I’m positive that I am not the only one who feels pain differences depending on the weather around me.
Winter is a particularly hard season, as the weather here gets terrifyingly cold. My joints just seize up, my temperature regulation becomes a problem, and I just want to spend the entire time in bed, hibernating like a bear! Sadly, I can’t do that without feeling terribly unambitious. The heating pad definitely plays a high role in the winter, in addition to the pain medication I own.
The rain is another problem. My body ALWAYS lets me know when rain is coming. I can feel it everywhere – in my joints, in my muscles, and even in the slightest shift of air temperature. There is rarely a rainy day where I feel like leaving the house; instead, my worst days are usually the rainy days. Definitely the perfect time to curl up and zone out to a simple television show in the hopes of not moving and hurting.
I wish I could say that the summer works out much better for me, but the heat is worse than the cold. I get so hot that I feel like I can’t even breathe. Ice packs and cold face cloths are always covering me in the summer, unless I’m at the beach on the North Shore. I can’t wait for the day to come when I can afford to get air conditioning installed in this home!
There are beautiful temperatures in between though! I love so much of the Fall and Spring. Nothing like sitting outside on the porch and reading a good book (assuming my brain is working well enough to read…).
What about you ladies (and gents)? Which weather hurts your body the most? And the least? Do you find that it makes an actual difference in your health? What do you do to cope with the changes in weather?
xoxo,
Annie
The informational content of this article is intended to convey general educational
information and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional healthcare advice.
This article is intended to convey general educational information and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional healthcare advice.
I *completely* agree.
It wasn’t until I moved to the east coast that I actually experienced seasons. I was raised in southern california from the time I was 2 until 26, so seasons didn’t affect me — because there were none!
But here in New Jersey, with all the different types of weather, I see now that I’m also prone to the aches and the unwillingness to leave the comfort of my bed. Does it get any better for you as each year passes?
I forgot to add that although I don’t have fibro, I have lupus and what your describing in your post rings very true to many lupus patients too! 🙂
I also have fibro, lupus and Raynauds….if my dog sneezes I hurt! Every tiny thing is a hurdle! I get comfort from my online friends and pages like this. There are days when I call my husband and say “remind me why I tolerate life everyday”…..there are days when I have no option except to lay in bed under a mound of blankets just to get through. Knowing I am not alone helps so much! We are warriors….never giving up, or in! xoxo
I have Fibro also. From what I’ve read, and from what I’ve experienced, any extreme in temperature or change in the weather causes a worsening of my symptoms. Cold weather, hot weather, rain, snow, any weather extremes causes me to be worse. When the weather is mild and there is no change in the barometric pressure or any chance of rain, I have the best days. I can’t explain why that is, but it just is.
WOW..I didn’t know so many people felt the same pains I feel.. I live in North Alabama and everytime the weather fronts come through, the pain begins and as they say here..If you do not like the weather, wait 30 minutes and it will change and it does and so does the pain level!!! Today ( Sept 2,) was a hard day. The pain was immense with the new tropical depression moving in on us!!! BUTTTTTTTT I am still kicking and every day, I determine to make the best of it and do not give in…I vow to keep fighting!!!!
I do have to say that I love my Jacuzzi tub…It is deep and I put some epson salt in the warm water and dive right in!! I know it sounds old fashioned but hey it works and like you, I will try anything to stop or ease the pain. This is my first post, someone shared your site with me today and I am so glad..IT HELPS TO KNOWS WE ARE NOT ALONE!!!!
I just found this site today. Thee only one so far that seems reallllll. Love Karen’s post. I’m in PA but share the same Jacuzzi story (just renting). This is only my second comment ever and I’ve been living with “IT” since 1982. Listen to your body!!! If it says I hurt, give it a minutes rest – don’ t push yourself, it won’t get you anywhere. Make you number one. Handle big tasks a little at a time. I wish I had more for you but seem to have some mental “fog” today so when I clear up I’ll try to post again!
This is a great site and the fibro pain that comes with the different seasons is ALL to real. Maybe all of us stricken with fibro and lupus were meant to be meteorologist in life?
Fight like a girl….I LOVE IT!!
I so feel the weather changes too. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons as well, for the same reasons. Thank you for sharing your story 🙂 I might share mine here too. What a lovely idea for a site.
Thank you ALL for posting your remarks. I also have Fibromyalgia. I have had symptoms for approx. 7yrs, but diagnosed approx. 3yrs, after having 2 surgeries on my right knee, Supartz and Cortizone injections,and a multitude of testing.
Fibromyalgia has completely taken over my life. I stay in my bed most days and nights. I am married, but this thing is destroying my marriage. I am 54yrs old, but I feel like 90yrs old. Every day is like the one before, full of pain and exhaustion. I have to knock myself out with Ambien and Seroquel. I do not sleep for long periods,due to the pain. I sleep sitting up with a large pillow under my my knees, as per my physical therapist.
