Sometimes people who are experiencing fibromyalgia symptoms may not realize what the problem is. Fibromyalgia symptoms can sometimes be confused with symptoms of other diseases. Many times arthritis can be confused with this disorder. Fibromyalgia is a disorder that involves the musculoskeletal parts of the body where can feel a lot of pain in muscles, tendons and ligaments. Most people who have fibromyalgia also have a high level of fatigue.
When a person first develops fibromyalgia the symptoms of it can occur in just the upper part of the body. For example the neck, upper back, and shoulders may become very painful and later on the pain will move down to the midback, lower back, thighs and arms. For a person to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia they must be having symptoms of pain in 11 or more areas and there must be a generalized pain for more than three months. Fibromyalgia symptoms are often described a deep jabbing or shooting pain or deep muscular aching. Sometimes a person with fibromyalgia will experience severe burning sensations. Oftentimes the pain is worse in the morning than it is in the evening.
Insomnia or un-refreshing sleep along with muscular weakness and pain can also be a symptom of fibromyalgia. When there is increased nervous excitability and migraines accompanied with short-term memory loss and poor concentration as well as confusion the person may also be experiencing fibromyalgia symptoms. The unrelenting nature of the fibromyalgia symptoms can leave a person feeling depressed and with low self-esteem.
This disorder cannot be confirmed by normal routine physical evaluations or lab tests. However if the person with fibromyalgia symptoms undergoes tests which reveal abnormal brain activity then a diagnosis of fibromyalgia can be made with certainty. When trigger points or tender points on the body are found that causes a person to experience different levels of pain they are usually diagnosed with having this disorder also. Points of pain throughout the entire body are usually located in the area of the neck and shoulders, the back of the skull, the upper, middle and lower back, the buttocks upper thighs, knees and elbows. These areas are all called trigger points. The tender points are the areas around trigger points that are very sensitive and painful as well.
It is very important to recognize fibromyalgia symptoms as early as possible so that the appropriate treatment can begin. Muscular pain can be described as a burning, leading or stabbing pain in the muscles as well as a deep aching pain. Delaying the appropriate treatment for this disorder can lead to more serious symptoms such as unstable blood pressure, also loss of appetite, fever or vomiting, swelling of the abdomen and diarrhea.
Fibromyalgia is not really considered a disease. It is categorized as a syndrome which means that it is a combination of symptoms. In the case of fibromyalgia symptoms can be a combination of aches, pains and stiffness throughout the entire body while some areas experienced a more localized pain. Many people who have this syndrome say that the fibromyalgia symptoms closely resemble having the flu and feeling achy all over. People who have this disorder will also be extremely tired and may believe that they have chronic fatigue syndrome at first because they are so exhausted. The exhaustion is usually caused by having their sleep disrupted so that REM sleep is diminished. Some people with this disorder are so tired that they are unable to leave the house.
Another one of the common fibromyalgia symptoms for women with this disorder is that of very painful menstrual cycles. Dry mouth or dry eyes, muscles that twitch, numbness or having tingling sensations in the body are some other symptoms that people with this disorder may experience too.
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