10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me Meme

I’ve been tagged to do a 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me Meme by PsychScribe, so here goes (apologies if you’re reading this and you already know some of these!)…

1. I’ve read a lot of Tolkien and love the Tolkien mythology.
2. I have had issues in the past with empathising too much with other people, even fictional characters, so I am not allowed to read sad books or watch sad movies.
3. I have a phobia of sharks and can’t swim in the sea if there are even fish near me!
4. I adore clothes and shoes and only wish I could afford them and they would look good on me (even if they fit, I can make the best clothes look scruffy within an hour).
5. I’m addicted to cinnamon - cinnamon toast, cinnamon in my coffee, cinnamon Krispy Kremes, cinnamon Danish…
6. I’m also addicted to Krispy Kreme donuts (yep, that was me who ate the best part of half the box when helping friends move last weekend).
7. I have hyperlordosis (excessive curvature of the lower back).
8. Logic means a lot to me. If someone is behaving illogically, it drives me mad (yes, even if it’s me doing it!).
9. Until I got Fibro, the most consistent ambition of my life was to race around the world on a yacht.
10. I trained as a meteorologist.

I’m tagging:

lilwatchergrl at Through Myself and Back Again

Christine at ButYouDon’tLookSick

Laurie at A Chronic Dose

Abide

Chronic Chick Talk

Psydchick

Kerrie at The Daily Headache

Fighting Fatigue

How To Cope With Pain

CIDP and me

They may not all respond, but check them out, there are some great blogs here.

 

Pain Blog Carnival

The June Pain Blog Carnival is up at How To Cope With Pain with the theme of pain & summer/vacation.

 

Getting to know The Spoon Lady

Over at FibroAction, we’ve got an interview with Christine Donato (nee Miserandino), founder of ButYouDontLookSick.com and author of The Spoon Theory. It’s great to get to know Christine a bit better and to hear her talking about The Spoon Theory, looking good when sick, relationships as a Spoonie and being positive and proactive.

 

FDA Approves Cymbalta for Fibro

Eli Lilly today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved their medication Cymbalta for the treatment of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro).

Cymbalta (Duloxetine hydrochloride) is a selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SSNRI or SNRI) and it is only the second drug to be approved by the US FDA specifically for the treatment of Fibro. Last year, Pfizer’s Lyrica (Pregabalin) became the first drug to be FDA approved for the treatment of Fibro.

For more information, see the FibroAction article.

 

Pregabalin for Fibromyalgia Syndrome

FibroAction has got an article discussing three recent trials of pregabalin as a treatment for Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro).

Last summer, Pregabalin (brand name Lyrica) was the first medication to be approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for “on-label” use as a treatment for Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

FibroAction is a new organisation, basd in the UK, which aims to make accurate, up-to-date information about Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro) readily available, as well as raise awareness of the condition.

 

Chronic fatigue syndrome in male gulf war veterans and civilians: a further test of the single syndrome hypothesis.

An article was published in the May edition of the Journal of Health Psychology that discusses differences in the onset of CFS in veterans and civilians.

The researchers compared 45 male veterans with CFS to 84 male civilians who satisfied identical case criteria. All were evaluated for fibromyalgia (FM), multiple chemical sensitivity and psychiatric conditions. The study found that in civilians, CFS  was more likely to present in a sudden flu-like manner than in veterans, and civilians also had Fibro (as well as the CFS) more often.

The researchers said:

“Different modes of fatigue onset in male Gulf War veterans versus male civilians raise the possibility that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) may not be a single disease entity.”…”[our] findings question the assumption that all patients with CFS suffer from the same underlying disorder.”

The possibility of subsets of CFS has been much discussed and will be the subject of a conference in London this year. Given the lack of a good case definition for CFS, there is a lot of confusion about when a symptom - chronic fatigue - becomes a diagnosis - CFS.

Reference: Ciccone DS, Weissman L, Natelson BH. Chronic fatigue syndrome in male gulf war veterans and civilians: a further test of the single syndrome hypothesis. J Health Psychol. 2008 May;13(4):529-36.

 

April Pain Blog Carnival

The April Pain Blog Carnival is up at How To Cope With Pain  and a post of mine is featured. There’s a great selection of posts, so go check it out.

 

Trickery from a patient?

One of the posts that caught my eye from last week’s Grand Rounds at Dr Val and the Voice of Reason was ‘What trickery is this?’ from Vitum Medicinus. The post recounts the story of a patient who had asked a question of a doctor that she already knew the answer to. In this case, it was a nervous patient talking about a brand new article that it was fair enough the doctor hadn’t heard about.

