Is it just me? Fibromyalgia and (not) Getting Sick

Topics: Fibromylagia, Is it just me?

Remem­ber how I recently intro­duced my newest series, Is it just me? Well, I’m back with a sec­ond install­ment… (I know I haven’t yet pub­lished my follow-up to the clut­ter piece.  I’ll get around to it.  I promise.)

I am sick.  And although it’s annoy­ing, it’s bet­ter than a fibro flare.  Hands down.  And really, I shouldn’t com­plain… In fact, it’s got me feel­ing super grateful.

I rarely get sick.  And by rarely I mean, I may get a mild cold once a year.  But really… even that is more like a runny nose.  So, I’m not sure this counts as a cold.  It seems to be a rather vague diag­no­sis any­way.  And it’s only really annoy­ing when you’re try­ing to take a final and bend­ing over your test in an attempt to focus only makes it more com­pli­cated to do any­thing but snif­fle.  But, back to my point.

Do I just have like a hyper­ac­tive immune sys­tem, or is there some rela­tion­ship between my fibromyal­gia and my rarely get­ting sick?  Maybe it’s just to bal­ance things out… since I fight fibromyal­gia I’m given a bunch of sick-free years to keep it fair, or some­thing?  What do you think?  Is it just me?

So fibro­folks, please tell me… do you rarely get sick? Or is it the oppo­site for you?  Do you feel you get sick more often than non fibrofolks?

Existing Comments

    Comment by Irene Burke on November 10, 2008 @ 8:38 pm

    No its not just you in fact I read some­where not sure no where that not get­ting the com­mon bug’s that most get as often as they do is com­mon amongst Fibro folk ..Like I said not sure where I read it just one of those things that stick in my head for moments like this. I also am glad when I actu­ally get sick! For one thing I sleep really good! sec­ond reg­u­lar fever reduc­ers like Ibp or Tylenol work for once!

    Comment by happdai on November 13, 2008 @ 12:13 pm

    Actu­ally I rarely get sick! But now I need to knock on wood!

    I wanted to com­ment that I have been going to a ther­a­pist who does ‘Myofa­cial Release’ Have you or any­one tried this? Ive only gone 3 times so far and I think its work­ing great! She gen­tly works the tis­sues, she said its like peel­ing an onion, work­ing through all the lay­ers. Ive also been given some very gen­tle exer­cises, some asso­ci­ated with Yoga. Believe me, it works!
    Also DEEP BREATHING to cleanse. Never been a big believer in ’ breath­ing’ and all that jazz, but I am amazed at how much my pain level decreases!

    Just thought I would throw that out there, see what your expe­ri­ences are and if you had tried any of these methods.

    Comment by K8 on November 21, 2008 @ 10:23 pm

    Irene:
    I sec­ond the bit about sleep­ing. I know it sounds counter-intuitive… stuffed up and sleep­ing well? But for me I get so exhausted by the end of the day (and not because of pain) that I am able to fall asleep hours ear­lier than I typ­i­cally can. Also, good point about Tylenol and Ibp work­ing for once. They nor­mally do absolutely noth­ing for my pain…

    Hap­p­dai:
    I have never heard of myofa­cial release. Sounds like a fas­ci­nat­ing thing! Is it more gen­tle than mas­sage? I love Yoga! In fact, I’ve been work­ing on a post about it (and other exer­cises) recently. Your deep breath­ing plug hits home today… I had to do a breath­ing test today and by the end of it I was worn out, but all the deep breath­ing sure seemed to freshen my thoughts and wake me up mentally.

    Thank you both for your input!

    Comment by Rebecca on November 29, 2008 @ 11:39 pm

    Yes, I get sick all of the time. If I am not hav­ing a fibro-related issue, I have a cold or the flu or something.

    Also, myofas­cial (not myofa­cial) release is won­der­ful. I get it in con­junc­tion with neu­ro­mus­cu­lar mas­sage ther­apy. I wouldn’t be able to func­tion with­out it.

