WeAreFibro.org - The Social Support Network for People Living with Fibromyalgia

But You Look So Good! and 7 Other Things NOT to Say to a Person With a Non-Visible Disabilityhttp://www.diversityinc.com 'But You Look So Good!' and 7 Other Things NOT to Say to a Person With a Non-Visible DisabilityBy Robyn Heller Gerbush If you have a friend, relative or coworker with an illness or disability that isn't obvious, you may think you're doing the right thing by saying he or she "looks so good." You can't even tell the person has a disability, and that's a good thing, right? Wrong.   Why do people with disabilities take offense to this comment and others like...

GREAT NEWS THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSED THE LANDMARK PAIN CARE POLICY ACT!  Together we have been successful. Your voice was heard! Thank you for your dedication and commitment to improving pain care in America. Now on to the Senate! We will keep you informed on progress and additional opportunities TO TAKE ACTION. Thank you again! ...

  Take Action Now Make Your Voice Heard! URGENT REQUEST: National Pain Care Policy Act is going for vote in the House of Representatives PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY! We are near the finish line. The amended National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008 (HR 2994) has been passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is now scheduled for general vote by the full House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 23rd. Once this legislation is voted and passed by the House, we anticipate that the Senate will move to vote on the bill immediately (S 3387). It is critical that you contact your...

Doctors and Patients Often Disconnected When Talking About Arthritis Pain by Carol & Richard Eustice of About.com Wednesday September 10, 2008 Arthritis patients are repeatedly advised to have good communication with their doctor. It's important to be able to discuss problems and ask questions. Living with chronic arthritis pain is certainly not easy. Patients look to their doctor for answers and assurance -- vital components of pain management. Unfortunately, a nationwide survey has shown that conversations about pain, between patients and doctors, are often disconnected. According to a survey conducted by the Let's Talk Pain Coalition, 60% of patients strongly agreed that they can be...

Arthritis Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Carol & Richard Eustice, About.com Guides to Arthritis since 1997 Do Men or Women Report More Pain from Rheumatoid Arthritis? Tuesday September 16, 2008 Rheumatoid arthritis patients -- do you think men or women have more pain associated with the disease? You probably think there's no difference linked to gender. Well, think again. Although visible symptoms are essentially the same, women often find rheumatoid arthritis to be more painful than men. Reports have shown that female rheumatoid arthritis patients also have poorer quality of life than men with the disease. Women "feel" sicker. According to a report from the Ortho SuperSite, Karolinska...

On Being A ‘Difficult’ Patient Michelle L. Mayer PREFACE: Rarely do difficult patients get to weigh in on why they are "difficult"—and rarely do doctors get to explain to difficult patients why it’s difficult to care for them. In the first of these essays, patient Michelle Mayer, a research professor in North Carolina with a chronic autoimmune system disease, tells why she eventually became a difficult patient, and how it helped her get the doctoring she needs. Next, Tony Miksanek, a doctor from a small town in Illinois, details what happens during visits with some of his difficult patients, all...

Vitamin D Deficiency - Why You Should Get Checked Tuesday May 27, 2008 How much sunlight do you get? If you're like me, you spend a lot of sunny days huddled inside, somewhere soft, cozy and cool. That could put you at risk for vitamin D deficiency. I should say more at risk, if you already have fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. According to a Mayo Clinic study, 26% of us are deficient already. So why is this significant? Because vitamin D helps your body control pain. In fact, that study shows people who don't have enough need twice as much narcotic...

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked With Depression h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); Could Vitamin D Deficiency Cause Depression? By Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com Updated: July 22, 2008 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board Vitamin D deficiency is being linked with bone trouble, lower back pain , heart trouble and now depression . Linking vitamin D deficiency and depression makes a certain intuitive sense to me. Vitamin D is produced in your body when your skin is exposed to light. During winter, many people suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) because of lack of exposure to sunlight. It kind of makes sense to me that there would be a link between...

