay…. But, I am very thankful I realized what caused all this pain within my body. I lived with severe pain from the time I was 30 – 53 years old. I only found out a few months ago that fibromyalgia symptoms were similar.
I pray this helps some of you that live in pain and exhaustion.
Blessings,
Barb
Hi Barb,
Thanks so much for sharing with us.I know alot of people with fibromyalgia, other chronic pain conditions and IBS who say that quitting gluten and dairy helped. My major concern on quitting gluten is gluten free food is so much expensive here, otherwise I’d have tried for longer.Thankfully my pain is now better managed and much better than it used to be. I still eat gluten and dairy (mainly cheese) but not as often as before. I hope too that this will help others reading. Thanks so much, and glad youre much better 🙂
Bless you,
Alisha