I've had fibro for over 21 years--I went from a over 100 hr work week gradually down to a 36 hr work week, and I still would have to call in. I was a work horse all my life, I was what you could term a type a personality. Most of us were. I finally hit the wall and had to go on disability about 3 years ago. It does affect your brain, too. I was forgetting stuff at work and putting my patients at risk--so had no choice. This has taken away not only my work, it cleaned out my savings, my ability to exercise, my health and my body shape!!
It's hard to believe but there are dr's out there that still do not believe this is real. They have no end of prove now, and insurance, and disability would not cover a non-existing disorder. Our brains change. We do loose some gray matter--esp in the hippocampus area. The way we process info changes. We show up normal on regular exams, but there are tests that have been geared to evaluate the fibro brain and we do some things differently. Our forgetters work very well though! We also show brain abnormalities when we sleep--basically, the brain asleep shuts down certain area, on an image scan, our brains show up as awake when we are asleep--which explains why no matter how much sleep we get we still feel like we have not slept in a week! nI also habe painful nueropathies, esp in my feet which get worse with exercise, as do the cramping. I have degenerative disk disease in lower back and neck which makes walking and even standing painful--the lack of exercise just made me into a blimp. Exercise has to be moderate for fibro people as we no longer make muscle like normal people do---over do it, and you will end up hurting yourself in the end. We have to go slow and steady and gentle to not damage what little muscle we can make. I've tried all the pain meds out there and the Lyrica, Savella and everything else--nothing helps, and if it does, it doesn't for long (we have a tendency to overide the meds) and/or the side effects are too severe. Mthadone lasted me 3 days before the pain set back in--goody. Everyone is different. Look into Low dose Neltrexone--used off label at very low doses. Used for cancer and other patients at about 50 mg, we use it at 4.5 mg at the most, some can do even a lot less. Worked wonders for some. I took it, helped with the fibro, but did nothing for the nueropathy pain, or my back paiSorry, wall of text again!--Look up patientslikeme.com It's a research site on many different illnesses, I just go on the fibro one, learn alot there, you need to enroll, but it's free. Also fibromyalgianetwork.com That's not free, around $28 a year, it's worth it. They report on all the latest findings and they except no money from medical, pharmaceuticals, so as to not taint their research. This sucks--big time!!