Hi there - I'm new and am really glad that y'all are out there to be helpful and supportive to those of us who are figuring stuff like this out.
I have never been diagnosed with Fibro, but some people have mentioned it to me lately, and a few things have really started to sound familiar, so I wanted to see if I throw my huge, rambling timeline out there and see if anyone has experienced similar symptoms.
As a child I was always really achy - it was just sort of what was my normal - growing pains, awful shin splints that made me cry, sore back, and pain in my tailbone for years when I would sit on the ground to play. I was active, slim and healthy in every other way, but as I got a little older I would always feel tired and fatigued for periods, and get frustrated by it.
Onto early teens - I was a serious rider, and I started to have problems with my shoulder. I would drop it that I was crooked in the saddle, and in regular life as well. I could correct it riding with lots of discipline and training, but I developed burning muscle pain in it when I would work hard. I appeared to build tight muscle in the area, and it would radiate a gnawing, burning pain. Sometimes the whole area - down the left side across the shoulder blade - would go numb and tingling, or my left arm would feel like I had a pinched nerve. I went to a few drs, one gave me a lift for my shoe, which did nothing, others didn't really have any ideas, and didn't think it was a big deal.
Late teens, I was working extremely hard - not pro athlete hard, but very active, lifting heavy loads, riding tons of horses, mucking stalls, probably overstretched for my weight and height and still growing. I injured my lower back terribly, low around my sacrum, slightly on the left side. It was acute for months, then settled into a terrible, chronic, long-term thing. Constant low-to-mid-grade pain, from the time I woke up through the day. Basic tasks were exhausting. I went to a couple drs - no insurance so nothing specialty - and basically got a lot of "you're really too young for these kinds of problems" and "rest and advil". I got xrays that showed a mild curvature of the spine. During this time, and directly related, I went on Effexor, because long-term pain, having to give up you life's passion and major family stress and crisis had combined to make me exhausted, not sleeping, seeing no hope, basically depressed!
Fast forward about 5 years. I stopped riding out of necessity, and gradually, over that many years, the shoulder decreased, day by day. The lower back crept away as well, til one day I woke up and noticed that I didn't notice it at all. Went back to riding, and felt good - shoulder would burn in a sore muscle way with hard work, but nothing unbearable. I was careful with my back, and it felt fine.
Last year, I came off of Effexor. It made me tired, and I felt better, and wanted to be off. The withdrawal was crippling, but I knew what to expect, and got through it, apart from a fatigue and exhaustion that was out of proportion, and has stuck with me. Then, the shoulder started creeping back. It's now 10x worse than it ever was. Burning, gnawing, eating pain, somewhere between a muscular and nerve pain, that never really goes away unless I lie completely flat for hours. Slowly started to droop to the side again, and now I'm completely, horribly crooked. Neck is now affected, painful, good days and bad, but very crunchy and painful feeling, like I can barely hold it up. Touching the skin along my neck and spine, there's a tingly electric shock feeling in a ropy nerve/tendon that I can feel. Left arm has gotten weaker, and I can no longer do a pull up or push up with it, plus have been dropping things/have a much weaker grip in it. It's getting worse - can't do things with my left hand that I used to be able to, like turn a key in the door, without having to really focus and concentrate.
The pain in my shoulder is sort of between the spine and the shoulder blade, right where it's shown in the fibro diagrams - but just on the left side. It's sort of like something's chewing it's way out of my muscles - that's the closest description I can find. But burning hot too.
Lower back pain is coming back as well. And overall, when the shoulder is bad, things start to hurt everywhere else more. Maybe because it makes me more sedentary, or inflammation, I don't know. Somedays my wrists ache, or my feet, or I'll develop tendonitis at the drop of a hat, in my knees or wrists or elbow. I'm also just exhausted. I wake up some days with all my ribs hurting, stiff and sore. Some days I seem over sensitive - like the muscles in my hands hurt where I held the reins when riding, or where I held a broom. I'm much stiffer than usual, which could be that I'm less active. I forced myself into being more active this summer, and it helped a bit - kept me looser and limber, but then I'd have bad days and still couldn't do a thing. Started running, but developed bad tendonitis in both knees within a month. It's like I hit a wall no matter what I do. Normally if I went to the gym and ran regularly, I'd be super fit, but now I don't seem to build muscle or metabolize the same way. I feel out of shape and tired no matter what.
The combination of the effexor stopping and the symptoms coming back made me wonder about fibro - I don't seem to have the pressure points, but I do seem to have some sort of chronic pain out of proportion to my injuries. Not really sure what anyone can say that will help, just hoping for some recognition of symptoms, or of the evolution of this all - or recommendations for the next step in tests. My dr wants an MRI of the shoulder next. FYI Advil has always worked well for me in injuries and aches, but it doesn't touch the shoulder pain - not a thing.
