Pain management

Its the fibromyalgia that is causing the pain - any tips you have would be appreciated.

I can only tell you what my experience was, and each of us is unique, but maybe something that helped me will help him. When I was first diagnosed I was so bad that I could hardly get in or out of the car without falling (due to weak muscles), I was kept up at night with pain and muscle spasms, I was exhausted all the time, my feet were numb, I could barely get through combing my hair because the muscle in my arms ached so baddly. I went through hundreds of tests. I ended up on 13 prescriptions, each with it's own horrid side effects. One day I called my rheumatologist and asked him I could cause harm to myself by exercising even though it hurt. He said no, so I set off on a mission. I got a treadmill and exercise bike. I started swimming several days a week. I honestly believe the swimming was the most beneficial thing I did, because it was the one exercise I could do that didn't hurt. I kept going inspite of the pain, not because I am that tough, but because I noticed that over a couple of weeks the pain began to decrease. I then started going to a massotherapist, which was also an amazing therapy. I then started to wean off all of the pills and began taking a good multi- vitamin and using a malic acid/magnesium supplement. The supplement was incredibly helpful and once all of these things were in place my pain started to decrease daily. It took over a year of that routine to get something close to normal, but I went from having my Dr suggest that I apply for disability to being healthy enough to work as an EMT on the fire dept. Firbromyalgia is NOT a psychological illness, but determination and knowledge can go a long way toward overcoming the worst of it. I do still have flares and they can be quite painful, but other than extra sleep, I am able to push on through them and they are much shorter because of it. If your hubby is careful to not do anything to hurt his back, he should be able to find an exercise program that works for him. I highly recommend swimming for folks with back problems. Just a little FYI - many cases of fibro are started as the result of a back injury.

Thanks for the advice, I am really interested in the Glucosamine, at least its natural. We will go out on the hunt for it, I am living in Eastern Europe at the moment and still figuring out where to source everything. We will certainly try it!

Hi, I try to warn him not to overdo it. He gets very frustrated with his lack of mobility sometimes as he was so active before. He is only 35 and finds the situation quite unfair. He is getting better at resting when he needs to but its taken him some time not to keep doing himself more harm. Its a learning curve for him as some days he can be fine and do work in the garden etc, then somedays just bending down to pick something up can send him into a pain cycle. We will keep pushing on though.

Massotherapy (and Biofreeze) helped my fibro tremendously!

He did have a course of physio but after a while he found the exercises caused him morepain. It was found that it was not the correct treatment and the doctor stopped the treatment all together.