4x4 MAGNUM Basics on Migraine Disease & Treatment Protocols The Four Phases Of Migraine Disease & The Four Areas Of Migraine Disease Management By MAGNUM, The National Migraine Association ©2004 Everyone touched by Migraine disease should at least have a basic understanding of the mechanics on their illness and the best practices approach to disease...

    Migraines: Myth Vs. Reality An Understanding of Migraine Disease & Tips for Migraine Management Michael John Coleman and Terri Miller Burchfield of M.A.G.N.U.M.       "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small and the ones that mother gives you,...

Arthritis Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Carol & Richard Eustice, About.com About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD 10 Most Popular Arthritis Drugs Prescribed by Rheumatologists Friday June 27, 2008 What are the 10 most popular arthritis drugs prescribed by rheumatologists? A rheumatologist is a medical doctor (M.D.) who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of arthritis and related conditions . Based on an analysis of 7,945,910 prescriptions written by rheumatologists from January to March 2008, published in the journal Rheumatology News , Vol.7 No.6 June 2008, study results show that the top 10 drugs prescribed by rheumatologists are: Methotrexate and Folic...

Few physicians actually tried or sanctioned for improperly prescribing pain medications Study suggests physician concerns over widely publicized prosecutions are disproportionate to actual numbers of legal and regulatory actions September 9, 2008 Some doctors under treat pain partially out of an unrealistic fear of legal repercussions, causing many chronic-pain patients to continue to suffer even though effective pain medications may be available to help them. A new study in the September 9 issue of Pain Medicine shows that between 1998 and 2006, only a tiny number of U.S. doctors actually appear to have been prosecuted or administratively sanctioned for improperly prescribing powerful pain medications. Over this eight year span,...

  Top Ten GI Irritants h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); Possible IBS Trigger Foods By Barbara Bradley Bolen, Ph.D., About.com Updated: July 21, 2008 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board It can be hard to know which foods may be trigger foods for GI upset. Just as every snowflake is unique, so is every body. Some people have “stomachs of steel” and can eat whatever they want whenever they want. Other people, particularly those with IBS1 , have to be more careful. Because of these individual differences, no food can be labeled definitively as a “trigger." Only through keeping a simple food diary2 , tracking...

Women and IBS In our specialised clinics at Central Middlesex Hospital, female patients are seen three times as commonly as men. Other clinics we are in contact with report a similar weighting and in one study in Bristol, England, women accounted for 75-80% of consulters. Initially we were tempted to think that this may have been that more women with IBS symptoms consulted their doctors but in a recent symptom questionnaire survey of 5430 householders, 7% of men and 14.5% of women...

Top 10 things NOT to say to a chronically ill person 10. You can't be in that much pain 9. Stop being lazy and get a job 8. You just want attention 7. Your illness is caused by stress 6. No pain. . . no gain! 5. It's all in your head 4. If you just got out of the house... 3. You're so lucky to get to stay in bed all day. 2. Just pray harder 1. But you look so good! Copyright, ...

Laugh! Let's face it. . . chronic illness can have its humorous moments if we look for them. You ...

Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD Things to Avoid When You Have Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Sunday August 24, 2008 What do fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) keep you from doing? As hard as it is to adjust to limitations around the house and at work, we don't have much choice but to adapt somewhat quickly. When it comes to other things, though - the things we do less often - I'm finding the learning curve to be much more steep. Now and then,...

Living with Lupus h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Jeri Jewett-Tennant, MPH, About.com Updated: November 16, 2007 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board Living with Lupus: Those who have been newly diagnosed with lupus1 may find themselves shocked at first, relieved, then, knowing what they have, and finally confused as to what their next steps will be. Find out here Newly diagnosed: “I have what?” can be the intial reaction of most people when they hear a diagnosis of lupus. And because the general population knows little of the disease, this is no surprise. Most patients only know they’ve been...