Thanks so much. Any thoughts are really appreciated. Thank you for reading my novel of a post!
I have never been diagnosed with Fibro, but some people have mentioned it to me lately, and a few things have really started to sound familiar, so I wanted to see if I throw my huge, rambling timeline out there and see if anyone has experienced similar symptoms.
As a child I was always really achy - it was just sort of what was my normal - growing pains, awful shin splints that made me cry, sore back, and pain in my tailbone for years when I would sit on the ground to play. I was active, slim and healthy in every other way, but as I got a little older I would always feel tired and fatigued for periods, and get frustrated by it.
Onto early teens - I was a serious rider, and I started to have problems with my shoulder. I would drop it that I was crooked in the saddle, and in regular life as well. I could correct it riding with lots of discipline and training, but I developed burning muscle pain in it when I would work hard. I appeared to build tight muscle in the area, and it would radiate a gnawing, burning pain. Sometimes the whole area - down the left side across the shoulder blade - would go numb and tingling, or my left arm would feel like I had a pinched nerve. I went to a few drs, one gave me a lift for my shoe, which did nothing, others didn't really have any ideas, and didn't think it was a big deal.
Late teens, I was working extremely hard - not pro athlete hard, but very active, lifting heavy loads, riding tons of horses, mucking stalls, probably overstretched for my weight and height and still growing. I injured my lower back terribly, low around my sacrum, slightly on the left side. It was acute for months, then settled into a terrible, chronic, long-term thing. Constant low-to-mid-grade pain, from the time I woke up through the day. Basic tasks were exhausting. I went to a couple drs - no insurance so nothing specialty - and basically got a lot of "you're really too young for these kinds of problems" and "rest and advil". I got xrays that showed a mild curvature of the spine. During this time, and directly related, I went on Effexor, because long-term pain, having to give up you life's passion and major family stress and crisis had combined to make me exhausted, not sleeping, seeing no hope, basically depressed!
Fast forward about 5 years. I stopped riding out of necessity, and gradually, over that many years, the shoulder decreased, day by day. The lower back crept away as well, til one day I woke up and noticed that I didn't notice it at all. Went back to riding, and felt good - shoulder would burn in a sore muscle way with hard work, but nothing unbearable. I was careful with my back, and it felt fine.
Last year, I came off of Effexor. It made me tired, and I felt better, and wanted to be off. The withdrawal was crippling, but I knew what to expect, and got through it, apart from a fatigue and exhaustion that was out of proportion, and has stuck with me. Then, the shoulder started creeping back. It's now 10x worse than it ever was. Burning, gnawing, eating pain, somewhere between a muscular and nerve pain, that never really goes away unless I lie completely flat for hours. Slowly started to droop to the side again, and now I'm completely, horribly crooked. Neck is now affected, painful, good days and bad, but very crunchy and painful feeling, like I can barely hold it up. Touching the skin along my neck and spine, there's a tingly electric shock feeling in a ropy nerve/tendon that I can feel. Left arm has gotten weaker, and I can no longer do a pull up or push up with it, plus have been dropping things/have a much weaker grip in it. It's getting worse - can't do things with my left hand that I used to be able to, like turn a key in the door, without having to really focus and concentrate.
The pain in my shoulder is sort of between the spine and the shoulder blade, right where it's shown in the fibro diagrams - but just on the left side. It's sort of like something's chewing it's way out of my muscles - that's the closest description I can find. But burning hot too.
Lower back pain is coming back as well. And overall, when the shoulder is bad, things start to hurt everywhere else more. Maybe because it makes me more sedentary, or inflammation, I don't know. Somedays my wrists ache, or my feet, or I'll develop tendonitis at the drop of a hat, in my knees or wrists or elbow. I'm also just exhausted. I wake up some days with all my ribs hurting, stiff and sore. Some days I seem over sensitive - like the muscles in my hands hurt where I held the reins when riding, or where I held a broom. I'm much stiffer than usual, which could be that I'm less active. I forced myself into being more active this summer, and it helped a bit - kept me looser and limber, but then I'd have bad days and still couldn't do a thing. Started running, but developed bad tendonitis in both knees within a month. It's like I hit a wall no matter what I do. Normally if I went to the gym and ran regularly, I'd be super fit, but now I don't seem to build muscle or metabolize the same way. I feel out of shape and tired no matter what.
The combination of the effexor stopping and the symptoms coming back made me wonder about fibro - I don't seem to have the pressure points, but I do seem to have some sort of chronic pain out of proportion to my injuries. Not really sure what anyone can say that will help, just hoping for some recognition of symptoms, or of the evolution of this all - or recommendations for the next step in tests. My dr wants an MRI of the shoulder next. FYI Advil has always worked well for me in injuries and aches, but it doesn't touch the shoulder pain - not a thing.
Thanks so much. Any thoughts are really appreciated. Thank you for reading my novel of a post!
