Ups and Downs; unpredictability of FM and CFID. How can I avoid a flare?

Identifying comorbid or co-existing illnesses is important. Whether other illnesses are comorbid to fibromyalgia (meaning they occur more frequently with FM or CFID) or co-existing, they are great aggravators to the symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue immunodysfunction, AKA ME/CFS, and to each other. Identifying other contributors to pain and dysfunction are important too. The short list is posture, sleep disruption, anxiety, sedentary lifestyles, ignoring perpetuating factors or known emotional and physical stressors, etc.

Excerpt Chapter Two©
We are susceptible to a flare when we deviate in any way from our personally tailored, multidisciplinary treatment plan. This worsening of symptoms does not mean FM is progressing from one step to the next in the disease process. “Unpredictable” is the best way to describe the way symptoms occur. It is literally a 24/7 job for all of us, and varies in difficulty from one patient to another. (Cooper and Miller, pg 23-24, 2010)

It may not always be easy to define what your aggravating factors are, but you can certainly get a lot further through work and perseverance than by ignoring your symptoms or having a health care worker dismiss them. You may have to do a juggling act. For instance, when I treat resistant
TrPs while also dealing with unexpected FM symptoms, it can cause a serious flare of body-wide pain…This, in turn, results in a flare of CFID, lowering my resistance to infection and increasing general malaise. Sometimes the best thing to do is treat the condition that needs the most
attention. (Cooper and Miller, pg. 75)

There really is no short answer to this question. We discuss this at length in Chapter two Communicating Your Health Care Needs: Identifying Aggravating and Alleviating Factors and Coexisting Conditions. Also included in this chapter are Relating Your Symptoms and Health History, Communicating with Your Physician and Other Health Care Providers, Medication Log, Symptom Inventory Sheet, Anatomical Diagram of Pain, and Health History Log


Based on my answer as Share Care Fibromyalgia expert, How can I avoid flare-ups from fibromyalgia?

All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. http://www.thesethree.com