Maybe THIS dose of ibuprofen will be the one that fixes me

there's a lot of talk about joint pain in chronic illness communities which like fair, it hurts like a bitch. but shoutout to my fellow spoonies who are painfully incapacitated by things like muscle spasticity and nerve compression. just because people can't see red, swollen, dislocated, or malformed joints doesn't make your pain not real. and extra shoutout to spoonies who deal with all these types of pain, because i know how hard it makes things.

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babygirl i have health problems that would make a grown man cry- yeah of course I'm still going to work what are you talking about

Really wish all the “low impact” exercise routines I find weren’t hyper focused on like squats and lunges and shit. Like bro, my knees DO NOT WORK. They simply do not function properly. If I do 15 squats today I’m not going to be able to walk properly for literal days.

…….but like I’m so tired and I NEED to work out to help with my fatigue, and I don’t have the attention span for yoga right now. So I do the five bajillion squats anyway.

And I’m stupid so I forget that that’s a bad idea, so when I’m in an incredible amount of pain just walking up and down the stairs for the rest of the week, I’ll be like

So much pain and aching. Tourette's can fuck off. Standing up for 6/7/8 hours straight without a break can fuck off. Neck/head tics can fuck off - my neck is hurting so much. Fuck off.

I really really need mobility aids to be able to live more freely and im not sure I have the resources to do so and it's putting an incredible amount of stress and more pain on me

So I went to the rheumatologist the other day and they prescribed me gabapentin. However, the doctor never went over any of the side effects, so being the overly cautious person I am I decide to look them up and HOOOO BOY idk if I want to even try gabapentin anymore. They say it can ultimately cause dementia as well as:

• cause memory loss

•weight gain (which I already have problems losing weight anyway)

• clumsiness

Among many other things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in a lot of pain, but I’m too scared to try it at this point. Has anyone tried gabapentin for chronic pain/fibromyalgia? If so, how was your experience and did you have any side effects?

Neck pain update!

Okay so last time I wrote about this, was when I got the MRI results for my neck, which was blank, zero issues found. However the pain in my neck was still so bad I can't walk without pain, can't jump or run at all, and can't carry anything over 2kg. I was too scared to try and fix it on my own, because messing with an injured neck without training is dangerous, and can do damage, so I didn't want to risk making it worse. However, if the scans say the neck is fine, then I can't really ruin it, right, so I've started looking for exercises that don't hurt.

As I was looking for neck-related exercises on youtube (they all hurt too much), youtube was starting to recommend me back exercises as well, some of them specifically for Rhomboid pain. Now, I didn't know what this rhomboid was, but it so happened that I had pain in that exact spot, between shoulder blades, but that pain came and went, so I thought it must be psychosomatic (when you have chronic pain you assume most of what hurts is psychosomatic).

Anyway, I decided to do those exercises because it's much less scary to work on back pain, and they didn't hurt as much. Then I found, in the same source, some neck exercises that seemed a bit dangerous; they instructed me to lay down with my neck hanging over the bed, then hold my own head with my arms, and move it, like I'm fixing it in place. I was shocked to find out that this didn't hurt me, so I did that exercise twice. And then the shocking thing happened.

That exercise immediately changed how the pain felt while I was walking. Before, I used to feel every step as a punch to the back of my neck; now it was to the back of my head. This made me dizzy, nauseous and want to vomit, the first time it happened, and I was very scared that I made it worse. Pressure and pain where my brain is, felt even more serious than neck pain, and I didn't repeat that exercise ever again, in hope the pressure and pain in my head would go away. It didn't, however, go away, but I learned to deal with it, and it became somewhat bearable. I am due in few months for a brain MRI so if there's something actually wrong with my brain, I will find out then. I am suspicious though that maybe there's some muscle in my back that is extending up to the head causing issues. But I don't know if there is such a thing.

I kept doing the exercise for the back pain, but the back pain did not go away from it, the exercise just keeps getting more painful as I keep doing it, unsure whether I should just stop.

