Fibromyalgia: When the Pain Becomes Too Much

Quality of life.

It's something that doctors throw around when discussing terminal patients- but it's just as relevant to those of us with a chronic pain condition. We cannot take for granted the quality of our days, much less our lives.

Every day is a surprise, every day is an adventure- you never know how much pain you're going to be in when you wake up. Some days, you wake up and feel almost normal, and then the very next day, you can wake up and be in horribly debilitating pain. When the pain becomes unbearable, what do you do?

First off, hopefully, you have a good doctor who understands fibromyalgia and believes that it is a chronic, debilitating condition and is willing to prescribe certain medications that can help you fight the pain. So, step one is "Take your medications when they're needed." This is not, as many fibro patients will protest, an admission of weakness. Would you tell an arthritis patient that they're "weak" for taking their medications? When you need them, pain medications are perfectly justifiable, and a good doctor will understand that and give them to you as necessary.

Secondly, there are things that you can do to help prevent the pain. A good, gentle yoga stretching routine, like the many stretches described in Easy Does it Yoga can keep your muscles flexible and limber, and keep your pain levels low. Also, gentle stretches when the pain flares up can sometimes alleviate some of the pain caused by stiffness. I have found that taking a half of a flexeril and doing a stretching routine will often relieve my pain enough that I don't have to take some of the stronger painkillers (to the point where I don't keep a supply on hand any longer).

Finally, there is an emotional component to fibromyalgia pain. If you let the pain suck you into an emotional funk, the pain will get worse, and your sadness will get worse, until you've locked yourself into a spiral of pain/depression that is terribly hard to get out of.