What Does Fibromyalgia Pain Feel Like?

How can I describe what Fibromyalgia pain feels like? All I can tell you is my own experience. Everybody has their own experience of it, and their body reacts to pain differently than mine, I'm sure. So keep in mind, this is only MY best description of what dealing with Fibromyalgia feels like.

It's very close to the flu, except without the head congestion. If you think of the very worst flu case you've ever, ever had -- that includes the body aches and intense fatigue, you're close. But there are differences. A big difference as I see it is that it is UNRELENTING. Oh sure, there are days here and there -- maybe 2 days at a time (and I am lucky to get small breaks that others do not get!) With influenza, you will feel like you've been chewed up and spit out, but it's over within 2 weeks tops. Maybe you will feel depressed after you've had the flu. I'm told that's because our brains get exhausted from the sickness and fever of having the flu.

Fibromyalgia goes on and on. Understandably as there is no known cure for Fibromyalgia, someone with Fibromyalgia can begin to lose hope. It is depressing to feel that others don't believe you are hurting because they can't see it. It is depressing to not be able to do the things you used to do, and things you'd like to do now. As I told my rheumatologist it's not that I don't want to do things, I just don't have the stamina and I will hurt if I do too much. After a few times of feeling really bad pain from an ordinary endeavor, like walking around the park, a little bit of paranoia sets in and a person is afraid to do more exercise.

Those who need to seek disability fear that others will think they are moochers (they often do), or that we are overly emoting. Nope, I'm an at-home mom and have been for over 10 years, so who will pay me disability? I can tell you this is a real thing. I understand your worries that since it can't be seen, people are trying to scam the government.  I don't get any check from the government.

On top of thinking people are thinkign we're hypochondriacs, lazy or moochers, there are a lot of well-intentioned advice sessions Fibromyalgics need to endure:

"Maybe if you exercised more."
"Maybe if you exercised less."
"Maybe if you meditated."
"Maybe if you saw a chiropractor."
"Maybe if you got more sleep."
"Maybe if you used this muscle cream."

Believe me, we've tried. I have always been a pretty active person and generally harder working than others. When I managed a store, I actually had an employee of mine explain her lack of work compared to mine. She told me "But YOU'RE a WORKER." (She was a diva.) Sometimes I wonder if she was right though -- although she was a little princess trying to avoid work, maybe I was overdoing it all those years.

That's just an example of how a person with Fibromyalgia will try to figure out: WHY DID I GET FIBROMYALGIA?!? Trying to figure that out is nearly impossible. I tell myself if the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association recognize Fibromyalgia as a medical condition but THEY, with all their degrees and wisdom haven't figured it out, then I'm going to just chill about trying to figure out why it is what it is. It just is. I have a very mild case of Fibromyalgia and even so, it effects my daily life quite a bit.

If people with Fibromyalgia seem like they're hypochondriacs because they know "too much" about medical stuff, there's a simple explanation for that. Just try living with something chronic and painful that nobody can figure out. You will find you're on the Internet quite often to learn about symptoms and what you might be able to do to ease your pain. People who suffer chronic pain can't do much more than surf the web, so we become researchers of medical stuff. I know in my case, I don't get much useful information from my doctor. I think they'd be researching a lot more too if they suffered from this!

I get tired easily, I feel very wiped out. Even as I type this, the backs of my upper arms are just burning. It feels like a bad sunburn. It hurts, but I tell myself it's just a Central Nervous System SENSATION. "I am okay," I tell myself, and I keep going. I have a prescription for an opiate pain medication called Tramadol (Ultram) and I am allowed to take 2 or so per day, but most of the time I only take 1 pill a day, and that pill is cut in half and taken several hours apart.

A major part of what Fibromyalgia feels like to me is how I feel when I wake up in the morning. I feel like I fell asleep and died and rigor mortis has set in, I really do. I used to be a person who literally leaped out of bed. A real morning person. But since this has started, it can take me an hour or two on really bad days to get ready to go anywhere. I find a hot shower really helps, but I'm like Lurch from the Addams Family as I walk to the bathroom, and I have the brain power of a zombie. A literal zombie. I just don't crave brains. I don't crave much of anything for an hour or two.

Sometimes I feel nauseated from the pain. I hope I haven't seemed like I am complaining. I don't mean to, I just want to help others understand what their loved one with Fibromyalgia is dealing with on a daily basis.

We're forgetful because our brains are so overtaxed from dealing with the unrelenting pain and fatigue, it's not that we don't want to listen to you or that what you said wasn't important enough to remember. When we feel we have hurt your feelings, we feel even worse.

So please be forgiving.

This post is already quite long, so I'll save the other symptoms I have as part of Fibromyalgia for another time: Tinnitis (ringing of the ears), tight muscles that won't relax, muscle spasms, muscle twitches, muscles jerking (sometimes it wakes me up), sleep apnea, and more. 

comfortable