Fibromyalgia is a very real chronic condition characterized by widespread pain, as well as a state of general malaise. Those who are diagnosed with this condition might experience constant fatigue, sleep disturbances and mood swings. The exact cause behind fibromyalgia has yet to be found. Therefore, the condition can be difficult to treat (it is rather kept under control and its symptoms are managed). Patients living with fibromyalgia can use the CareClinic app as a fibromyalgia symptom tracker in order to keep track of symptoms and medications.
What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain. It is often associated with fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.
Symptoms often begin after a traumatic event, such as physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress. Sometimes, symptoms gradually accumulate over time with no single triggering event. Many people who have fibromyalgia also have frequent headaches, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression.
Women are more likely to develop fibromyalgia than men. While there is no cure for fibromyalgia, a variety of medications can help control symptoms and manage the pain associated with fibromyalgia. Exercise, relaxation and activities to reduce stress can help as well.
Coping with Symptoms of fibromyalgia
The primary symptoms of fibromyalgia include:
- Widespread pain. Fibromyalgia patients often describe their pain as a constant and widespread dull ache that has lasted for at least three months. To be considered widespread pain, the pain must occur on both sides of your body and above and below your waist.
- Fatigue. People with fibromyalgia often tired, even though they report sleeping for long periods of time. For patients with fibromyalgia, sleep is often interrupted by serious or dulling pain, and many patients with fibromyalgia have other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea and insomnia.
- Cognitive difficulties and disruptions. “Fibro fog” impairs the ability to focus, pay attention and concentrate on mental tasks. This can be extremely disruptive of daily life and prevent fibromyalgia patients from leading normal lives.
What does living with fibromyalgia mean?
Despite extensive research, there is no specific treatment for fibromyalgia at the moment. The condition can be managed by addressing the symptoms, with medication, cognitive behavioral therapy, and nutritional supplements being among the current options.
Those who suffer from depression associated with fibromyalgia can benefit from taking antidepressants, as well as an anti-seizure medication for pain relief.
Cognitive behavioral therapy can lead to an improvement in the manifestations of fibromyalgia. Patients can also use physical therapy to bring relief from physical symptoms. The condition is not life-threatening but it can have a negative influence on the overall quality of life if not properly managed.
Tips for those living with fibromyalgia
The symptoms of fibromyalgia can come and go, which makes it difficult for someone to recall when these symptoms were more severe, how frequent they were and if their prescribed medications were beneficial or not.
As you will be able to use CareClinic to record your symptoms, you will no longer feel so frustrated with regards to your condition. Moreover, you will be able to form a better perspective on your health status and discover useful coping strategies. You will feel in control, acknowledging the fact that it is possible to live a life without pain.
Through the use of technology and symptom-tracking tools, you can track chronic manifestations and manage your fibromyalgia in a highly effective manner. You can even upload photos and save them in the application for further use. Moreover, you can share your health history with your doctor, using the information for changing treatments or finding a new, more efficient medication.
CareClinic, a free app to track fibromyalgia symptoms and medications
The fibromyalgia symptom tracker app has a number of useful features to offer. For example, it allows one to dissect the different parameters associated with chronic pain (major manifestation of fibromyalgia). Through the use of chronic pain tracking, one can observe a pattern regarding the intensity, frequency and location of the pain (pain metrics).
Patients can use this user-friendly app to track flare-ups and identify behavioural patterns. Moreover, as you will log in these flare-ups into the application, you will find it easier to identify potential triggers (and learn how to avoid them in the first place). By learning how to go around certain situations, you will no longer aggravate your condition. This will in turn improve your quality of life.
Apart from tracking your symptoms, you can keep a diary of your condition. This will allow you to enter additional information including mental state, health measurements (blood pressure, weight, etc.), weather influences, other symptoms, treatments and so on. Fibromyalgia is a complex condition. Therefore, it is beneficial to have such a tool, which will allow you to understand your pain history and determine whether a particular treatment works or not.
The CareClinic app allows you to enter as much information as you want. You can enter your medical history, make notes about environmental factors – trauma, infection, fibro stress – that can lead to flare-ups and list your treatment solutions. The more information you enter, the easier it will be to form an idea about your current status. You will be able to monitor behaviours, associated triggers and come up with the best strategies to make your symptoms less severe or, at least, rarer.
By sharing your recorded information with your healthcare professional, your support team will be able to provide an accurate diagnosis and effective treatment solutions.
Using a Health diary for Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a condition which is primarily characterized by chronic pain. There are numerous things that can influence the severity and frequency of this pain, including weather changes, stress, and even daily activities.
