Topic: Fibromyalgia and Breast Cancer

Hi Redhead.

I have Fibro, have had it some years, and do the rounds with docs and various tablets. I am also in just about constant chronic pain, but you just learn to adjust things and live with it !  Since bc I seem to have just let Fibro take a back seat. Its there, it doesn't seem to be getting any worse, doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I had surgery for bilateral mastectomy, and also surgery for a port removal, and also for a drain from my mastectomy surgery that was in so long it had grown in, and couldn't be removed by the docs from the outside of my body. ( No doubt when I was asleep they just hitched the drain to a car and p-u-l-l-e-d !! ....I didn't feel a thing ! ) I had no adverse reactions to surgeries, and my healing time was pretty good, in fact I was well pleased with the quick clean healing of the mast. scars, they were red for some weeks afterwards, but nice and clean, no weeping bits. I was a great one for changing my dressings, probably more than I should have done, but I got relief from bathing, and cleaning up the scars. Used loads of Aqueous cream, as advised by nurses, as well.

I was left after my surgery with pain in the 'bad' side arm,from nerves cut during surgery, and was told it would go away, but it never has, and thats pretty bad some days. its sometimes hard to say whether its Fibro or neuropathy from my arm on the RHS of my body thats jangling that particular day !

My 3 wishes , if I were to be granted them would be  Peace  Peace and more Peace from the constant pain in my body. !!! Just one day would be nice, thankyou very much !!

Let us know how you get on and how your healing goes after your surgery on 24th, I will be watching with interest. Remember to stock up with a laxative, the anaesthetics, plus all the pain tablets we take for Fibro can really 'bung' you up. I had big problems in that department, no-one warned me, so take this as a warning now !!!  Good Luck.

Isabella.  

I have fibro.  I'm finding it very difficult to manage the pain now that I am on arimidex (which is known to cause muscle and joint pain)..  Is it the fibro or is it the arimidex.  My pain was more managable before the cancer.  I am taking cymbalta and it really worked before the arimidex.  Have you tried this?  It is an antidepressant but works on pain as well.  I might asked to have my dose bumped up.  I'm on 60 mg and I can be bumped up to 120 mg.  I don't want to take more meds but I'm hurting. 

Sandra - I haven't heard of tramadol.  Can you tell me what kind of drug this is?

I'm so grateful to all of you.  I thought I was going crazy with my painful muscles, muscle spasms and joint pains.  I switched AI's every several months and am now on a holiday from all of them.  My oncologist suggested that I see a rheumatologist, but I was so sick of being a patient and so convinced that it was the AI's causing my problems, that I opted not to make that appointment.  Well, girls, you've given me hope.  I can go back on my Arimidex and maybe get some kind of meds to help with my burning, aching, hurting, spasming muscles, tendons and joints, as well as those spots that feel like bruises all over my torso, front and back, as well as my arms and hips. Maybe it's fibromyalgia.  I've seen the Lyrica commercials, but never related what I was feeling to what they were showing in those ads.  First thing tomorrow monring, I'm calling my oncologist and asking for a referral, then asking if I can go back on the Arimidex.  You've all put things into perspective.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Hugs,  

Longing for the days before bc is a standard cry in my household.  I just wish that I could feel like I did 2 years ago.  Whatever troubles or worries I had at that time were silly compared to what we all face each and every day now that BC has hit.  We are changed forever.  I'm hoping that once the Arimidex and maybe fibromyalgia are finished with me, I'll be able to get on with my life as I once knew it.  Or maybe it gets good but it will just be a different kind of good.  Let's hope.