After that I fell depressed for a while, and just played stardew valley laying down using my touchpad, and this is where the pain got worse in my left arm. Before that, my arm hurt a little, if I was bending it backwards or extending it too far or carrying anything, but now, it hurt a lot, at all times, whenever I was trying to do anything at all. I thought I made it worse with my irresponsible video gaming, my wrist was now hurting badly too, and I couldn't bend my arm to use the laptop anymore. I tried with my right hand and then my right hand started hurting too.

I was trying various wrist exercises thinking it was the video game problem, that made no difference whatsoever, so today I finally looked up all possible causes of pain in the arm, and found something that was close to the pain I felt - coracobrachialis muscle pain. I've never heard of that muscle, but it's under the arm and connects the back and arm, and can get damaged from overuse. I found instructions on how to locate it, and upon pressing on it, I felt such intense pain I was crying and curled into a ball for a while, it's clear to me that this muscle is in bad condition.

Now, all the pain relief instructions for this were to give this muscle a massage, but I absolutely cannot do that, I can't touch that muscle, I can't press on it, the pain of just the smallest pressure is insane, while I'm happy to have found the source of my arm pain, I am absolutely lost as to what to do with this. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with this specific muscle? I can't force myself to massage it until I find a way to somehow relax it, or relax the area around it, so that it would be this painful to touch.

Also, the neck itself has shown some tiny improvements. It feels like it got a little stronger, because now I can lift my head while lying down, which I couldn't do before. I can sometimes sit for a bit more than I could do before, I was limited to 20min of sitting before I had to lie down, now I can sit for an hour (with discomfort, but not pain). It still hurts while I walk but now it's more like pressure than being hit with pain, my head instead takes the hit. If I try to run, I get intense pain and pressure in my head, and it extends to my neck as well.

I think I did something okay along the way, maybe few mistakes. There's probably more than one problem with my muscles, I suspect, and I hope I will find ways to resolve them one by one. I even thought for a second that I maybe lack collagen because I'm vegan but then when I looked it up, it's something body produces by itself and doesn't need a supplement. So it's just a big mystery at this point. I still blame that tree-falling accident because this wasn't going on beforehand.

hi i was wondering if you or any of your followers had tips for dealing with chronic muscle pain (specifically hip and knee).

nothing i’ve tried has seemed to help (pt, otc pain meds, ice, heat, rest, acupuncture, cbd lotion, epson salt baths, stretching). and i’ve peen told that the only pain meds that would help would be narcotics (which i can’t take due to family).

also everybody has seemed to circle back to “it’s because of your mental health that everything is shit”. and doctors refuse to do any tests past moving my legs around and poking at them.

so i will try almost anything. thank you

i’m so sorry you’re dealing with this, i have chronic muscle pain & i know it can easily be so debilitating. regardless of whether there’s a relationship with stress or whatever, your physical symptoms should still be fucking treated! the abject cruelty of not managing your pain aside, it’s almost like it’s harder to handle mental experiences when you’re in pain all the time… you don’t deserve this bullshit & i’m really sorry 🖤

i am suspicious of your being told that only narcotics would help tbh — i don’t doubt that many folks need narcotics to effectively treat their pain, & opioids have definitely been the most effective treatment for me when i have access to them (although more for nerve stuff than muscle) but there are definitely medications you haven’t been offered yet that might be helpful.

idk if you suspect that your muscle pain may be related to chronic illness but my muscle pain (including what was dismissed as untreatable fibromyalgia symptoms) improved dramatically when i got on an immunosuppressant (hydroxychloroquine in my case). if you haven’t gotten a basic rheumatology blood panel done by your GP it could be worth a shot as my elevated inflammatory markers led to that prescription even though i’m definitely underdiagnosed.

