When not addressed or treated, fibromyalgia nerve pain can quickly get on my nerves. For thirteen years of my chronic life, I lived with unbearable nerve pain. I was also led to believe that it was something that I had to learn to live with. That is until I tried something different.
Medical Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Nothing I share should be mistaken for medical advice. Always discuss changes to your healthcare plan with your physician.
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Fibromyalgia Nerve Pain and More
The first fibromyalgia nerve pain I experienced was what can only be described as feeling like my skin was raw and on fire. Sometimes the pain was felt in a small isolated area of my arms, legs, back, neck, etc. Other times it affected an entire limb or area of my body.
Fibromyalgia nerve pain made it painful to brush my hair, move my body, and even wear clothing. Although I am not a fan of my naked body, nerve pain made me consider joining a nudist colony! Ha Ha!
I experienced a smidgen of relief after my doctor prescribed Lyrica. While enough relief to keep me from losing my mind at the moment, the pain I experienced still required replacing my entire wardrobe with fabrics that didn’t aggravate my nerve flares.
Nerve pain became a major issue after a set of nerves between my cervix and left thigh was severed during one of three surgeries needed to address my botched hysterectomy. The pain I experience from this surgical injury is deep, shoots down my left thigh, and is maddening.
Other nerve pain that plagued me was sciatic and pinched nerves throughout my neck and shoulder blades.
What Didn’t Work
Every doctor and neurologist I saw all suggested that I increase my dosage of Lyrica. All the while, my nerve pain from the injury site and fibromyalgia continued to increase.
The nerve pain from all sources was ruining my life. I had no hope of relief. After reaching the maximum dosage of Lyrica, not one of my doctors offered an alternative solution.
Things got worse after a change in insurance companies left me without coverage for my pre-existing illnesses. I was frustrated and angry at the time. However, looking back at that time in my life I see it as one of the best things to happen.
First Successful Reduction of Fibromyalgia Nerve Pain
After a hellish seven months of detoxing from Lyrica, I experienced a 25% decrease in nerve pain. I dealt with this pain for three more years. During this time I moved from Arizona where medical marijuana wasn’t legal at the time to California where it had been legal since the mid-nineties. It was soon after this move when my new doctors began refusing to prescribe pain relief medications. It was time for me to try something different.
I will never forget my first experience with medical cannabis. The relief I experienced for so many of my symptoms and pains was outstanding. It was a different kind of relief. Pain wasn’t masked, but instead decreased to a tingling level.
The nerve pain relief I experienced was dependent upon several factors. One was if I had aggravated my nerve injury site, I had to keep that area free of pressure. Secondly, weather changes that stirred up firestorms of nerve pain. Lastly, the cannabis strain I medicated with. I personally find that Sativa strains help best with nerve pain and Indica strains are best for muscle relaxation and sleep. This meant learning how to balance the strains to get my desired relief from all of my chronic symptoms and pain.
Continued Relief and Putting out Flash Nerve Fires
In 2017 I added PEMF therapy with Oska Pulse to my pain-relief tool kit. Running several hours of treatment on my spine daily practically eliminated all of my fibromyalgia nerve pain. One to two hours of treatment per day put a stop to the never-ending nerve injury pain. The only thing it isn’t able to prevent is the nerve pain that occurs from pressure pushing in a heatwave or storm front. Although it doesn’t prevent that pain, my flares are not as severe as they used to be, and the pain can be reduced in a few treatments.
Everything I use to prevent and reduce nerve pain include:
- Cannabis
- PEMF therapy
- Knee pillow
- Magnesium-rich lotion on my legs and lower back
- Heat and ice
- CBD for lesser relief and without the high of cannabis
What My Relief Means for Your
What does my fibromyalgia and nerve injury pain reduction mean for you? It means that there is hope! I am not living with my head in a cloud. I know that my illnesses and surgical injuries are not curable. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t relieve pain and decrease flares. Had I listened to the countless doctors who told me that there was nothing that could be done for any of my nerve pain, I probably wouldn’t be here today. Never give up! Always keep looking, researching, and trying.