Complications of Lupus Some people with lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE) develop complications with internal organs, such as the kidney, heart or lungs. Living with lupus Most people with lupus are able to continue their usual daily activities. You may find that you need to cut back on your activity level, get help with child care, or change the way you work because of fatigue, joint pain, or other symptoms. You may find that you have to take time off from daily activities entirely. Most people with lupus can expect...

Half of Adults Will Get Knee Arthritis Study Shows Obese and People With Past Knee Injuries Are More at Risk By Caroline Wilbert WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD   Sept. 5, 2008 -- Nearly half of Americans are likely to develop arthritis in at least one knee by age 85. For people who are obese, the risk is greater. Researchers from the CDC and the University of North Carolina studied data on 3,068 people in Johnston County, N.C. Participants, all 45 years old or older, were evaluated twice over an average follow-up of six years. Participants received physical exams, X-rays,...

Pot May Ease Nerve Pain, Study Shows Patients Report Less Neuropathic Pain After Smoking Marijuana Cigarettes, but Their Mental Skills Falter By Miranda Hitti WebMD Health News Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD   June 26, 2008 -- New research on "medical marijuana" shows that smoking pot may ease nerve pain at the expense of certain mental skills. Researchers at the University of California, Davis report that news in the June edition of The Journal of Pain. They studied 38 adults with nerve pain (neuropathic pain) who had smoked pot in the past but abstained from smoking marijuana for 30 days before the study. Participants visited...

Arthritis Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Carol & Richard Eustice, About.com About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD Pregnancy Still Associated With Rheumatoid Arthritis Remission Sunday August 31, 2008 About 75-90% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis improve during pregnancy, according to previous reports. But how have the new rheumatoid arthritis treatments made available during the last decade affected this statistic? According to a report in the September 15, 2008 issue of Arthritis Care & Research , 84 rheumatoid arthritis patients were assessed for disease activity in 28 joints and their medication use was noted -- before conception, at each trimester, and at 6, 12, and 26...

Methotrexate: 10 Things You Should Know h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); Methotrexate Safety Decreases Unwanted Side Effects By Carol & Richard Eustice, About.com Updated: August 1, 2008 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD Methotrexate1 is commonly prescribed and effectively used to treat rheumatoid arthritis2 and other rheumatic conditions3. Methotrexate has the potential for side effects, especially if the drug is not taken exactly as prescribed. Safety warnings about methotrexate should be respected. To enhance patient safety, methotrexate must be taken according to directions. Here are 10 important things you should know about methotrexate. 1 - Methotrexate (brand names Rheumatrex, Trexall) is classified...

Some Arthritis Medications Can Make Your Hair Fall Out As if it weren't enough to live with chronic pain, some of the medications used to treat arthritis can cause hair loss. That's right! You can start to see gobs of hair in your hairbrush or sink. Do you know which medications? Can it be prevented? Read more   http://arthritis.about.com/od/arthritismedications/f/hair_loss.htm  ...

Fibromyalgia Symptoms Associated With Hippocampus Dysfunction Arthritis Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Carol & Richard Eustice, About.com Guides to Arthritis since 1997   Saturday August 30, 2008 Fibromyalgia symptoms can mimic or overlap symptoms associated with other rheumatic diseases. Muscular pain, fatigue, headaches, sleep problems, memory problems, noise sensitivity, and depression are just some of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia. According to a study published in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Rheumatology researchers have suggested that hippocampus dysfunction may explain some fibromyalgia symptoms. The study assessed 15 female patients, who met criteria for classification of fibromyalgia, and compared them to 10 healthy females...

Hashimoto's vs. Hypothyroidism: What's the Difference? h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); A Look at Autoimmune Thyroid Disease and Underactive Thyroid Conditions By Mary Shomon, About.com Updated: July 27, 2006 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board Hashimoto's disease is a disease, and hypothyroidism is a condition. Hypothyroidism is most commonly caused by Hashimoto's disease, but the two terms are not interchangeable. Here is more information to help understand the difference. HASHIMOTO'S DISEASE Hashimoto's disease, sometimes known as Hashimoto's thyroiditis, autoimmune thyroiditis, or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, is an autoimmune disease. In Hashimoto's, antibodies react against proteins in the thyroid gland, causing gradual destruction of...

