Really bad upper arm pain

Hi Alison, iv'e had upper arm pain solidly for 2 years, there hasn't been a day when my arms don't hurt. it's at it's worst first thing in the morning where i have to use my feet to get my duvet off me as my arms hardly work.. it does ease off but never goes completely.. i also get very itchy & swollen arm pits and sometimes either a sharp stabbing pain or a dull ache in one or both.. 

I have the usual amitriptyline & co-codamol but i doubt any medication would cure it completely.. 

 take care.

Gill

xxx

Hi Alison, I've had fibro foraround 14 years and unfortunately it hasn't got better only worse. Before I was diagnosed with fibro I had what I thought was a frozen shoulder, I couldn't reach up more than a few inches I couldn't scratch my nose for instance! I saw a physio for several weeks who couldn't understand why I found his pressing on my arm or shoulder so painful. I even had acupuncture which needless to say did nothing. I have been diagnosed with polymyalgia rhumatica which also causes severe pain. Sometimes I feel like someone is leaning hard onto my bicep which is uncomfortable but not painful. The problem with fibro is the pain is unremitting and as soon as it moves from one place it sets up home somewhere else!!!! I used to have what I called the electric cattle prod pain but fortunately that seems to have gone....for now!

Good luck, I hope you can get some respite from your pain. Deb

Hi alison44707 I am getting severe pain in my left arm I rub in volatrol and Ive also used deep heat. Ive found it helps a bit. Stress worry dont help our symptoms the more we stress the worse our pain becomes. The pain will be horredous for you because of you stressing.Pain can sometimes lessen when we dont stress as much.take care

That's happening to me, only its my left arm, it's as if I've been working out and that muscular pain you get the next day, I don't know what's fabriomyialgia and what's just normal, there's that many random things

Hi Alison

I am new to this forum, having only just had a possible diagnosis of fibromyalgia.  Do you get pain anywhere in your core body or is it just arms?  I only get pain from my upper arms to my hands, and my thighs to my feet.  I had thought that this doesn't sound like fibromyalgia as it doesn't involve my trunk but maybe I am not alone in this?  My shoulder, back and hips are all fine.

Hi Alison

I have had very bad muscle and joint pains, muscle weakness, high temperatures, mental fog, and a myriad of other symptoms for over eight years, including a bowel bleed with prolonged bowel inflammation last year, and have been treated as an unspecified autoimmune condition and treated with immune suppressant medications and anti-inflammatories for over seven years - which on the whole seemed to have helped control it apart from the expected flares.  As I don't have the temperature this time (and for the first time)  my rheumy now says this is fibromyalgia, either alongside or replacing my previous condition.  He has taken me off all previous medication and I am awaiting MRIs and ultrasounds of my lower limbs over the next month or so to rule out inflammation. He has given me Amitryptaline 10mg only in the meantime and the pain is getting worse, although I am sleeping better. I have always had sleep issues during flares because of the pains. I have never had core body pain as part of this, only limb pain for eight years. 

Whilst my condition definitely flares with stress, there is not a lot I can do about this because I run my own business and therefore can't afford to take time out. The nature of my business is such that if I take off more than a day or so, my clients will need to source another service and therefore I run a very high risk of losing their business.  I definitley can't afford to lose my income as well as being ill!

I know there are often no quick and easy answers to these type of symptoms but I seem to have had so many diagnoses suggested - ranging from connective tissue disease to crohns - only for them to change their mind over a period of a year or so, that I do not have much faith in anything being the answer anymore.

It may be that my condition has changed, or it could be this alongside my other problems. If the latter is true, I dread  this getting worse due to medication withdrawal. Perhaps they are waiting to see if this is the case? 

It just strikes me that all the information for fibromyalgia suggests that you will have specific tender points. I have not had a physical examination before this siggested diagosis but to my knowledge I have never had any pressure point problems as per the diagram literature, apart from my knees and elbows.  This makes me doubt the diagnosis, especially when coupled with the fact that until recently I have always had proof of inflammation in blood and stool tests.

Slowly losing my sanity.....

Thanks for your response.  My rheumy is generally very good and I do have faith in him but feel that this is just yet another condition that they can label you with that has no definitive test. I can see his point in as much as this time there is no temperature associated with the pains, but this is the first ocasion this has happened.  Anyway, tests lined up for the month or so, so I will just have to see what comes out of them.

Thanks for your support and I hope that you stay pain free.

Hi alison. may be worth getting your vitamin D levels chacked as low levels cause bone and muscle pain and itchy skin, very simialr to Fibromyalgia .

I was diagnosed with sever Vit D deficiency last December after experiencing pain and tiredness for almost a year. Have just also been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia so trying to find out as much as I can about it. Not able to work at the minute as having terrible pain in my hips when I walk.

hope you feel a lot better soon. xx

I get this Alison but on my left hand side and the pain radiates up into my neck and the left side of my face and eye socket. I have today started on Lyrica as my whole left side has been agonising for the last few days.