    Comment by Citty on December 20, 2008 @ 9:02 am

    You are not alone, i use to get sick all the time and now that i have read some­one feel­ing that they don’t sick either.… i haven’t got­ten sick in a cou­ple years and every­one around me has had really bad colds…

    Comment by NPs Save Lives on January 3, 2009 @ 9:29 am

    I almost never get sick and I tend to think that your own body is too busy fight­ing itself to con­cen­trate on other germs. Strange con­cept, I know. Nice blog on the sub­ject. I have had fibromyal­gia symp­toms for the last 25 years (I’m 41) and am get­ting ready to have a mus­cle biopsy to rule out other dis­ease processes. The labs have all been neg­a­tive for lupus and such. I would give almost any­thing to feel rested and not be in pain. I’m so used to it though. I guess a per­son sub­li­mates it after a while. Thanks for let­ting me vent. You see, health care providers aren’t sup­posed to have prob­lems of their own.

    Comment by Rochelle on January 8, 2009 @ 10:50 pm

    I dis­agree and actu­ally get sick a LOT… so much more than I did before Fibro. I’ve read sev­eral book pieces that point to a link between Fibro and a decreased immune sys­tem, so you can’t fight other things as you nor­mally would.

    I’m totally jeal­ous that you rarely get sick. I feel like between Fibro and all the symp­toms and get­ting sick, I’m also 100% mis­er­able. :( Grrrr.

    Comment by nevecraig on January 14, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

    I feel the same as Rochelle. Although, I’m at the point that I’m not really sure if my get­ting sick is really get­ting sick or if it’s that I’m get­ting a flare-up. Nor­mally, I get sick and get a flare-up imme­di­ately afterward.

    Also, I believe that my prob­lem is that no mat­ter what I do, I rarely feel rested and I believe that I get sick because I’m so run-down. I envy those of you who don’t get sick any­more! That’s fan­tas­tic. Wish that I was in your shoes!

    Comment by Lyle T. Lachmuth - The Unsticking Coach on January 15, 2009 @ 1:45 pm

    Hi K8!
    ’
    I rarely get sick as in flus and colds. In fact, I can’t remem­ber the last time I had either. Recently my whole fam­ily got a ter­ri­ble flu and I didn’t.

    I sus­pect it’s due to the fact that Fibro (allegedly) speeds up the immune system.

    Best, Lyle

    Comment by Raven on February 26, 2009 @ 4:11 pm

    I’ve found that I’m rarely sure if I’m sick or not between my aller­gies, asthma and fibro unless it’s some­thing really bad like pneu­mo­nia and even then I could only tell because I was wheez­ing and exhausted from sit­ting up. I kind of think I don’t actu­ally get sick though.

    Comment by Miranda on May 12, 2009 @ 11:06 pm

    I am ALWAYS sick! It’s lit­er­ally one thing after another. I’m so sick of being sick! I have had approx 10 surg­eries for dif­fer­ent ill­nesses in the last 5 years. I get over one thing and finally get to feel­ing bet­ter then I’m blind­sided by some­thing else. So I’m con­stantly hav­ing a fibro flareup. My hus­band gets so frus­trated when I start com­plain­ing of feel­ing sick that he’s like “What’s wrong with you now?”. That doesn’t make me feel any bet­ter either. But I kinda under­stand why he feels that way, cuz believe me, I’m beyond frustrated!

    Comment by Fauna on July 20, 2009 @ 11:19 pm

    I was diag­nosed with FMS years ago. Your com­ment on being sick got me think­ing. I am rarely sick with colds, flu or “what’s going around” ill­nesses. I have devel­oped odd con­di­tions such as ery­thema nodosum and a Bak­ers cyst. I have osteo-arthritis and it seems like my ills are often inflam­ma­tory reac­tions that tend to be lumped as “autoim­mune responses” vs those caused by rec­og­nized infec­tious agents.
    Most of the time I am in pain and tired but you make a good point about being sick. I like your attitude.

    Pingback by This Time, Last Year or Monday Night Dinner 003 on July 29, 2009 @ 10:36 pm

    […] remem­ber how way back when I wrote about how rarely I get sick?  Well, I think karma’s show­ing it’s friendly […]

    Comment by nicole on November 12, 2009 @ 3:49 pm

    I too rarely get sick. I will not get a flu shot because I don’t want to do any­thing that may actu­ally cause me to get sick. I do not get colds that often. I can go all win­ter and not get a sin­gle stuffy nose. I often won­dered about this myself. I will on occa­sion get a sinus headache and that usu­ally occurs in the spring but other than that I am a rather for­tu­nate where get­ting sick is concerned.

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