When it comes to a chronic health condition like fibromyalgia, the symptoms themselves are difficult enough to deal with. For example, besides the pain, ...
Exercising with chronic pain can be difficult. However, these 11 training tips can help you get the most out of your exercise regime.
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Learn 10 tips for pacing yourself with Fibromyalgia. Discover how to better manage your energy levels when you live with Fibromyalgia.
Abstract. Fibromyalgia syndrome is a clinically well-characterized chronic pain condition of high socio-economic impact. Although the pathophysiology is st
Many people with fibromyalgia may also experience Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS). It is a chronic pain disorder that effects the fascia (connective tissue that covers the muscles).
Many of those already suffering from the pain of fibromyalgia also suffer from myofascial pain syndrome. Myofascial pain syndrome is another form of chronic pain that can affect the entire body, particularly the face and jaw.
I have read and reviewed two previous books by the talented author (and my friend) Toni Bernhard: How To Be Sick and How To Wake Up. The first was about applying the principles of Buddhism to a life of chronic illness, and the second was a more general book – for anyone, not just those chronically ill – about applying Buddhism principles for a happier, more peaceful life. In her third book, How To Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness: A Mindful Guide, Toni once again focuses on those living with chronic illness and pain, with a more general guide, based on her own life and experiences and the wonderful columns, “Turning Straw Into Gold,” that she has written for Psychology Today. I hardly know where to start because Toni covers so much ground in this incredible book, and there is so much useful information packed into it. Her short, easy-to-read chapters cover every aspect of life with chronic illness or pain, from the benefits of patience to the problems with complaining, from mindfulness techniques to dealing with doctors, and from appreciating what you have to guidelines for your friends and family. Toni’s warm, kind tone runs through it all, interweaving her own experiences with advice for others. I don’t normally do this in a review, but I really want to give you an idea of the broad scope of this book, so here are the major section titles (each section contains short, useful chapters): I. Skills to Help with Each Day II. Mindfulness: Potent Medicine for Easing the Symptoms of Chronic Illness III. Responding Wisely to Troubling Thoughts and Emotions IV. Special Challenges V. Isolation and Loneliness VI. Enjoy the Life You Have VII. For Family, Friends, Caregivers, and Anyone Concerned About Chronic Illness VIII. Last But Not Least As with her previous two books, my copy was filled with dogged-eared corners by the time I finished reading it! I loved the quotes from others that she includes at the start of each chapter, like this one: Wisdom is learning what to overlook. - William James I could relate to many of her own experiences (which, in itself, always helps – to know you are not alone), and as always, I found her advice to be compassionate, straightforward, and very helpful. Sometimes, I encountered certain topics just when I needed them most, like When You and Those You Love Are in Conflict, and wanted to highlight every line in the section! Here is one example passage: Understanding a conflict from the other person’s point of view helps you see that a seemingly callous or indifferent reaction to the difficulties in your relationship does not automatically mean that your loved one doesn’t care about you. Instead, it may reflect his or her worries and fears about your medical condition – a reaction that stems from love and concern for you. Understanding this makes it easier not to take your loved one’s behavior personally. As you can see just from that brief quote, Toni’s approach is always calm and compassionate. As she herself states, “I’ve worked hard to find a measure of peace in the midst of feeling misunderstood,” and she takes that hard-won experience (in this and every other topic) and helps boil it down to basic, simple steps that we can all take to improve our lives and cope better with chronic illness.The wording and look of the cover tell you what you need to know: the emphasis here is on Living Well. With this mix of personal experience and common-sense advice that you can easily put into practice, Toni’s latest book is my favorite of the three (though the other two are well worth reading, too!). I know I will turn to this book again and again when I go through a rough spot, as I have already, and I’m sure it will be even more helpful for those who are newer to chronic illness. Toni’s advice is always so spot-on, so calm and reassuring and sensible, that my husband recently started joking with me about it. When I get upset over something related to my illness, he looks at me with a smile and says, “What would Toni do?” 331 pages, Wisdom Publications NOTE: If you, like my son and I, live with chronic illness, check out my chronic illness blog. It covers some topics specific to our illnesses (an immune disorder called ME/CFS and Lyme and other tick infections) but also many topics about emotional coping, joy, and daily life that are relevant for any chronic illness. Like Toni, I take a positive approach to living with chronic illness, with an emphasis on LIVE. Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author. Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you. Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local! Or you can order How To Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness: A Mindful Guide from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.
Chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia and arachnoiditis cause debilitating symptoms and have no cure. Treatment focuses on managing pain and related emotional disturbances. Some experimental tre…
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8 things to keep on your nightstand when you live with chronic pain
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This post was originally written on my phone on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 when I couldn’t sleep. It’s 9:41 on a Wednesday and I have been trying to sleep for almost 2 hours. My body has been sluggish and weak all day – well, more than normal, at least – and I need lots […]
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"Anyone who hasn’t experienced non-stop widespread pain really has no idea what this experience has been like."