Search for solving knee pain is elusive   By Marjie Gilliam COX NEWS SERVICE 08/11/2008 Millions of people seek medical attention each year due to aches, pains and/or stiffness in the knees. Diagnosing and treating problems with the knee joint can be difficult because the amount of discomfort often varies, the pain can come and go, and may not always occur in the same area. At times only one of the knees may hurt, while the next day the other knee might be achy or stiff, and some days, both may be affected. Popping, crunching and grinding noises can also cause concern. The patella (kneecap)...

September is Pain Awareness Month! While pain care advocacy activities can take place all year long, the special recognition that September receives marks an ideal time to launch or expand Power Over Pain outreach efforts. There are many different things you can do to bring awareness to pain during this time. Below you will find a tool kit with instructions to create a number of September is Pain Awareness Month activities.   Read More Here: http://www.painfoundation.org/poweroverpain/default.asp?file=SeptemberIntro.htm...

Researchers Rationalise Guidelines on Opioid Use for Chronic Noncancer Pain: Presented at WCP By Sara Freeman GLASGOW, United Kingdom -- August 25, 2008 -- Twelve criteria can help rationalise the use of opioids for chronic noncancer pain, according to research presented here at the 12th World Congress on Pain (WCP). According to study presenter Elena Catala, MD, University Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain, and associates the use of opioids for noncancer pain is increasing in the United States and in many European countries, and this has raised concern among some physicians and their patients. However, quality of life among...

Swimming in Warm Water Eases Fibromyalgia Pain by David Gutierrez (NaturalNews) A regular, guided exercise regimen in warm water can relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Extremadura, Spain and the University of Evora, Portugal, and published in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy. Fibromyalgia is an unexplained medical condition with no known cure. It is characterized by chronic, severe muscle pain and tenderness, pain in the shoulders and neck, sleep trouble, anxiety and depression. Approximately 90 percent of fibromyalgia patients are women. Researchers studied 33 female fibromyalgia patients between the ages of 37...

Why Must Pain Patients Be Found Deserving of Treatment? Assessing and treating patient pain effectively, particularly in the emergency department, demands honest self-reflection on the part of physicians. Commentary by Jay M. Baruch, MD Dr. Maier entered the small curtained room in the emergency department and introduced himself to the patient, Mrs. Winter. Then he asked whether the fourth-year medical student with him, Miss Malloy, could be present for the encounter. Learning Objective Understand the complexity of assessing a patient's pain, particularly in the emergency department, and the honest self-reflection that physicians must undertake in the interest of assessing and treating pain effectively. "I suppose...

How to talk to your doctor about chronic pain   Few doctors enjoy working with patients who have chronic pain, survey says   The emotional effects of chronic pain may make diagnosis more difficult   Be clear about your pain and explain the way it affects your life to your doctor   By Kate Rope Good chronic pain treatment can be hard to find. A chronic pain patient has every right to believe that his or her doctor will listen sympathetically and prescribe the appropriate...

Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD What's the Hardest Part of Having an Invisible Illness? Thursday September 4, 2008 We've all had our run-ins with people who don't think we're sick or disabled because we're not in a wheelchair or obviously injured. National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, which starts Sept. 8, is aimed at getting more people to understand that disability isn't always obvious. Awareness Week includes seminars (that you can listen to even if you're not attending), items for sale, educational materials, an Internet-wide blog push, and...

