It may be that today you see an announcement on your social networks about this day. Someone may be wearing something purple, representative of Fibromyalgia. As well as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.
If you have suffered from it since before you were a mother, you will have wondered if you will really be capable of being one. This disease, which is usually still unknown and poorly understood in general, should not be an obstacle to your motherhood.
What is Fibromyalgia really?
As we said, it is a disease that is still little known and little understood, even by doctors. It is difficult to diagnose, because there are no reliable medical tests to identify it. The doctor will first have to rule out other pathologies, such as Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, and various autoimmune disorders.
Fibromyalgia is a neuropathic disease. That is, it affects the nervous system and how your brain interprets the signals it receives from the musculoskeletal system. It is actually a hypersensitivity caused by a central nervous system condition. The nervous system itself overrides the thyroid responses necessary to inhibit pain. The creation of the hormones necessary in this process is canceled or diminished. This produces a exaggerated response to pain, cold, heat, or electrical stimulus.
Symptoms and diagnosis.
You will have to go through the orthopedic surgeon, neurologist, rheumatologist, possibly even an internist. Quite an odyssey just to find out what happens to you.
The most characteristic test is the pressure on the trigger points. There are 18 points on the body where pressing produces a specific response to pain. If an exaggerated response occurs in 11 of the 18 points, it is indicative of Fibromyalgia.
Symptoms of the disease are not just limited to pain. The disease also causes sleep disorders. It remains to be determined whether they are the ones causing the disease or vice versa. Other symptoms of the disease are tiredness and fatigue. Depending on the degree of the disease, the fatigue will be more or less severe. It can be, like pain, from a bearable level, to a degree that makes it difficult or incapable of everyday tasks.
It is very common that it occurs with other associated diseases, such as depression, anxiety or non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity or other food intolerances. Due to the lack of knowledge that there is still about the disease, doctors still do not know if one disease leads to the other, or if they simply accompany each other.
Transmission
Today there is no universal treatment for fibromyalgia. Treatment is usually adjusted by personal monitoring in each case. The usual thing is that neuromodulators are tried to adjust the response of the nervous system to stimuli and analgesics to alleviate pain. However, it is a temporary treatment and as we say, palliative. There is no real cure for the disease, but with a diet appropriate to the case and regular and moderate exercise, improvement is possible or at least keep it under control.
Fibromyalgia and motherhood
Once you know in depth the scope of the disease and your personal limits, you approach your life in a very different way than you expected. Nobody dreams of these limits, the pain during an outbreak is so intense that there are no words to explain it.
Es quite hard to carry a disease that is not understood, which many people think is psychosomatic. In other words, it is related to the psychological factor. When in reality, stress is most likely caused by chronic pain. No one who has not suffered it, or has known a similar case closely, can know how infuriating such a situation can be.
However it is not healthy to let the disease limit you. That will work against yourself and will only make the situation worse. The safest thing is that the first moments of motherhood will be harder for you than for the rest, like everything that is done in life. Due to lack of sleep, outbreaks will happen, do not hesitate. However, it will be worth it, every time your son smiles at you, it will cause you a happiness that will create a response in your brain, will ease your pain. Tiredness will not go away, but it will seem like it doesn't exist.
It is possible that you have a greater tendency to postpartum depression, because of your condition you are prone to various psychiatric disorders, especially anxious or depressive ones. But once you know that circumstance, you know your limits and how to act before them. You will be more cautious about these things than other mothers. You will know how to deal with everything, make no mistake about it.
Sensitivity is not a sign of weakness, but of strength, few people are able to bear what you endure every day, and you probably do it with a smile, because you know that your family does not deserve to see you always sad, because you you don't deserve to be sad. If you suffer from Fibromyalgia and you are a mother, you are a warrior, although perhaps you still don't know it.