hi dolly im so glad you support your husband alot of us had to hear about this being in are head and we all to well no the pain it can cause. I think when i was looking up fibro there are some web sights that can show you the trigger pionts and i do beleive if you have 11 trigger points out of the 18 they feel that is enough to saftly say you need treated for it. It uasally stays around diffrent spots in diffrent people like for example my hip area hurts alot and my arms some times my ribs all the time. my legs sometimes my hands sometimes. Plus i have fibro fog alot. and anxiety. I would also keep a log of aches and pains because when so many things are hurting yo tend to forget to mention everything and they dont like to look at it as one thing. Hope this helps Loretta

Hello,
I just wanted to let people know and anyt there is a forum for the community and anyone who is friendly and want to stop by. I was very active 3 years ago and would like to see it become active again.   

                                                             Thank You !
    
                                                                    Sean
If you have trouble finding it just PM me

Hi Dolly you are a sweet wife to want to help your hubby! Mostly women have fibro but there are indeed men who get it! It is usually diagnosed by a rheumatologist or pain specialist. It's kind of more a process of elimination than an actual diagnosis. There are I believe 18 trigger points on the body where if they are touched they hurt terribly, much more than they should for the amount of pressure used to push on them. He may have a very tough time convincing the VA, I don't know how familiar they are with it. They will first have to determine whether it is arthritis which is in the joints or fibro which is in the muscles themselves. It can also manifest as a foggy feeling, just not thinking as sharp as in the past. There are just alot of other symptoms and they can all be from fibro or lots of other things. It can take awhile to make an actual diagnosis but there are several drugs that they might give him to try and see if it will help. There is Lyrica (can cause weight gain), Cymbalta and Savella. There are also other drugs but I don't off hand recall them. Myself I take a combination of Cymbalta, oxycodone and morphine every day and it helps, not pain free but tolerable. It also helps to be able to get good sleep so if he has trouble sleeping (many of us do) I use over the counter diphenhydramin every night to get a good nights sleep. If I can answer any more questions feel free to post here or PM me, I'm glad to help! Good luck to hubby!

Hi I'm Dolly I think my husband has this condition? He went to the VA dr. yesterday I told him to talk with the Dr. He has to come back in Feb (to long) for testing? Can someone give me some information please, and what do you tell your Dr. Ive heard they want to say its all in a persons head?  Any comments welcome I see him suffer day and night and they didn't give any thing for the pain. I have been with the guy 35 years and his pain is real. Sincerely. Dolly

 i am pre op too and my surgeon said, when i asked about fibro, that some people have seen an improvement in symptoms, but no guarantees.  At least we can look forward to relief on all other issues!!! I am hoping that with less weight on the frame my pain will be less due to lower stress.  Also hoping that I can drop a bunch of drugs and that this might somehow trigger a decrease in fibro pain. Fingers crossed!!