Emma
Emma started noticing symptoms when she was pregnant, and these have deteriorated over time. She is looking forward to starting a 10-week course at a pain clinic. Emma hopes the course will enable her to reduce some of the medication she’s currently on.
Emma is 40 and lives with her husband and two school-aged children. Ethnicity: White English
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Around nine years ago during her pregnancy with twins, Emma started to experience widespread pain in her arms, elbows, and back. At the time she describes getting physiotherapy and having to wear a special splint on her hands and a bandage around her pelvis. She originally assumed that this was all related to having a twin pregnancy.
After Emma had her twins, she describes getting cortisone injections and being put on various medications and physiotherapy on and off to try to help with the pain. She also started to experience “horrible tiredness,” headaches, an irritable bowel and depression, which her doctor at the time thought might be postnatal depression. During this time Emma says that fibromyalgia was never mentioned, and she felt that the medication and physiotherapy “didn’t seem...to get me anywhere really”.
Around 2018, Emma moved counties and saw a new GP who mentioned fibromyalgia. Emma describes herself as being initially “dismissive” of this possibility, as to her at the time “…everyone seemed to have fibromyalgia” and that there was “…a thing of is it in people’s heads…is it an actual illness…?”
Emma was referred to the pain clinic where the consultant agreed with the GP and said that what she was experiencing was “certainly” fibromyalgia. Emma describes still not really believing him at the time. However, the more she looked into the topic and read about the symptoms she came to the conclusion that “yeah, that’s me”.
The consultant at the pain clinic offered Emma a lidocaine infusion which meant that she had to have a procedure in hospital under general anaesthetic. However, she didn’t find this procedure helpful and so decided against having any more. Emma went back to her GP who prescribed her the pain medication gabapentin which she finds quite helpful along with paracetamol and an anti-depressant.
Emma’s various symptoms have deteriorated over time and her medication has increased as a result. Emma is soon to start a 10-week pain management course at her local pain clinic (once lockdown restrictions due to the pandemic ease). She describes looking forward to the course as ideally, she would like to be able to stop or reduce some of the medication she’s currently on.
Emma gets frustrated as she sometimes feels like “a let down to the family” as she’s not able to do all the things she wants to. However, she describes her husband as being a “superb” support and as her children are getting older, they’re beginning to understand too.
Emma has joined some groups on Facebook and has found the Versus Arthritis website informative. However, she’s hoping to be able to meet up with other people with fibromyalgia once lockdown restrictions are eased.
Her advice to other people with fibromyalgia would be “Don’t ignore what your body’s telling you, get help and, and don’t be put off and get a second opinion if you’re not happy with what you’re being told.”
Emma is still to attend a 10 week course at the pain clinic where she’ll learn about exercises and mindfulness.
Emma is still to attend a 10 week course at the pain clinic where she’ll learn about exercises and mindfulness.
Just that I’ll be seen by the physiotherapy and, the consultant led thing as well, and it’s to do with, exercises, I think there’s mindfulness as well, just advice really on how to, how to live with it daily, “You’re not going to get better but it’s just a case of managing with it”, he said you know, “It’s just, you’ve just got to get on with it really” [laughs] [shrugs].
So [the pain clinic in the city], they got in touch with me around about May time, to do an assessment, I had to talk to them to tell me what my daily life, my routine’s like and how I feel and, to see really if they could accept me on to the course, if you know, if it was appropriate. And then they got back to me to say yes, I’d be seen by, a pain consultant and the physiotherapy, therapist, and then I’ll be able to attend the ten week course, don’t know when that’s going to be.
Emma started to experience “horrible tiredness,” headaches, an irritable bowel and depression.
Emma started to experience “horrible tiredness,” headaches, an irritable bowel and depression.
And then, so I was on medication then, so I was on the naproxen and paracetamol until, I’m trying to think now, say about four years after, again physiotherapy for back, elbows, and then in between this with the pain I was experiencing horrible tiredness as well, which we just put it down to being a mum, and then also headaches and other things going on, irritable bowel and what have you, and depression, which again they just thought it was just postnatal depression and then carried on and on.
People at the Citizens Advice Bureau helped Emma to complete the application.
People at the Citizens Advice Bureau helped Emma to complete the application.
Yeah, it’s like, a personal independence …
Payment.
… payment thing, yeah, yeah, because that can help, especially if you’re not working and things like that, or even, I think even if, if you do work you’re able to claim that to get help, yeah.
I thought that was brilliant because I wasn’t aware of anything like that, so yeah, that was really helpful, and I did look into it and, and I have been successful. I went for, a review with a doctor there after I filled out the, well I went to Citizens Advice and they helped me fill out the form, and then, I had the assessment and I’ve been granted, I’ve been, I’ve got PIP now, which is, a great help. But no, I thought that was really, really helpful.
No, when I got, when I got the form, Facebook it was because a lot of the people on Facebook, the fibromyalgia group there, advise you to apply for it, and then, so I think I went on and I don’t know, I might’ve put on there that I’d received the form and they advised that I went to Citizens Advice, which I did do, and this gentleman went through it with me, which was quite embarrassing for some of the questions it’s quite, I don’t know if derogatory is the right word, but yeah, it’s not, it’s not a nice form.
Emma talks about the importance of listening to your body.
Emma talks about the importance of listening to your body.
Don’t ignore what your body’s telling you, get help and, and don’t be put off and get a second opinion if you’re not happy with what you’re being told, because you, you know your body better than, than anyone else, so yeah [laughs]. Be kind to yourself [laughs].