Fibromyalgia Symptom Checklist: Things to Look Out for If You Have This Syndrome

Doctors often cannot find anything wrong with somebody who has fibromyalgia. A person may visit his physician for an appointment, his body hurting all over, and emerge from the clinic confused and still feeling painful. If this sounds familiar, then there’s a chance that you also have fibromyalgia. Aside from hurting, there are also other symptoms that suggest this syndrome. Below is a fibromyalgia symptom checklist you can go over to see if you have this condition.

Pain. This is the first and most common symptom of fibromyalgia, and it is often the most debilitating for most people. Fibromyalgia pain is widespread. It is felt on both sides of your body, on the neck and head, the torso, and in the upper and lower limbs. For many, it is an excruciating ache in the muscles that can vary from dull, throbbing, burning, stabbing, or shooting. You also experience tender points, or specific regions in the body, which hurt too much when pressure, even the slightest, is applied on them. Tender points are usually found in the neck, shoulders, lower back, waist, ribs, thighs, and knees. Fatigue. This isn’t just the ordinary kind of fatigue you feel after a particularly bad day at work. Fibromyalgia fatigue feels like you have been running around all day carrying two 50-pound weights without having eaten any meals at all. And it happens even when you did not do anything close to running around all day carrying two 50-pound weights. Difficulty in sleeping. People with fibromyalgia find it difficult falling asleep, and even more difficult staying that way. Research has shown that those who suffer from this syndrome also suffer from several bursts of awake-like brain activity during sleep, preventing the patients from easing into the deep and restorative phase of slumber. This further contributes to the fatigue experienced by the patients during the day. Fibro fog. This is a collective term which refers to a number of cognitive problems that are often faced by persons with fibromyalgia. Fibro fog episodes usually only last for three days, but the more severe cases suffer for weeks or months. Fibro fog is most commonly characterized by short-term memory loss, struggle in concentrating, trouble in retaining new information, and language difficulties, such as problems in understanding conversations, handling conversations, and expressing thoughts with the ‘right’ words, Exercise pain. Exercise is a pain-reliever for people who do not have fibromyalgia, but it only intensifies the pain for persons with this syndrome. What is difficult here is that a lack of exercise also aggravates the situation, as idleness weakens the muscles and causes more pain. Doctors recommend that fibromyalgia patients engage in light exercise for short intervals everyday, such as walking five minutes per day. This is a good way to keep the muscles working without taxing them out. Headaches. Severe and recurring migraines are also common for persons with fibromyalgia. These are the result of the pain in the neck, jaw, shoulders, and upper back muscles caused by blood vessel constrictions, which are, in turn, caused by extreme fatigue and stress. Up to 70% of people with fibromyalgia experience severe bouts of migraine, making the pain much less easier to tolerate.

With this fibromyalgia symptom checklist, you can actually find out whether or not you have fibromyalgia. Of course, it is never a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis, but this gives you an idea and helps you prepare your expectations when you receive the final verdict.