I could go on and on about my symptoms, but I think we all know what they are. I am a very independent woman, and this disease scares the you know what out of me. I am ALWAYS in pain and completely exhausted. It is a challenge sometimes just to get up and take a shower. I used to take pride in myself, and I get so sick and tired of explaining why I don’t want to go out to dinner or leave the house.
I HATE Fibromyalgia.
Indy blu style, I understand your hatred for fibro. I feel the same way. I have been helped by my Rheumatologist with Gabapentene (Neurontin), Cymbalta also for pain and depression, and Etodolac for pain as I need it. Now I do pretty well most days, but change of seasons still hard. I also found that a style of Yoga called Svaroopa really helps me. It specializes in opening up the spinal muscles/space and helps reduce fibro pain. Good luck. It is really a terrible disease. I also find reading positive books and watching things on TV that make me laugh actually helps my mind/body connection to be much more positive, believe it or not!
Jane is right. Positive thinking really does help. I know it is hard, so very very hard but it does help. A strong faith also helps and one thing I can’t share with you is hugs from my 5 year grandson. He helps me on the bad days, pounds my back when I can’t breathe, all the time telling me he loves me and it’ll be alright. Because of him, I try harder to get on with my life. My prayers are with you.
I am sooo with you. I am working a fulltime job. I’m married with a mini dachshund.
I like working, I like to be productive. We just bought our first house 2 years ago. I like to have a very orderly, clean house. I am social, like to go out dancing, and like to host parties.
I can count on one hand how many times I’ve gone out, or had anyone over in years.
The only times I’ve done so, I’ve had to because of obligations.
I hate that my house is not maintained a I’d like. (Even though I do have an amazing husband that shares in our work load). I have long hair that I love, that is now the bane of my existance due to the maintenance that I now dread.
Thank goodness my husband is so understanding. My social life is beyond non existant due to the fact that I lead people along that “I’ll come for sure”, then end up not leaving the house.
My family tries to understand, but still has their nose out of joint due to the lack of invitation tho come over to visit. I DREAD, visits from relatives due to the change in my schedule, and extra work.
I do whatever I can to save enough energy to make it to work. That is basically my only goal.
I love our dog more than anything, and sometimes it kills me just to take her out, or feed her.
This about sums up my life.
All I’d like is to feel normal. How unreal it is to even imagine…SF
Between the Fibro, COPD and heart disease it seems like I am always in pain. I try not to let it slow me down, but it does. At the age of 47 the said I was disabled. i have worked all my life and to have it taken from me makes me depressed. I try not to complain but there are days the pain is so bad all I can do is cry. Sometimes as I struggle thru each day I get so angry listening to someone complain about all the pain for something minor. I know I shouldn’t but I do. Does anyone else feel like this sometimes or am I just a royal witch?
I wish it was during only 2 seasonal changes I feel badly due to my fibromyalgia! I find that every change of season gives me fibro flare ups. I get very fatigued, depressed and achy for at least a week as each season passes into the next. I thought I was just imagining it, but seeing others experience the same makes me know I’m not crazy! Rain…especially the week long systems we can experience here in the Northeast can really affect me also! I get tired of the longer spells of pain at each season. Fortunately I have found a wonderful help overall for my Fibro. It is Svaroopa Yoga, which is not a warrior style of yoga, but a one of surrender leading to relief for me of my pain. I still have flare ups but nothing like what I used to have. Good luck to everyone in their quest for relief!
Thanks for the tip about the yoga. am going to check it out.
Winters are the hardest. I had thoughts of moving back home to Illinois to be closer to my family but know that I can’t. I can’t handle the cold here in Oklahoma I know I can’t handle Illinois cold. All seasons bother me as they do many of you, but winter is the worse, except maybe for spring when the storms set off my migraines on top of the fibro. But its one day at a time and I refuse to give up. I FIGHT LIKE A GIRL
I definitely find that changes in the weather cause flare-ups in my fibromyalgia, but winter is definitely the worst (there was one winter where I was bedridden for the whole 5 months – for some reason the wintry weather was really drawn out in 2011). Of course, my symptoms were still pretty bad in the other seasons too – but I was more “house-bound” than “bed-bound”. It’s actually known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, and research shows that it is related to the lack of sunlight. Some people actually have machines in their homes which emit sunlight-like radiation to combat SAD.
It is nice to know I am not the only one who feels this way. I love the spring and fall weather I feel my best.
I guess I am the weird one. Usually when Spring is coming I feel better. I live in Ohio and this year as most we have 50s to 60s during the day then it is cold at night, 30s to 40s.