i’m also like, really pissed nobody’s given you a muscle relaxer jesus christ. i’m on 4mg tizanidine from my PCP & it’s been immensely helpful for my muscle pain, i choose to take it probably once a week because it’s more effective at knocking me out all night that way lol but i also use it as a rescue medication when i’m having severe cramps. really helpful to just get a fucking break & some decent sleep every so often. in that thread i’m planning to ask about starting prazosin at my next appointment, it’s prescribed for nightmares (which i def have lol) but can prompt a certain level of muscle relaxation which is part of how it helps with sleep

idk if this is an option for you due to family etc but delta8 (weed equivalent that’s technically legal in the US) has been vital for managing my own pain. expensive as shit but so it goes.

idk if you already use a mobility aid or if that’s an option for you but it could be worth looking into! redirecting some of the force applied to your muscles might make things like walking easier or could help with balance if you experience sudden weakness / cramps.

super depends on your situation but it could be worth paying attention to your feet as well, getting plantar fasciitis house shoes vastly improved my knee-hip-back pain, knees in particular. mine was more joint related than muscular but from studying biomechanics it’s all interrelated & from my perspective anything that helps may make it a bit easier to keep going until you find a better long-term solution. so even if it doesn’t seem related to your pain if there’s anything that might make your life easier right now i encourage you to consider it!

other folks feel free to respond with things that have been effective for you! i really hope you find some solutions that make things more bearable for you 💓💓

I dipped into my savings and bought an e-bike (pedelec). You guys, have you any idea how much freedom this means for someone with chronic pain? I rode to my brother's and back today, something that would normally cause me a lot of pain and total exhaustion, ending in 2-3 hours of having to lie down afterwards. Do you want to know how long I lay down? 10 minutes. If that. "Excited" doesn't even begin to cover it. 🤩

I need a beautiful woman to massage all of the cramps out of my legs in a homoerotic way

if it works for you, please add on in the tags/replies/rbs - like what kind of pain it helps you with.

my main problem is nerve pain, and muscle pain from chronic spasming, due to nerve damage. and i really need some relief (please don't recommend me medications).

also feel free to rb to boost (no pressure!)

*rips off clothes to reveal orthopedic shoes, thigh high compression socks, two stick on heating pads, and three separate braces*: do you find me... irresistible

It’s so weird having my physical health tank when my mental health is the best it’s ever been.

Like whenever someone asks me how I am I’m just like “well my bones hurt, and my muscles hurt, and I can work maybe 3 hours a day before I collapse from chronic fatigue. But like the world keeps on turning, so I’m vibing dude B) ”

Coming to realise how much internalised ableism you have against yourself is... a lot :(

I don't usually post things like this, I'm just very frustrated with pain right now, feel free to skip.

Context, I have a chronic muscle and joint pain issue as well as chronic fatigue. I've yet to be diagnosed with anything, struggling with it for 8 years now, since I was a child. I've never had access to mobility aids that I need.

Recently it's been terrible. Today I had to stay home because every time I got up I just fell over. My arms and legs wouldn't hold me. Right now the entire left half of my spine feels inflamed and, since it's the spine, hurts really bad. This recently has been one of the worst flares of my life in the last several months.

I keep having to cancel plans, stay home from school, leave events im supposed to be at for my benefit or for someone else's.

I've been having this issue for 8 years. When I was little I had lymes, and that was treated. I continued to have pain in that knee for the next six years, and two years ago it started spreading throughout my joints and then my whole body. In the span of 6 months I went from pain in my knee to full body pain some days throughout every tissue of my body.

My tests are normal. My blood is normal. There's no inflammation or lymes or damage there's no issue in my thyroid or blood count. I haven't been diagnosed with anything.

When it gets bad I don't know how to deal with it. Medication hasn't helped I don't have the money for regular chiropractory or massage so I don't even know if it would help, physical therapists try and fix a specific issue but they can't when they don't know what's wrong.

It's so frustrating when I can't trust my own body.

Genuinely if anyone struggles with similar issues, I'd love to hear how you cope with it and how to be taken more seriously in the medical field.