fibromyalgia

1 Comment Posted on August 28, 2014February 13, 2017 Fibromyalgia, Mental health, Multiple Sclerosis, Patient Talk, Research, Rheumatoid arthritis

Do you suffer from depression as a result of another medical condition?

Stephen Fry on Depression

This morning on the news there were an interesting set of reports about a recent report which suggests many people with cancer do not get proper treatment if they develop depression.

Indeed it goes on to suggest depression is highly correlated with a diagnosis of cancer.

I found this very interesting as I know from my own family’s experience. Indeed my grandmother who suffered for many years with rheumatoid arthritis. Of course, in those days, few people saw a relationship between the two.

These days it is different. I know from anecdotal evidence from my years in healthcare research that people with say fibromyalgia or multiple sclerosis may often develop depression.

On the other had with the current popularity of the ALS (motor neurone disease) ice bucket challenges it reminded me that I was told by an ALS research that there was much more chance of depression affecting the caregiver than the person with MND.

So I am really interested in the very simple question “Do you suffer from depression as a result of another medical condition?”. It would be great if you could take the poll below to share your answers. I have included some responses for caregivers as well.

Please feel free to share your story in the comments section below!

Many thanks in advance.

Leave a comment Posted on August 26, 2014September 16, 2017 Fibromyalgia, medical awareness, Multiple Sclerosis, Pain Management, Patient Talk

September is Pain Awareness Month #goyellow #PainAwarenessMonth

Pain Awareness Month

As you may know September is Pain Awareness Month. We want to highlight what is happening in Wisconsin because it givers a great example of how to act globally. Also we want to show our support for the “Go Yellow” social media awareness campaign.

In fact Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proclaimed September as Pain Awareness Month. According to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, chronic pain is the nation’s primary cause of lost workdays. It affects more people than
cancer, heart disease and diabetes combined, with over 100 million Americans suffering from it. Pain management has been a particular focus of this blog with a special interest in multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.

To raise awareness of chronic pain and its treatment, Advanced Pain Management (APM), the Wisconsin chapter of the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) and the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA) joined efforts to get the proclamation by the Office of the Governor . Through the proclamation, doctors with APM and representatives of ASPMN and ACPA hope to facilitate an improved quality of life for those suffering from pain and increase their access to appropriate pain management treatment.

“Pain is a costly epidemic that causes millions of Americans to suffer and millions of dollars’ worth of employee productivity to be lost,” said Dr. Yogendra Bharat, medical director of Advanced Pain Management. “Pain Awareness Month is intended to get Wisconsinites to recognize the symptoms of pain and get appropriate relief so they don’t have to miss work or other activities.”

According to Bharat, the most common type of pain is lower back pain, followed by severe headaches or migraines. It is estimated that 80 percent of Americans will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Organizations supporting the Pain Awareness Month initiative will conduct a “Go Yellow” social media campaign, encouraging the public to raise awareness during September.

Advanced Pain Management is one of the largest pain management groups in the country, with more than 30 board-certified/eligible physicians offering the most advanced techniques for pain control. Advanced Pain Management physicians operate out of more than 40 locations in Wisconsin, including metro Milwaukee, the greater Madison area, Racine, Sheboygan and Green Bay, as well as in Mankato, Minn. You can find Advanced Pain
Management online at www.apmhealth.com.

Indeed they have asked up to share the infographic below which we would ask you to pass on as well.

Pain Awareness Month

10 Comments Posted on August 5, 2014August 5, 2014 Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Pain Management, Patient Talk, Women's Health

The menopause and chronic illness – What effect did the menopause and pre-menopause have on your main medical condition?

The menopause and chronic illness

A few weeks ago we ran a short blog post on Multiple Sclerosis Heat Intolerance or Uthoff’s Phenomenon. While there has been some interest in the subject there were no comments on the blog until yesterday.

A lady kindly commented “Now add pre-menopause hot flashes, which in PREmenopuase means I get hot hours!! This sucks so bad. It only gets harder.”

The comment really hit home. What really is the impact of the menopause and pre-menopause on the symptoms of a chronic medical condition? Not just multiple sclerosis, of course, but also other related chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis.

