What I took away from our meeting.

I am sure I missed some things that were discussed during the meeting. Which just adds to the reasons for you to come in person... :) But what "I" took away from Linda and the others in the group is the following:

You may or may not want to check out a sleep study. Are you getting enough oxygen? What is waking you up? Maybe a CPAP is in your future. Its one easy thing you can do to try and get better sleep.

Think about booking an appointment with Terri Lechnyr. She is a clinical psychologist. www.drterrilechnyr.com/ She would be able to help you with cognitive therapy, relaxation techniques, and biofeedback, among other things. Definately worth checking out.

Have you had your thyroid checked? Low thyroid or hypothyroidism could be causing you to feel tired or could be a reason why your having trouble remembering things. Might want to get that checked the next time your in to see your doctor.

Linda went to the 2010 Pain Conference in Eugene and it absolutely changed her life. She discoverd ways to stop the amygdala that controls signals to your brain from running wild. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala Don't you just love wikipedia? Because during the meeting I was going " A mig da WHAT?" LOL! But what she was saying made sense.

Picture your brain. Then picture at the base of your brain, a door. Now picture someone accidently leaving that door open. What happens when you leave a door open? A draft comes in! So picture sections of your brain screaming to shut the door. (Every parent has hollered this at one time or another.) But thats the gist of it. That door gets left open and several parts of your brain light up in panic saying to itself "OH OW! IT HURTS!" But you know what? It doesn't really.

Picture yourself going over and slamming the door shut. Stop the pain going to that nerve center thats lit up. In my instance, I am always getting yelled at home for leaving the lights on. So I calming think about each of my pains. My elbow is screaming but before I go and rub more crud on it, or complain that I hurt, I think about it. Is there any real reason for it to be aching so? Did I bump it etc... ? No. It shouldn't really hurt. So I imagine my hubby walking over and turning off the switch. It works for me. (Most of the time. I am not saying its a fix all and your cured.)But it is worth trying. Your homework is to come up with an anology that works for you. Whats there to lose in trying this exercise? Hmmm.. Maybe some pain? I'd love a chance to lose that!

In Linda's case, she came up with a song about Gaba. But she was a different generation than I, so I had no clue what the heck she was singing about. Ha Ha Ha! She also tried the singing in the rain song. For some, picturing rain falling on the nerve centers to douse them will work. Pick something that will help you and try it.


So visualization seems to be a key in feeling better. Talk to your body. You can stop the pain. It was life changing for her and she hopes it will help you be more comfortable.

Another suggestion was to make up a pleasure list. Twenty things that bring you pleasure. Lets face it, when you hurt, its hard to think of things that bring you joy. So thats why we need a list! We can refer back to it and try participating in some of these forgotten activities. The point is to confuse the pathways. Pain and pleasure pathways intersect. Instead of letting the pain path run straight ahead and ram into the pleasure pathway, lets divert it. You know your coming to the intersection so lets just take a side journey. If doodling is your thing, doodle. If its crafting, craft. Art? Try meandering thru a gallery. Anything to trick or sidetrack your brain to going somewhere else.

The Feldenkrais program at the Tamarack pool was also discussed. I am going to refer you to my beloved wikipedia if you are going "what?!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldenkrais_Method Mary Carter teaches class 5:30 to 6:30 on Mondays and she can be reached at (541) 687-2064. I will post a flyer for the Tamarack pool next.

Some other things that were mentioned was to keep up on your exercise. I know it hurts. But it hurts more not to. Remember that your natural endorphines kick in for a natural pain blocker.

Listen to what your doctors are saying. If they aren't listening or not respecting the fibromyalgia diagnosis, say goodbye! You need to surround yourself with a strong support team. So if you aren't on the same page with them, move on!

You also need to keep in mind that not everything is an emergency. Why are you all crunched up and stiff? Slow it down. Breathe! Put your feet flat on the floor and relax. Did you know that your spinal cord is connected to your tongue? Yeah me neither. But Linda had a funny little exercise to try. Stick your tongue out and go blech! Feels better doesn't it? LOL! Now get up and do some light stretching.

When feeling pain, do you chaulk it all up to it being Fibro? Don't! Thats a scary risk to take. Every new pain isn't automatically your nemesis. If you having chest pain or anything new really, get it checked out. Could be something more serious. Don't just shrug it off.

There is a local ACUPUNCTURIST here in town that does group acpuncture on a sliding scale of $15 to $30.00 a session. Definately worth checking out! www.acupunctureforthepeople.org/ definately worth checking them out.

A book by Ben E Benjamin was recommended for Exercise Without Injury. http://www.benbenjamin.com/pubs.html I notice on his website that he has others that might be worth a gander or two as well. I say "knowledge is power." So the more I learn, the more powerful I feel. And its that power that gets me thru the day. I won't let Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain keep me from living my life. Its all about babysteps. But everyone needs to take that step.

Another book discussed was Figuring Fibromyalgia by Dr. Ginerva Liptan which I found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Figuring-out-Fibromyalgia-effective-treatments/dp/0982833970

By now most of you know about essential oils and the power of scent. Well, don't forget about the peppermint or lemon. These will calm or stop the firing of cells in your brain that are telling you that certain body parts ache or are in pain. Another recommendation for non-smelly pain applicants is Absorbine Junior. It comes in a bottle with a dauber for easy application. A few in the meeting really enjoyed its effects. Also - don't forget your local feed store for your products or asking the pharmacy for a larger size of product. If you can buy it in bulk, often times it is cheaper. I know saying the feed store sounds a bit odd, but really, alot of our pain topicals can be found there and we can buy them for alot less. So its worth checking out.

Our next meeting is February 14th from 6 to 8 pm. We will not have a speaker for this meeting but rather we are all coming together to share all of our helpful hints on how we get thru a flare, how we can make traveling a bit easier, and how we go about our daily activities. How have you modified these things to make it easier on you? Just to share one of mine and give you an example - I had my husband build an elevated platform for our front loading wash machine. So now I don't have to bend to retrieve all the heavy wet stuff. There are so many little things that I am sure you do and thats what we want to know. The tips and tricks of your success. So be thinking!

Feels like I have written my own book so its time to log out and do some stretching. Hope to see you at the next meeting!

Happy New Year!

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the new year! Hopefully you are discovering ways to control your pain so that you may lead a more productive life. Its a journey we are all on together and is the main reason we opened this blog.

I would like to thank all of you for your patience in the last few months. Its been rather hectic with the holidays and with the move to the new facility as well as partnering up with the Pain Management team. All of this is huge for us and rather exciting if I do say so myself. :)

Over the next day or two I will be posting a bit more. We had a very informative meeting last Tuesday and I want to share some of the things from that session. Linda was our speaker and let me tell you... Wow! She's been there, done that, and knows what she's talking about!

So stay tuned as I gather up that information and will be posting shortly. For the time being, remember to drink your water and take deep breathes. I'll be back in a bit.