Attention Thyroid Patients: Coffee Can Interfere With Thyroid Medication Absorption Wednesday September 3, 2008 Attention thyroid patients: your morning coffee may be interfering with proper absorption of your thyroid medication. I know, say it isn't so! You're already tired from being hypothyroid -- now they want to take away your coffee? The findings were reported in a recent article in the journal Thyroid. What the researchers found is that in addition to some of the more commonly known issues with absorption of thyroid hormone (i.e., calcium, iron, and food taken at the same time as thyroid medication can interfere with absorption), coffee also...

Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week - Why We Need It! Tuesday September 2, 2008 "But you don't look sick." It's something those of us with fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) hear all too often. Yeah, well, you can't judge a book by its cover, can you? We should be glad that we don't look as horrid as we often feel. I'm picturing a lot of shambling, shuffling, drooped heads, vacant eyes. Possibly some drooling. Basically, we'd be horror-movie...

APF and HealthCentral Network Call for Artistic Submissions for Creativity and Pain Exhibit APF and The HealthCentral Network, Inc. announced their call for entries for the second annual “Pain and Creativity Exhibit”. Those dealing with chronic pain from around the world are encouraged to submit expressions of how pain has influenced their lives. Welcome submissions include photos of still art, videos, music and writing that reflect the experience of pain. Select artists and their pain stories will be highlighted through video, online and print publications to help share and illuminate the stories of pain and its impact on individuals and families....

Patients As Consumers - We Must Advocate for Ourselves Things change... Things change over time. That's pretty much a given concept. Attitudes change over time, some more quickly than others. When I was growing up, doctors were... well, revered is probably a pretty good word. Everyone respected doctors. It was pretty much unheard of for anyone to question them. When the doctor told you to "take your medicine," you did it, without ever even thinking about why. We would never have dreamed that a doctor might have been mistaken about anything, ever. Read Article Here: http://www.weareadvocates.com/2007/10/patients-as-con.html...

Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com Guide to Fibromyalgia & CFS Is Chronic Pain a "National Crisis"? Tuesday August 12, 2008 I recently saw an opinion article on chronic pain as a national crisis in healthcare, and this is a concept that seems to be coming up again and again. Eyes seemed to be opening to this about a year ago, when I first read about how research into pain processing and treatment was being spurred by war casualties - medical advances mean a lot more of our wounded military personnel are surviving, but their injuries are leaving them...

What's Going On? A Simple Explanation of Fibromyalgia h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); Making Sense of a Complex Disorder, For Those Who Don't Have It By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com Updated: June 16, 2008 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD Fibromyalgia is a complex condition that's difficult to understand, especially if you don't have a medical degree. Because it involves the brain and nervous system, fibromyalgia can have an impact on virtually every part of the body. Read Article Here: http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/whatisfibromyalgia/a/understandfibro.htm...

Adapting to Life With Fibromyalgia: Redefining "Normal" Sunday August 3, 2008 How well have you adapted to the changes that fibromyalgia demands? If you've adapted well, how did you do it? Researchers actually asked the second question of women with fibromyalgia who managed to adapt without any kind of mental-health counseling. They found some interesting things that might help you to better adapt. Read Article Here: http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/2008/08/03/adapting-to-life-with-fibromyalgia-redefining-normal.htm ...

Fibromyalgia Symptoms h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML); The Monster List! By Adrienne Dellwo, About.com Updated: July 8, 2008 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Kate Grossman, MD You've probably read about fibromyalgia symptoms such as pain, fatigue and fibrofog, but the list of possible signs and symptoms fibromyalgia are far-reaching and body-wide. The following "monster list" of fibromyalgia symptoms is adapted from one put together by leading fibromyalgia expert Devin Starlanyl. Read Article Here: http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/whatisfibromyalgia/a/fibrosymptoms.htm...

  Fibromyalgia & CFS Blog Study: Pain Patients Have Desire to Kill Their Doctor Sunday July 6, 2008 Would you believe that 1 in 20 pain or physical rehabilitation patients have wanted to kill their primary care provider? I'm stunned. I'd have thought the number would be much higher. Read Article Here: http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/2008/07/06/97.htm...