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[Relationship between pain and nerve fibers distribution in multiple endometriosis lesions]. [Article in Chinese] Wang YY1, Leng JH, Shi JH, Li XY, Lang JH. Author information 1Department of Obsterics and Gynecology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China. Abstract OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the distribution of nerve fibers in multiple endometriosis lesions and pelvic pain. METHODS: From Sept. 2007 to Sept. 2008, 120 endometriosis patients treated in Peking Union Hospital were enrolled in this study, which including 19 cases with stage I, 29 cases with stage II, 44 cases with stage III and 28 cases with stage IV. The pain symptom was evaluated by visual analogue scales (VAS) score and nerve fibers in multiple endometriosis lesions were detected by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The number of nerve fibers in multiple endometriosis lesions were (29.74+/-17.33)/mm2 in uterosacral ligament, (24.53+/-13.34)/mm2 in vaginal septum, (17.09+/-10.09)/mm2 in uterus rectum crux, (6.77+/-4.21)/mm2 in peritoneal endometriosis lesions, (0.07+/-0.25)/mm2 in endometriosis ovarian cyst wall. The number of nerve fibers in uterosacral ligament was mostly correlated with the degree of pain (r=0.56). The nerve fibers of uterus rectum crux and vaginal septum were correlated with defecation pain (r=0.58 and 0.41) and dyspareunia (r=0.82 and 0.67), which were significantly higher than those in endometriosis leision in peritoneum and ovary. There was no significant different number of nerve fibers among different stage disease (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: There was significantly different distribution of nerve fibers in multiple endometriosis lesions, which was correlated with dysmenorrhea, anus pain, dyspareunia and chronic pelvic pain, not with clinical staging. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20646536 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Endometriosis-associated nerve fibers, peritoneal fluid cytokine concentrations, and pain in endometriotic lesions from different locations. McKinnon B1, Bersinger NA, Wotzkow C, Mueller MD. Author information 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Inselspital, Berne University Hospital, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland. [email protected] Abstract OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between endometriotic lesions with associated nerve fibers with both pain and peritoneal fluid (PF) cytokine concentrations based on lesion location. DESIGN: An observational study. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENT(S): Premenopausal women undergoing laparoscopy. INTERVENTION(S): The pain experienced by patients was recorded before surgery and ectopic endometrial tissue excised and matching PF collected during laparoscopy. Immunohistochemistry was performed on endometriotic tissue sections to identify nerve fibers and PF cytokine concentrations determined. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The pain experienced by women with endometriosis, the lesion locations, and the prevalence and proximity of nerve fibers to endometriotic lesions, as well as the PF concentrations of multiple cytokines. RESULT(S): Lesions from the rectovaginal septum were significantly more likely to be associated with a nerve fiber and report more menstrual pain than lesions from other regions. The PF glycodelin concentrations were also significantly higher in samples with an endometriotic-associated nerve. In peritoneal endometriotic lesions significantly more menstrual pain was reported when endometriotic lesions were associated with nerve fibers, although no difference was observed between the cytokine concentrations. Ovarian endometriotic lesions were rarely associated with nerve fibers. CONCLUSION(S): The presence of endometriosis-associated nerve fibers appear to be related to both the pain experienced by women with endometriosis and the concentration of PF cytokines; however, this association varies with the lesion location. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22154765 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Fertil Steril. 2011 Jun 30;95(8):2772-4. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2011.01.150. Epub 2011 Feb 19. Nerve fibers and menstrual cycle in peritoneal endometriosis. Wang G1, Tokushige N, Fraser IS. Author information 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China. [email protected] Abstract There was no difference in the density of nerve fibers across the menstrual cycle in peritoneal endometriotic lesions. These findings may explain why patients with peritoneal endometriosis often have painful symptoms throughout the menstrual cycle. Copyright © 2011 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21334610 ____________________________________________________________________________________ " RESULTS: The positive rate and density of PGP9.5-immunoreactive nerve fibers in peritoneal endometriotic leision were 62% (10/16) and (3.8+/-1.7)/mm2 in endometriosis patients with pain, which were significantly higher than 19% (3/16) and (1.7+/-0.5)/mm2 in endometriosis patients without pain (P<0.05) and 25% (5/20) and (1.3+/-0.6)/mm2 in peritoneal tissues in women without endometriosis (P<0.05). However, no differences were found between endometriosis patients without pain and women without endometriosis (P>0.05). Moreover, the density of PGP9.5-immunoreactive nerve fibers in peritoneal lesions in endometriosis patients with pain was positively correlated with the severity of pain (r=0.855, P<0.05). In addition, the density of PGP9.5-immunoreactive nerve fibers in peritoneal lesions was statistically higher in endometriosis patients with chronic pelvic pain and (or) dysmenorrhea than those in endometriosis patients with other type of pain (P<0.05), which was not associated with active lesion, site and staging (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: It suggested that PGP9.5-immunoreactive nerve fibers might confer the mechanism of pelvic pain with endometriosis." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20646535 ___________________________________________________________________________________ "The nerve fiber density (mean +/- standard deviation/mm(2)) in peritoneal endometriotic lesions from hormone-treated women with endometriosis (10.6 +/- 2.2/mm(2)) was statistically significantly lower than in peritoneal endometriotic lesions from untreated women with endometriosis (16.3 +/-10.0/mm(2)). Nerve growth factor and nerve growth factor receptor p75 expression in peritoneal endometriotic lesions were slightly reduced in hormone-treated women with endometriosis compared with untreated women with endometriosis. CONCLUSION(S): Progestogens and combined oral contraceptives reduced nerve fiber density and nerve growth factor and nerve growth factor receptor p75 expression in peritoneal endometriotic lesions" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18976764
