Fighting the Fibrofog

Warning: This post is sure to fairly incoherent because I am under the influence of fibrofog today. 

Out of the awful trio of categories of fibromyalgia symptoms (pain, fatigue and fibrofog), I'd have to say that the fibrofog is the one I hate the most. Even if I'm tired and/or in pain, I still feel like myself. Not so with the fibrofog. I feel totally disconnected from myself and everyone and everything else. Severe fog days are the worst days I have. I absolutely hate feeling this way. I find it hard to believe that people take drugs wanting to feel like they are drifting outside of themselves like this. I think it's an awful feeling, one I would go to great lengths to avoid if I knew how.

What makes it even worse is that I haven't found a single thing to help with it. Once I have it, the day is shot for me. Nothing I do seems to make it any better. Sometimes, it seems to lift a little bit after dark but maybe it just seems that way because by that time I've given up on trying to do anything. At least with pain I can take a pain reliever or sit on the heating pad. With fatigue, I can rest. Nothing seems to lessen the fog.

I've also been unable to figure out what triggers it, for the most part. Flareups with pain and fatigue usually follow a weather change, a day of overdoing it or a time of stress. Sometimes these flareups have fog and sometimes they don't.

Sadly, almost all advice for fighting fibrofog consists of tips on living with it and dealing with it, not preventing it or making it go away. A google search of "how to combat fibrofog" turned up a whole page of posts almost identical to this one: http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/memory_tips.html  Sure, these are good tips for living with it but I don't want to live with it. I want it to go away. Something causes it, therefore something must cure it.

The only thing I've discovered that consistently causes my fibrofog is sleeping in. (Although it's not the only cause - I have plenty of fog days even when I get up early)  Sometimes I can get away with sleeping after 8:00 but not usually. Sleeping until 9:00 or later always causes a bout of fibrofog for me. Cloudy days in summer are another thing that triggers fibrofog, which may be because I sleep later than I normally would because it's so dark out. I know, there's an easy fix for that - set my alarm clock! And that I will be doing more religiously for the remainder of the summer. I do not want another day like this one.

How about you? Have you discovered any triggers or helps for fibrofog?

This Gives Me a Little Hope

Dr. Oz and Oprah are talking about fibromyalgia! That has to be a good thing, right? So many people don't believe any health info they get unless it comes from Oprah or Dr. Oz, so maybe this will help convince some of those doubters that think this is all in our heads.

You can listen to Dr. Oz's interview with Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum right here and you can click the links listed below to read more short articles by Dr. Oz.

I was hoping for some suggestions of things to try right now because I am dead-ass tired, despite my B-12 and CoQ10 supplementation. But, alas, there wasn't anything of that nature in the articles or the interview. But what listening to the interview and reading the articles did give me is hope. Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum believes there will be a test for fibromyalgia within a few years and that treatments will follow. How great would that be?

Dr. Oz talks about 4 treatments for fibromyalgia here.

There is more about treating fibro here.

And here's a link to Dr. Teitelbaum's book, From Fatigued to Fantastic, right here. I'm going to order it! I'm tired of fatigued.