Yeah, the cold & rain make mine worse too. I’ve heard it might be the barometric pressure. Also, if I have a “good” day, I tend to overdo it trying to catch up on everything, & that just brings on more “bad” days.
Biofreeze pain relief spray and/or gel (it comes in both) works good. I get it from my sister, cuz she’s a physical therapist, & it doesn’t stink either. lol The medicine my dr. gives me helps too, but nothing cures it (that I know of anyway). I’m supposed to exercise, but that’s hard to do when you’re so tired & hurting so much! Heck, just walking across Walmart is a major ordeal some days! lol One of my friends just told me the other day that her sister tried a diet that is helping her, so I’m going to have to find out about that.
I think the fatigue is as bad or worse than the pain. I took a class called Mind Over Matters that has helped me deal with the pain. You can still make yourself do stuff when you’re hurting (even though it’s hard), but sometimes I can’t even get out of bed cuz I’m so exhausted. People don’t understand; they think I’m lazy. That’s so frustrating too….all the judgements people make cuz it’s not something they can see. Someone told me recently that I only do the bare minimum, then they proceeded to tell me everything I SHOULD be doing! ERRR I already KNOW what I should be doing! But what they think is the “bare minimum” actually takes great effort on my part. They should just be glad they don’t have to deal with it. They think they understand cuz they had some back & neck problems & know about pain, but they don’t know about all the rest of it. I can’t sleep at night without waking up every few minutes. I get bad IBS too (although I found drinking a lot of water seems to help that some).
I also found that going to a massage therapist helps with the pain. If you contact one of the massage schools, you can sometimes get them for free. Stretching exercises helps me too. I learned a good back stretch in yoga, and it has helped my back pain a lot. But I haven’t learned anything to help with the fatigue, except to rest when I feel tired & try not to overdo it.
I tried that new medicine lyrica that’s supposed to be good for fibromyalgia, but it knocked me on my butt. The dr. said I’d get used to it in a few days, but I have kids to take care of & couldn’t stick with it long enough. Some people can’t tolerate it though. Maybe it would work for you. My dr. said the way it works is that it makes you not feel things so much, so it helps the pain.
I’m going to try the guaifenesin. I’m open to just about anything that might work! :-)