Costochondritis

Costochondritis is the inflammation of the cartilage that joins your ribs to your breastbone aka the sternum.

It is always imperative to get chest pain checked out because pain caused by costochondritis might mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions. You don’t want to self misdiagnose yourself with costochondritis when you could actually be having serious heart issues.

Cause:

The cause of costochondritis is unknown but is found in adults, especially women, over 40 and is common for those with fibromyalgia.

Symptoms:

• The pain associated with costochondritis usually occurs on the left side of your breastbone
• The pain is sharp, aching or pressure-like
• The pain affects more than one rib
• The pain can radiate to arms and shoulders similar to a heart attack.
• The pain worsens when taking a deep breath, coughing, sneezing or with any chest wall movement

Treatment:

Home Remedies

• Over-the-counter pain relievers such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or naproxen as needed
• Using local heat or ice to relieve pain
• Avoiding unnecessary exercise or activities that make the symptoms worse; avoiding contact sports until there is improvement in symptoms, and then returning to normal activities only as tolerated
• Doing stretching exercises

Medications:

• Prescription-strength NSAIDs.
• A local anesthetic and steroid injection in the area that is tender if normal activities become very painful and the pain doesn’t get better with medicine.
• Narcotics like hydrocodone/ acetaminophen (Norco, Vicodin) or oxycodone/ acetaminophen (Percocet, Roxicet, Tylox) can help with extreme pain, but, as with any narcotics, there’s danger of becoming addicted to them.
• Steroids. Your doctor can give you a corticosteroid shot directly into a painful joint, but that’s considered something of a last resort.
• Tricyclic antidepressants or cyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline can help ease pain, but they also can have side effects, like weight gain and drowsiness.
• Antiseizure drugs, usually gabapentin (Neurontin), are typically used to treat epilepsy, but they also may help with costochondritis.
• Infectious (bacterial or fungal) costochondritis should be treated with IV antibiotics.

You Can’t Do Everything, But You Can Do Something.

With Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain you can’t always do everything you want, and we will always be limited in what we can do, but there is always something you can do instead – always an alternative.

While you may not be able to go to the amusement park with your friends/ family because the rides will hurt too much or because you can’t be on your feet all day or maybe it’s an all day thing that you can’t do or for whatever other reason, there are other things you can you. Maybe you can go mini-golfing with friends instead. Still a social activity, still something physical, still something fun and still hanging out with your friends. If that’s still outside of your wheelhouse, try just going out for a drink even just coffee to get out and be with those you love. If you are bedridden, why not a virtual chat?

You can apply this to all other aspects of your life. Certain things you can not do and may never be able to do again, but there are always things you can do.

The Matchstick Theory

Originally posted by Sarah Johnson here, it basically replacing the spoons with matches.

I’m sure you’re wondering what the difference is between a spoon and a match. There’s one very big difference. When you light a match and it’s gone, it’s gone. When you use a spoon, you can wash it again and use it again.

The Matchstick Theory.

Imagine waking up each morning with one fresh pack of matches.
Get out of bed? Strike a match.
Watch it burn. Will it burn long enough to make it down the hall to the bathroom? Most Mornings? No. It will not.

Strike another match. Repeat until you are almost out of matches & still need to have dinner or shower. With one match left, what do you do?

It’s a very real difference. I agree with Sarah that it is very much more accurate description, losing a match the burns away vs losing a spoon that you can wash and reuse.

I’ve actually been asked that. “Why don’t you just rewash your spoon?” These are usually the obstinate people or the Karen’s of the world. So this new theory shuts them down to cuz you can’t reuse a match.

May 12, 2023

Happy Birthday to Florence Nightingale.

She died with a mysterious illness with chronic pain, and chronic sheer exhaustion. Sound familiar? It’s believed she had either Fibromyalgia Syndrome.or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. So, today was chosen for the awareness day as it is her birthday.

May 12th is for the Awareness of:

Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

The Spoon Theory & Chronic Pain

I shared the spoon theory in my last post here.

I’m sure you noticed that the girl in the story has the medical condition Lupus. While obviously not the same medical condition a lot of what she says – No, most – No, all of what she said still applies to anyone with a chronic medical condition.

