Welcome to the second post in the “Fibromyalgia and” series. You may remember the first post was Fibromyalgia and IBS which was published last month. Since that post went live I have recruited someone else who lives with both conditions and their details will be on the page fairly soon. However, this post is all about living with Fibromyalgia and Hyperhidrosis so read on to find out more.
What is Fibromyalgia
If you have arrived here by chance and are unfamiliar with Fibro, as we often shorten Fibromyalgia too, you can find out a little more about it in my post “Fibromyalgia is not just Fibromyalgia“. To sum it up briefly it is a collection of different symptoms that often go hand in hand. There are core symptoms that everybody lives with, most notably pain and exhaustion and then there are a collection of others that may or may not affect each individual. The nature of this series of posts is to explore the conditions or symptoms that may run alongside the core condition.
What is Hyperhidrosis
Last week I published a poem that gives a little glimpse into the frustrations of living with Hyperhidrosis and a few months ago I talked about the connection I seem to find between Creativity and Hyperhidrosis, this also goes for other activities that require concentration. If you are at this point wondering what on earth I am talking about, Hyperhidrosis is a condition that causes excessive sweating. You can find more out about it on the NHS website. By excessive I mean excessive. We are not talking about the experiences most people have after exercising or on a hot day, for example, we are talking about simply sitting there and being absolutely drenched for no obvious reason.
Life Living with Fibromyalgia and Hyperhidrosis
So what is it like to live with both these conditions? Let me give you a couple of examples from my experience:
Washing my Makeup Off
Although I don’t go out very often because of the Fibro I do use social media and because I am creative I enjoy experimenting with makeup, especially if I want to take a photo for a blog post, I mean I am putting myself out there for the world to see and my appearance is the part of myself I am least confident of. Although I mentally love putting makeup on and enjoy watching talented girls on YouTube channels doing this I have two problems. The first is that to apply a full face my arms can ache, this is why I often just go for eyes and lips although I am not as happy with the result of this. The second problem is that whilst I am sitting down carefully applying the makeup my head starts sweating and this trickles all over my face. As mentioned in the other post I referred to I seem to have a link between the sweating and using creative concentration.
Have I showered?
I can imagine for a healthy individual this will be hard to comprehend, but imagine this! When I prepare for a shower I replace my clothes (or more likely pyjamas) with my towelling dressing gown in the bedroom before going down to the shower. Once I’ve finished I come back upstairs in the gown with a hair wrap around my head. Admittedly this has only happened on the odd occasion but because of the hyperhidrosis I have on the odd occasion sat on the end of the bed and been unsure whether I have had the shower yet or not. It is only the presence of the hair wrap that lets me know. Personally, I find that if I’m thinking about something I need to do for a while I sometimes get confused as to whether I have done it or just thought about it – even something like a shower. That is why I include these everyday tasks in my Todoist App and literally have to tick something off the moment I finish doing it.
The experiences of others
Am I the only person who lives with both Fibro and Hyperhidrosis? Do you live with Fibromyalgia and Hyperhidrosis? If so I would love to hear from you! If you are a fellow blogger, I would be happy to add one of your anecdotes and a link to your blog. I aim to build a community of people who live with overlapping conditions who can share with you the reality of this. So please do get in contact if you would like to get involved.
Suggested Treatment?
I’m sorry to have to say it, but there are no real explanations or treatments offered by the doctor and to be honest I don’t want to put any more medications into my body. Having said that though there may be some light at the end of the tunnel and that involves not only the Hyperhidrosis but also the IBS. When I was speaking to the dietician to get the results of my food intolerance tests I was told I have a yeast intolerance. We have no definitive proof yet but there is a good chance that not only is the yeast in my diet creating the IBS symptoms but also the body may be creating the excessive sweat whilst it tries to deal with the yeast. Once I have had chance to work on the ilimination diet for a decent period of time I will let you know if there is any news, either way.
I hope everyone has the best weekend possible.
Until next time,
Gentle Hugs,
Susan
If nominations are afoot you have to be included ?
http://fibromystory.com/2018/02/28/559/