Not everyone has access to everything on my nerve pain reduction list. What helps me may not help you, no two chronic pain patients are the same. It is ridiculous to assume that one option is good for all. With that said, here are a few products that others have experienced relief with that I have not.
What helps you reduce/relieve nerve pain?
40 Fibromyalgia Flare Fighting Products
Hi 🙂 First, it breaks my heart and totally infuriates me to hear that story, well, the first part of it anyways. I’m not going to dive into it though because I’d go on forever, lol! I have one, small comment & one question…
I also was prescribed Lyrica. 100mg, 3x a day. Right from the start I found that (for me) it intensified my pain. I kept up with it though for a couple of reasons. 1) I had just been dx with Fibro and I had absolutely no idea what it meant. I didn’t know what it was, what it entailed, what to expect down the road, etc. He said, “you have Fibromyalgia. We’re going to start you Lyrica & Cymbalta. We’ll see you in a month.” (I was quite naive at the beginning of all of this. Which is a little embarrassing seeing that I was in my early 40’s at the time, had given birth to 3 children in my early 20’s, & had had a couple of outpatient surgeries under my belt, lol!) Anyways, I went with it. 6 or 7 months later, on top of it intensifying my pain it also sent my depression into overdrive. They kept telling me to give it time but I knew where my depression levels were prior to Lyrica & the difference after taking it were significant. I chose to wean myself off and I’m very glad I did. The pain was still there of course but the depression improved (to a point). :))
Now my question. You mentioned sciatica pain. Is that considered a nerve pain? I’m asking because I’ve been experiencing some severe sciatica pain (usually on my right side), once or twice a month for about 4 months now. Lasting anywhere between 3-7 days each time. The most recent & most severe was 2 weeks ago. It started in my right leg, but after 4 days, I started having sciatica pain in my left leg too, at the same time. The pain was awful! It created radiating pain as well, going across my lower back & along or over(?)my tailbone and to the front of my left hip and lower abdomen. It almost seemed to come in waves. By this I mean the pain was always there but suddenly there’d be a wave of stronger pain which is when I’d have the abdomen & tailbone pain and when that happened I might as well have been trying to lay down on broken chunks of cement. It went on like this for another 3 days, lasting a total of 7. I have NO IDEA what to make of this. God knows it could just be one more symptom of FM.
Thank you for your time & I’m sorry for going on so long! Take care♡♡♡
Debbie O.
Hi Debbie!
Don’t feel ashamed, I was the same way. If a doctor prescribed something, I took it without question. Lyrica was awful, I never felt like it really did much and detoxing from it was the worst. My doctor at the time compared what I went through to worse than someone coming off of meth. I will never put my body or family through that again. Your pain does sound a lot like sciatica pain, it can differ from one person to the next. What I have noticed with my own body is that my sciatica becomes inflamed and in pain whenever I experince pain and inflammation around my sacrum and lower back. I had no idea that it was a source of my pain until I began using cannabis for pain. It eliminated all reactionary pain and left sources tingling. Knowing where the pain was stemming from helped so much. Besides cannabis, I run pemf treatments daily in that area, my husband massages it at least once a week, sometimes, mostly in the summer I ice it, and most importantly, I use a mobiity aid when walking causes pain in the area. If I don’t the pressure goes up my spine and results in blinding migraines.
Never feel bad for asking a question. We need to stick together and help each other.
Hope you have a little less pain today!
xo Cynthia
I had the exact same experience with cannabis. When I first got fibromyalgia, I discovered smoking weed was incredibly effective. Now I use CBD oil. It works better than any prescription medication I have ever tried.
I truly would have lost my mind had it not been for cannabis. So happy to hear that your experience is just as good. I have found that CBD helped with my fibromyalgia nerve pain, but it did nothing for the severed nerves. I get double my money’s worth on cannabis by dry vaping which decarbs the flower and readies it for making butter/oil/tinctures, then once a month I whip up a batch of one. I have been getting lucky on finding high CBD strains and plan to make my own CBD oil with them.