Myrl Jeffcoat myrlj@jps.net

18 mars, 2005 20:27

Doctors can only offer limited relief for sufferers of fibromyalgia

By Matt Conn

For the Journal

Imagine excruciating pain throughout your body and no apparent cause.  Standing hurts. Sitting hurts. Moving hurts. Not moving hurts. A comfortable bed becomes a device of torture - and no one knows why.  This is the experience of a fibromyalgia sufferer.  Help is available Marshfield Clinic has launched a fibromyalgia support group in central Wisconsin. The group will meet from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the first Monday of the month, except July and September because they fall on a holiday, at Marshfield Clinic Mosinee Center, 390 Orbiting Drive. For more information call Marshfield Clinic Mosinee Center at 715-693-9100.

"I explain it as from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet," said 56-year-old Janet Hoffman of Mosinee. Hoffman was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a little more than two years ago. "Before medications, I was in such pain, I thought I was going to lose my mind. It was there day and night, and it also causes you (to lose) sleep." At her worst, Hoffman was able to find a few hours of real sleep in a week's time. For years, she would battle bouts of muscle pain, but had always attributed it to overexertion. Even as a child, her complaints would be dismissed as "growing pains." A diagnosis of fibromyalgia does not rely on laboratory tests, and some practitioners do not even accept it as a medical condition.  Some patients have been told that it's all in their heads.

"You don't see much on the examination, but the spectrum of symptoms taken together can be called fibromyalgia," said Dr. Karen Ann Shulman, a family practice physician at Marshfield Clinic Mosinee Center.  In diagnosing fibromyalgia, Shulman identified symptoms such as widespread pain in multiple body parts, and a pain that persists for three months without any other identifiable cause. Fibromyalgia is more typical in women and is associated with a sleep or mood disorder as well as headaches, feelings of numbness and weakness - and yet the patient exhibits no underlying problem, she said.

Current theories suggest that fibromyalgia could be an autoimmune or hormonal problem not yet identified, and it may also somewhat originate from previous psychological or physical stressors that affect how the body regulates pain, Schulman said.  Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that could last a lifetime.  "You just give up a lot of things," Hoffman said. "There are days I literally can't do any of my own work in the house. I would be unable to take care of my grandchildren if I wanted to." Hoffman takes about 10 pills a day to regulate her pain. The last job she had before she quit working was as the manager of a 50-unit mobile home park, and it was reaching the point where pain was impeding her work.  Doctors can only offer so much help in treating fibromyalgia, Schulman said.  "It's really a lifestyle intervention," she said.  Schulman helped Hoffman start a fibromyalgia support group, and Hoffman said discussions have been beneficial for five or so regulars from the surrounding area and others who attend sporadically.  The group bonded immediately, Hoffman said, drawn together by having others to discuss what can be such a difficult illness.