I have chronic pain that is associated with fibromyalgia and chronic pain of the knee. I think I my also have some sort of depression along with a memory problem. I have a have a hard time trying to retain what I am or trying to learn. Could anyone tell me if taking certain meds can affect the memory in such a way that it is impossible to remember anything? thanks. bufferjet
Hello Jeana
It's a plesure to meet you and I hope your surviving this holiday season.
I see you've already met our wonderful Karen and I wanted to take a moment and say hello and Welcome to the Chronic Pain Connection.
I also had an article to share with you that may help you in discovering where your memory and cognitive problems are coming from. I hope it helps you.
http://www.physorg.com/news148912558.html I just read this article today and thought is was a pretty good explaination for our problems and wanted to share it with you.
Have a wonderful Holiday season
Betty
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While I'm sure it's possible that some medications could contribute to memory problems, it's much more likely that the problems you are having are just part of your fibromyalgia. Brain-imaging studies have shown that people with FM have reduced blood flow to the part of their brain involved with cognitive functioning (thinking, reasoning, remembering). Most of us with FM have this difficulty, which we often call "fibro fog."
I don't know of any way to eliminate the problem completely, but there are things we can do to make things a little less "foggy." Exercise is probably one of the best things because it gets the blood flowing to the brain as well as the rest of your body. I know exercise can be a dirty word to people with FM, and we have to be careful what and how much we do. But it is an important part of any FM treatment plan. You just have to start very slowly and not try to do anything too strenuous. One of the best forms of exercise for FM patients is water exercise. Since you have a knee problem, it would probably be the best option for you because you wouldn't be putting weight on your knee. You can read more about water exercise for FM here: Water Exercise Benefits Fibromyalgia Of course, talk to your doctor before beginning any exercise program.
You can learn about several additional methods to deal with fibro-fog here: Improving Cognitive Functioning
(Note: I specifically looked up the medication etodolac since that is the title of your SharePost, and memory or cognitive functioning problems are not listed as side effects.)
Karen, thank you very much for the input. I will try to get into a water excerise program as soon as the weather warms up more. I tend to stay close to home and in the heat so that I don't get to hurting to much. I have tried several memory techniques that didn't seem to work real well and right now I am trying to learn all I can about this fibromyalgia. I do have a particular question about it though. Is fibromyalgia a sister disease to MS? Thanks again Jeana
Hi Jeana – I'm glad to hear you're trying to learn all you can about fibromyalgia. That's probably the most important thing you can do for yourself. I'd just like to caution you to be careful what sources of information you use. Because we've learned so many new things about FM in the past few years, there's still a lot of old and inaccurate information out there. We have quite a bit of good, current information here: http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/fibromyalgia.html?ic=4025 Another excellent source is the National Fibromyalgia Association: http://www.fmaware.org
To answer your question about MS and FM – I don't know that I would call MS a sister illness of FM. I guess it depends on what you mean by sister illness. We usually call it a comorbid or overlapping condition, meaning that sometimes people will have both. They have a lot of similar symptoms, which sometimes leads to misdiagnosis. And both affect the central nervous system, but they are definitely different illnesses.
With MS, the protective myelin sheath that surrounds your nerves is damaged, which slows down or blocks messages between your brain and body. With FM, there is no actual damage to the nerves. But somehow (unfortunately we don't yet know exactly how) the central nervous system becomes overly sensitized, which results in pain amplification.
Usually fibromyalgia develops following some kind of trauma to the body – like an injury or illness. That's why it's not unusual to hear that someone with MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. also has FM.
If you'd like more information on MS, check out our MultipleSclerosisCentral site: http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis
I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. – Karen