Tag Archives: pain

I Need Some Research Help – Possible New Muscular Symptom

Today was my Reformer for Recovery Pilates class. We started by doing a few gentle squats. When I say a few, I mean three or four. Gentle means a very shallow squat, just as far as is comfortable, and no added weight at all. I did one just fine. Then every single other one had my quadriceps (thigh muscles) burning. We weren’t holding them, we were just dipping down and straightening up. The muscles were only burning when I was in the squat position. I was barely squatting. As soon as I’d stand up, the burning would stop. The burn is EXTREMELY intense, and makes me want to collapse; pushing through the pain is almost impossible.

light squat

This photo shows me squatting (I took it just for this post) about the same I did in class. I may be a little lower than I was in class, actually. And yes, getting this photo burned really badly again, but I am currently on 1/2 a Tramadol and a full metaxalone so it wasn’t as intense. As you can see, these aren’t shouldn’t be very taxing squats.

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A Little Scared and A Lot Worried

I just got back from my Monday appointment with Joleen. I finally decided, after the scary emotional swings this weekend, to fully disclose the full pain in my arm (I hadn’t really been hiding it consciously, I think I was mostly lying to myself). There were several episodes this weekend where the pain in my arm got so bad it pushed me to tears.

After talking with Joleen, and explaining everything, she seemed worried. I don’t like when my doctors get nervous. But, she is right. Normally, when my body randomly acts up, it just takes a few weeks to get it back into sync again. My arm pain came out of no where. I didn’t do anything, and it suddenly was killing me. We’ve been stretching my nerves, trying to release the tension, and rubbing out the knots for several weeks… and we haven’t made any progress.

If anything, I seem to be slowly getting worse…

New Symptoms or Just a Bad Day?

I’ve had some really bizarre emotional things going on today. Physically, I’m not doing too well either, but that is due to the weather suddenly shifting again (I hope).

I guess we’ll start at the beginning.

monday skiing 04

Me skiing at Beaver Creek.

We wanted to go skiing today. My arm has been killing me, and last night it randomly got really bad, pushing me to tears several times. No idea why, because I’ve been doing what I’m supposed to (exercise wise). We set an alarm for 5:45am (to get up there by the time the lifts opened), but we also had the condition of “we’ll see how you feel” (meaning how I felt, Dan said it). At 5:45, Dan asks how I’m feeling, so I had to lay there and force myself awake long enough to do a self assessment. Then I moved and pain shot through my arm. Not good. I told Dan and we decided not to go skiing.

That, as it turns out, was a phenomenal decision…

Saturday Nerves

Saturday (today) is a bachelorette party for a friend of mine. We’re going to be doing restorative yoga, dinner, then Picasso and Wine (do a guided painting and you can get a drink while you do it if you want). It should be a lot of fun!

But…

The Snooze Button

When I wake up, I hit snooze until I get out of bed. The amount of times I’ve dozed off and missed something is embarrassing. Today, I’ve hit snooze for almost two hours… Oops. But it goes to show how much energy chronic pain can take out of you. I’m exhausted. I got over 9 hours of sleep.

Crazy Weather = Crazy Body

I’ve been in a LOT of pain recently (see “Why Today is a Bad Health Day“). I thought it was from the nerve massages and being far too busy, but now I don’t think so. I’m still in a lot of pain, and my appointment with Joleen on Monday was really gentle, and I slept most of yesterday.

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Why Today is a Bad Health Day

I’ve still been having nerve pain in my arm. Joleen worked on it a ton on Friday (I had to reschedule because of the bronchitis, I didn’t want to get people sick since I was still coughing Monday). I thought it’d be okay, but I should have known better; nothing good can come of an hour of nerve massage on a fibromyalgia patient. My muscles feel bruised (she had to work out some knots she thinks are being caused by the nerve pain), my ribs feel bruised, and I vaguely feel like I got bruised in general.

Last week, I also did too much. Way too much! (read more)

Nerve Pain

I’ve just recently gotten back from my appointment with Joleen (I did a one-on-one not class today). For a few weeks now, I’ve been struggling with nerve pain in my arm. Joleen and I have been working on trying to stretch my median and ulnar nerves, in both arms actually, because they are too tight (which is causing the pain and numbness). The pain, however, is excruciating. We try very hard not to push too hard, but we do have to stretch and massage the nerves. My fibro, I think, makes this a lot harder. I always have to suffer after these appointments. However, I am making minuscule improvements.

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This runs down the front of your arm (when hand is positioned such that the palm is out and thumb is away from the body).

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Making Lizz Stronger with Pilates

I’m so crazy sore from skiing on Monday! I used muscles I haven’t really used in three years. Ouch! The last time I went skiing was March 2013. Crazy how many unique muscles it uses! Thankfully, it’s just the type of sore from working out hard, not from fibro or anything like that! Pilates helped me dramatically. I don’t think I could have lasted as long as I did if I hadn’t been doing Pilates. Seriously, Pilates is changing my life in so many amazing ways! Everyone should try it!!!!

In fact, I was able to do a Pilates reformer class today (a gentle one called “Pilates for Recovery” led by Joleen). I was completely shocked I was able to do everything! Sure, some of my range of motion was restricted so I could maintain proper form (fatigued muscles get super shaky), but I didn’t have to completely sit out anything. Joleen was even impressed at how well I did!

sidepic_pilates-reformer-stretch

This is a reformer.

The class was fantastic and relatively easy. It gave me a good workout, but in a very gentle and accessible way. I think I’m going to add it into my weekly routine; I’ll have to discuss with Joleen if she thinks I could do that. So, hopefully, I will be doing Pilates Beginner Mat class every other Monday (or two Mondays in a row) alternating with private sessions, then Pilates Reformer for Recovery every Wednesday. I’m also hoping to add back in the biking on Fridays. My body finally seems to be getting stronger and more capable! I’ll keep ya’ll posted of course.

Sometimes Complaining Happens

Sometimes you just need to get it off your chest. I’m desperately hoping it’ll help.

For some reason, this flare just won’t go away. I feel as though I’m 60+ years old: limping after I get up, unable to bend, getting stuck when I do bend… It’s awful. I think it might be the weather and lack of exercise, but I’m miserable. I really hate admitting it, because I feel so whiny when I do and the people that love me hate knowing I’m crappy (hate in the same way you hate watching a loved one with the flu). Something just isn’t right in my body.

I did discover from Joleen that apparently some of my nerves are being compressed by my spine, causing compression all along them, causing my never fibers to shorten, causing me pain. My medial and ulnar nerves (two main ones in the arms) are extremely tight… She could only stretch then about 50% of the range of motion they should have. No idea why this happened.

My allergies are randomly going bonkers. I think my allergy shots are maxing out my system so that the exposure I’m getting at home just instantly puts me over the edge. They aren’t helping with the flares though.

I’m really wishing that we can figure out a way to get the tub to hold water for a bath… That’s the only thing I can think of that might help, well, that isn’t a pharmaceutical.

I’m going to be trying a new Pilates class next week. If I like it and it seems easy enough, I might add it into my routine so I’d be doing two a week. Maybe that’d help.

I’m writing this post at almost 2am because my eyes and body are so irritated I can’t get to sleep. I really hope the meditation can help, because I might go crazy if I don’t get sleep.

Good news though: progress is being made around the house this week! It’s awesome and I plan to update you soon on some of the changes!!!