I have been miserable with bad fibro pain, hurt all over. I am wondering if is related to the way the weather is changing now. It is not quite Spring yet and the end of Winter yet.
Does anyone else have the same problem ?
I have had Fibromyalgia for 30 years – diagnosed about 6 years ago after having Influenza A that just about killed me. That is, it was so bad I would have chosen death if I had the option. All my young adult life there were so many doctors just told me all I needed was a good night’s sleep. But that is another rant.
I too believe that positive thinking is an amazing tool. That being said, it does not help keep my house and life organized in the way I would normally keep it.
The rainy days amplify the pain by five times the normal pain. And I cannot get rid of the high pitched squeal in my head. These days I cannot bear to come out from under my blanky to leave the house. But there are days like today when I have to leave the house. I dread it so much… there is not a minute in the day when I do not feel pain, am not so very tired, and get winded and break out in a sweat if I do anything physical. But I want to live a productive life as much as I can for as long as I can. I work full time in a very stressful job, but I direct my attentions to helping others and the reward makes up for the extra effort it takes to get through every day.
This is a wonderful site – FIGHT LIKE A GIRL! And I do. 😉
I have fibromyalgia and the weather in Florida effects me all yr…..its like someone has a voodoo Dallas of me and doesn’t like me at all. I did travel to Arizona for a winter and the dry air took 80%of my pain away…..I would love to move out west somewhere eventually. I just haven’t bn able to. I take Tramadol and it has helped me so much. I had a doctor who actually had Fibromyalgia and she prescribed it to me like 10 yrs ago. I tried other drugs and luckily didnt get hooked on anything horrible. Back then it was a non-narcotic…..now it is ….which kind of freaks me out. I have bn in 9 auto accidents since 1992(none my fault) and have no idea how I am not completely insane. I just keep fighting with my own mind on a regular basis to be positive… it is hard ….but we are all here for a reason. Connect with the higher power and soul will point you in the right direction. Thoughts can process.♡
I live with Fibromyalgia as well. I live in Alberta and the seasonal changes always cause a flare up! The worst for me are from winter to spring and from summer to fall. The flares last for weeks. Rainy weather in the Spring is pretty unbearable. I have lived with Fibromyalgia for 15 years after a car accident. I lived in bed. I was severely depressed and in an unhealthy relationship as well. The pain seemed unbearable and took over my life. I have to say that our thoughts have so much to do with how we cope. A while before and After getting out of the toxic relationship, I started pushing myself, some days very little and other days more. I got off of medications that were keeping weight on me, Lyrica, for example. Lyrica helped for a time but I noticed that my legs would swell among other uncomfortable side effects. So I refused to take it any longer. Weight began to fall off of me, due to moving and walking and going off of some medications. It is not easy changing up meds but in my case it has helped me so much. I researched all the meds I was on and was not happy about what I saw. While I still take meds they are of my choosing and get me through each day, sometimes good and sometimes not so good. Yet as my Dr says, I will never be pain free with Fibromyalgia and so doing what I can on my end helps me reduce the days that I stay in bed. My pain, while still very very bad some days, weeks or months, has been so much easier to manage now. Pushing ones self is so important and I don’t mean pushing hard either. Therapy is helpful as well. I have had a dog for a year now that I rescued and even though it is ridiculously hard sometimes, I get him out everyday . He has had it worse than me and deserves a better life. In the mean time he keeps me pushing. Walks that I wasn’t doing nearly as often as I should are now a regular part of my life. Some days I wonder what I was thinking but that thought doesn’t last long. The reason I’m writing this is seeing that people are losing their marriages etc to Fibromyalgia and I just want people to know that just because you have it doesn’t necessarily mean you are fighting it. I wasn’t. I am so much better off now than I was and I think that others could be as well. I am by no means beating it but with a few changes my quality of life has improved so much. Not everything prescribed for Fibromyalgia is a good thing for us. Staying in bed day after day after day does nothing to help us and makes it worse when we do get up and do something, making it harder for us to want to get up and do anything at all. Weight loss, 40 to 50 pounds has eased some of the pain I had. When I put on 5lbs I can sure feel the extra pressure it puts on my body and even 5lbs increases pain levels. Get a therapist who encourages you to move more and who helps with negative thoughts about what we think we can and cannot do. If you are 100% responsible for taking on the life of a dog until it passes, get one. Walk it, sit outside with it, take it for rides, love it and it will repay you in ways you can’t imagine. If you can’t commit to a dog, find one that is always chained up and ask the owners if you can walk it. or go to a shelter and walk dogs. It has taken me a few years to get wher I am now and Fibromyalgia is not the only condition that I live with. The season changes are still a nightmare, but I know what to expect. I am fighting Fibromyalgia and some days I win. Hugs to everyone living with it!! xo