Hi!

Apr. 20th, 2009 10:11 pm
quiara: (elephant!)
[personal profile] quiara
Well, I haven't mentioned this community on [site community profile] dw_community_promo yet, but some people are noticing it exists and seem to think it's a good idea. I'm glad!

I thought I'd write up some things I've found to be helpful in my dealings with fibro. I was diagnosed not terribly long ago after a long bit of eliminating other causes and there are some co-morbid conditions that complicate things. But overall, I've found that several things help.

  • Stretching: I find that yoga and just focused stretching tend to be easier to do consistently, even on days when I hurt the worst, than, say, treadmill or biking or walking would be. Stretching is something that can be tailored to how I'm feeling; it can be intense or gentle and I find that more often than not, I feel almost immediately better after spending at least 10 minutes doing focused stretching and breathing.

  • Medications:: Specifically for fibro, I take neurontin (gabapentin) and tramadol. They have, in my case, very few side effects and the benefits are incredible. I find my pain is substantially reduced and it doesn't make me feel high or stoned to take them. I also take citalopram (celexa) and trazadone (desryl) for depression/insomnia and they help as well.

  • Music: And, on a related note, dancing to my music. I find that my pain is always worse if I happen also to be fairly depressed and vice versa. So alleviating one often helps with the other. If I notice I'm drifting toward a darkened state of mind, I'll pick some music that makes me feel good and after a few minutes, I get up and move to the music and eventually I'm dancing. It's exercise, it's a mood elevator and the endorphins help control pain. I'm a fan.

  • Daily pain/trigger journal: I keep one of these to identify patterns. It's a paper journal I keep with me so I can note where I hurt, when and what things might have contributed to it. I can take these to doctor's appointments and i can read back over them and see what things may have helped and what things may have made things worse.


I know that these are things everyone may already know, but it's stuff that has helped me live better. What are some things that have helped you?
quiara: (elephant!)
[personal profile] quiara
I've been part of other fibro communites -- not just LJ, but other online and 3D fora dedicated to the disease. And I noticed an inevitable trend: we hurt and we want others to know we hurt so that we can commiserate about the hurt. This community, however, is different.

What I envision here is people posting ways in which they're conquering the effects of fibro in every aspect of their lives. It can be small things or large things, thinks that help one aspect or many aspects. Exercises, supplements, medicatons, doctors, research, articles, etc, are all welcome here. But this is not the place to post just to say "I hurt." We all hurt. What we need are ways to focus on the positive things we can do to ameliorate that hurt, that pain.

I'd love to have co-mods as well, though the community membership and posting are (currently) unmoded. Mods would be primarily to keep things on topic (broad as it is) and to put out fires, should any erupt. Please comment or message me to let me know what you'd like to see and whether you think you'd be interested in helping put this comm together.

Join in and post away!

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Life with fibro: living to the fullest.

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