With fibromyalgia and my other chronic pain conditions I also deal with the daily grind of the limits put on me by my medical conditions. Like Christine, the author, I have a limited amount of energy that I can use each day. Some days I start with more energy, more spoons. Some days I start with less energy, less spoons.

I hope this gives you a new understanding about what it is like to live with chronic pain and chronic illnesses like ours.

My next post is about The Matchbox Theory which I think is actually a little more apt.

The Spoon Theory

by Christine Miserandino.

My best friend and I were in the diner, talking. As usual, it was very late and we were eating French fries with gravy. Like normal girls our age, we spent a lot of time in the diner while in college, and most of the time we spent talking about boys, music or trivial things, that seemed very important at the time. We never got serious about anything in particular and spent most of our time laughing.

As I went to take some of my medicine with a snack as I usually did, she watched me with an awkward kind of stare, instead of continuing the conversation. She then asked me out of the blue what it felt like to have Lupus and be sick. I was shocked not only because she asked the random question, but also because I assumed she knew all there was to know about Lupus. She came to doctors with me, she saw me walk with a cane, and throw up in the bathroom. She had seen me cry in pain, what else was there to know?

I started to ramble on about pills, and aches and pains, but she kept pursuing, and didn’t seem satisfied with my answers. I was a little surprised as being my roommate in college and friend for years; I thought she already knew the medical definition of Lupus. Then she looked at me with a face every sick person knows well, the face of pure curiosity about something no one healthy can truly understand. She asked what it felt like, not physically, but what it felt like to be me, to be sick.

As I tried to gain my composure, I glanced around the table for help or guidance, or at least stall for time to think. I was trying to find the right words. How do I answer a question I never was able to answer for myself? How do I explain every detail of every day being effected, and give the emotions a sick person goes through with clarity. I could have given up, cracked a joke like I usually do, and changed the subject, but I remember thinking if I don’t try to explain this, how could I ever expect her to understand. If I can’t explain this to my best friend, how could I explain my world to anyone else? I had to at least try.

At that moment, the spoon theory was born. Read More.

Here is a link to the pdf.

More about the spoon theory in my next post

My Name is Fibromyalgia

From Chronic Pain Life Facebook group

MY NAME IS FIBROMYALGIA

Hi. My Name is Fibromyalgia, and I’m an Invisible Chronic Illness. I am now velcroed to you for life. Others around you can’t see me or hear me, but YOUR body feels me.

I can attack you anywhere and anyhow I please. I can cause severe pain or, if I’m in a good mood, I can just cause you to ache all over.

Remember when you and Energy ran around together and had fun? I took Energy from you, and gave you Exhaustion. Try to have fun now!

I also took Good Sleep from you and, in its place, gave you Brain Fog. I can make you tremble internally or make you feel cold or hot when everyone else feels normal.

Oh, yeah, I can make you feel anxious or depressed, too.

If you have something planned, or are looking forward to a great day, I can take that away, too. You didn’t ask for me. I chose you for various reasons: That virus you had that you never recovered from, or that car accident, or maybe it was the years of abuse and trauma. Well, anyway, I’m here to stay! I hear you’re going to see a doctor who can get rid of me.

I’m rolling on the floor, laughing. Just try.

You will have to go to many, many doctors until you find one who can help you effectively. You will be put on pain pills, sleeping pills, energy pills, told you are suffering from anxiety or depression, given a TENs unit, get massaged, told if you just sleep and exercise properly I will go away, told to think positively, poked, prodded, and MOST OF ALL, not taken as seriously as you feel when you cry to the doctor how debilitating life is every day.

Your family, friends will all listen to you until they just get tired of hearing about how I make you feel, and that I’m a debilitating disease. Some of they will say things like “Oh, you are just having a bad day” or “Well, remember, you can’t do the things you use to do 20 YEARS ago”, not hearing that you said 20 DAYS ago. Some will just start talking behind your back, while you slowly feel that you are losing your dignity trying to make them understand, especially when you are in the middle of a conversation with a “Normal” person, and can’t remember what you were going to say next!

In closing, (I was hoping that I kept this part a secret), but I guess you already found out… the ONLY place you will get any support and understanding in dealing with me is with Other People With Fibromyalgia. ♥️

May

May is Fibromyalgia Awareness Month.