Vitum said in the post:

“Obviously there are two sides to these issues, but I still wondered how I would feel if I thought a patient had tricked me. It’s true that doctors are expected to make few, if any, mistakes, and it’s definitely good to have someone check up on you once in a while, but it might also prove difficult for me to be in a doctor-patient relationship in which the patient is frequently trying to get me to say something wrong. After all, trust in the doctor-patient relationship goes both ways.”

I wanted to put another side to this argument.

Whilst I agree that trust in the doctor-patient relationship goes both ways and I agree that asking about a brand new piece was hardly fair, I have been known to ask questions to which I knew the answers. Fibromyalgia is usually not taught about at Med School, certainly not in depth and most doctors receive no training in it. As an expert patient with years of researching the medical literature behind me, I often know more about the condition than doctors. Asking questions to which I know the answers if one way for me to assess how much the doctor really knows about Fibro.

I think one factor in this is that doctors usually do not like to be questionned by patients and rarely think that patients can have genuinely good knowledge. In these days of the internet, where a search of the medical literature can be done by a few clicks of the mouse - by anyone - this attitude is out of date, but it is still common. If I could go into an appointment and ask straight out “What do you know about Fibromyalgia?” then there would be no need for loaded questions. But most doctors do not accept that from patients and appearing less knowledgeable than I am at first prevents the doctor from getting riled that I, a mere patient, might be questionning their knowledge. Some doctors, the good ones, are delighted when they find out my level of knowledge and find that they do not need to translate medical speak for me. But many are not and appearing ignorant is neccessary.

I would never expect a doctor to know about articles that have come out very recently - although with my specialist I might well ask if he had seen the article as he has no problem talking about research with me. I would also never aim to embarrass a doctor unless they had shown a real lack of respect to me. As always, respect should go both ways. You respect me and I will respect you.

 

Effects of muscle strengthening versus aerobic exercise program in fibromyalgia

Researchers from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, at Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey had an article published in the April edition of Rheumatology International on a study comparing the effects of aerobic training with a muscle-strengthening program in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

For the study, 30 women with Fibro were randomized to either an aerobic exercise program or a strengthening exercise program for 8 weeks. Outcome measures used for the study included the intensity of fibromyalgia-related symptoms, tender point count, fitness (as measured by a 6-min walk distance), the hospital anxiety and depression (HAD) scale, and the short-form health survey (SF-36).

The study found that there were significant improvements in both groups regarding pain, sleep, fatigue, tender point count, and fitness after treatment. HAD-depression scores improved significantly in both groups while no significant change occurred in HAD-anxiety scores. The bodily pain subscale of SF-36 and the physical component summary improved significantly in the aerobic exercise group, whereas seven subscales of the SF-36, the physical component summary, and the mental component summary improved significantly in the strengthening exercise group.

When the groups were compared after treatment, the researchers found that there were no significant differences in pain, sleep, fatigue, tender point count, fitness, HAD scores, and SF-36 scores. They therefore concluded that aerobic exercise and strengthening exercise are similarly effective at improving symptoms, tender point count, fitness, depression, and quality of life in women with Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

 

Hearing in Fibro patients - tinnitis explanation and a new test?

Researchers at the Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Turkey have had an article e-published ahead of print in the Journal of laryngology and otology discussing a study they carried out assessing contralateral suppression of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and normal hearing.

For the study 24 female Fibro patients and 24 healthy female controls with normal hearing were assessed using pure tone audiometry and transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions.

The study found that all the subjects, with and without Fibro, had normal hearing on pure tone audiometry. In the patients with fibromyalgia syndrome, the mean transiently evoked otoacoustic emission amplitude did not change after contralateral suppression, whereas with the controls, the mean transiently evoked otoacoustic emission amplitude was both less than that of the Fibro group, but also decreased after contralateral suppression.

The researchers concluded that:

“The mechanisms related to contralateral suppression of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions seem dysfunctional in fibromyalgia syndrome. This dysfunction may be at the brain stem level, where the medial superior olivary complex is located, or at the synapses of medial superior olivary complex fibres with the outer hair cells in the cochlea. Demonstration of lack of contralateral suppression of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions can be used as a diagnostic tool in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.”

This study is interesting for two points: 1, it may explain why tinnitis (which may result from problems with otoacoustic emmissions) is a possible symptom of Fibro. and 2, it offers the possibility of a test for Fibro using hearing examinations!