Not just that what do women do to help with any exacerbations of their symptoms caused by the onset of menopause? This is the aim of this blog post.

Firstly would it be possible for you to take the poll below so we can assess the percentages of our readers who symptoms are changed (or not) by the meno pause.

Finally it would be great if you could share a bit more in the comments section below. You may wish to consuder the following questions:-

a) What is your main medical condition?
b) What is the impact of the menopause on that medical condition?
c) How did you deal with these new symptoms? How successful were these treatment?
d) What one bit of advice would you give to a women with your medical condition who have just started the menopause?

Many thanks in advance!

7 Comments Posted on July 29, 2014June 22, 2017 Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Patient Talk, Rheumatoid arthritis

Staying cool – Improving health – Lowering pain. Sharing tips to keep us cool this summer!

Ice pack. Make at home a cool off!

One of the original ideas behind this healthcare blog was to provide and online space where people could share their ideas and experiences. And most importantly their tips.

Last year we ran a poll looking at how temperature impacts upon pain levels. In that case the poll itself looked at the cold but from the comments it became clear that heat was also an issue for pain for many of our readers and commenters.

Indeed one of our most popular posts of last year was the great tip on how to keep cool in the heat. Indeed I was introduced to the idea from a member of the multiple sclerosis community who found it a very effective way of reducing summertime pain.

Similar applies to other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.

So what is the point of this blog?

Well pretty simple from past research we know that people with conditions such as MS and fibro have loads of great ideas on how to keep cool. The aim of this blog is to ask you to share them in the comments box below.

By the way if you are a commercial vendor we won’t delete you post but we do ask you to be very clear the your offering is part of a business.

Otherwise cheap and effective are the watchwords for the comments on this blog.

Thanks very much in advance!

NRamey	The sponge ice pack is a wonderful idea! I usually don’t have a problem with being too hot at night because I sleep with a fan blowing on me, even in the winter. My biggest heat problem is when I go out in the summer. I’ll keep this idea in mind!~

patienttalk	Julie White Thanks Julie
Julie White	You can buy “chillow” to keep your head cool & I have a mattress pad made from cooling gel which is invaluable! Just pop it under your sheet & sleep comfortably- until you get too cold then move over the other side if the bed!! Got mine from bright life uk. Xx
patienttalk	FrancesSedgwick Thanks Frances This is great
FrancesSedgwick	I live with ME/CFS/FMS since 1993. I had a constant symptom of head sweats whenever I tried to rest or sleep. I started using wet washers, then bags of ice, then onto large gel ice packs. I put them in single layer in a freezer, wrap them in a half folded velour towel. Put them on my pillow behind my neck and sleep in comfort. I wake up when they get hot or defrost too much and I get up and replace them. Probably 3 or 4 times a night. I had surgery 18 mths ago and when I came back to the ward, they could not get my temperature down and I was very unsettled, the nurse did not know what to do for me. Luckily hubby was there and I had bought 2 ice packs in with me. He asked for them to be got and I settled immediately. Slept the anesthetic off and was able to go home. I keep about 4 large 6 x 6 ice paks in the freezer now and take on to bed every time I lay down.

3 Comments Posted on July 28, 2014February 8, 2017 Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia – Have you suffered from stigma attached to your Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia and stigma

Over the last few years this blog has look a few times at the kinds of discrimination face by people with various medical condition. Indeed according to our poll run last year over 70% of our readers have faced dicrimination at work because of health problems.

So I was very interested to read an article published earlier this month in Communities Digital News entitled “The fibromyalgia stigma: When law enforcement, not pain management, wins” You can read Paul Mountjoy’s article on their site here.

He argues ” A patient who mentions the “F” word, or fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), to most primary care physicians, hospital residents, specialists and even pain management clinics, is liable to be labeled as a ‘drug seeker’and not a serious patient.”

Certainly this has been the experience of many patients with fibro, diagnosed or undiagnosed.

But i was wondering to what extent it applies to our readers. It would be great if you could take our poll where we look in more detail at the question of a stigma associated with fibromyalgia.

It would be great if you could use the comments box below to share your story in more detail.

Many thanks in advance.