Through using the CareClinic health diary, you can keep track of all the things that impact your pain. You can use the application entries to get a better understanding of what makes the pain worse, avoiding potential triggers. You will also learn how your body reacts to certain treatments and find more effective solutions for pain management. Basically, you will have a simple way to track your progress.
You can rely on the health diary to record additional medical problems, which might influence your fibromyalgia. For example, there are many people who suffer from depression and anxiety, presenting this condition as well.
Those who have been diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) might present fibromyalgia as well. The diary can help you keep track of pain episodes and how intense these were, guiding the pain-relieving medication in the right direction.
Setting health reminders on CareClinic
Upon receiving a diagnosis for fibromyalgia, you might begin to experience cognitive impairment and memory loss. Forgetfulness is one of the major complaints in those living with this chronic condition. Memory loss can prevent one from functioning normally and handling everyday activities.
The CareClinic application is not only useful for keeping track of one’s symptoms but to also to receive medical reminders. You can add medical appointments to the health calendar and receive corresponding reminders. Many of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia find it difficult to remember to take their medications, often skipping doses or even the treatment in its entirety.
CareClinic may be used to overcome such challenges as the app provides reminders to take various medications at specific times. One can also add the required quantity, so as to ensure that the required dose is taken.
Going on a Fibromyalgia Diet – Foods to avoid
A chronic condition such as fibromyalgia requires a healthy and nutritious diet. However many foods can trigger fibromyalgia flare ups or pain. If you are already struggling with pain, memory loss and other discomforting symptoms, your diet might be the last thing to worry about.
A typical diet for fibromyalgia patients can include: foods that are generally higher in fibre and protein and much lower in carbohydrates. You may wish to consider sticking to vegetables and whole grains or more specifically kale, pistachio, apples, berries, quinoa. Fish such as tuna or salmon fillet, cilantro, pecans and kidney beans are also additions to your diet. This diet may additional also assist in weight loss, you may build our your nutrition plan for fibromyalgia using CareClinic.
Using CareClinic, you can record information about your diet. This can help to ensure that you are keep up with your healthy meals and a balanced diet. You can trust the symptom tracker to keep track of your mood. Patients with fibromyalgia often also experience depression, anxiety and mood swings. Once again, you can resort to the health diary to record how you are feeling and use the monthly report to identify a mood pattern.
Of course, you can also make detailed notes about how you are feeling, which will also serve as a platform for emotional release (necessary for someone suffering from a chronic disorder).
Effective fibromyalgia management with a personalized symptom tracker
Once you have logged onto CareClinic, you can create a new post about your condition. You can record specific symptoms and their severities in that post. You should also mention when the symptoms – for example, fatigue or forgetfulness – have occurred and rate how intense they were. Remember, you can always add new symptoms to that post or create another one.
The ability to personalize your CareClinic profile is one of the biggest advantages to consider, contributing to the effective management of your condition. You can record your symptoms as they happened and use these posts as your personal health records.
You can then draw connections from these recorded symptoms to specific care plans. One can also analyze their symptom reports in concordance with additional medical problems, allowing for an efficient way to keep track of one’s medical requirements.
Viewing symptom reports
When a condition is described as chronic, it means that it will be present for an extended period of time or, in certain cases, throughout the entire life. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia can mean that, at some point, you might experience muscle spasms, weakness in your limbs and nerve pain. In other periods, your symptoms might include palpitations, headaches and cognitive dysfunction.
There are so many different symptoms falling under fibromyalgia, coming and going without any warning. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to keep track of them and get a general perspective on your condition. Using the CareClinic symptom tracker, you will be able to identify all of your symptoms and how they are spread over time. More importantly, thanks to the symptom reports, you will be given a clear overview of your health status.
Based on the entries regarding your symptoms, treatments and other information, you will receive health reports regarding your condition. The symptom report is particularly useful, as it can be created for every manifestation in particular. You can then notice, for example, when you are feeling fatigued the most and what the potential triggers behind this symptom were.
Importance of managing chronic conditions
There are many benefits to tracking your health. Chronic illnesses are long-term medical conditions that often progress gradually over time in severity and scope. Many face obstacles in coping with their condition. Traditional healthcare systems often do not provide substantial health management, psychological support and information. Thus, patients dealing with chronic illness are often not given the best support in our healthcare system, which is primarily designed for treating acute illnesses.
Therefore, in order to have the best quality of life, it is important to stay informed about your illness. You can easily stay informed and on top of your chronic illness by continuously tracking your health.
Fibromyalgia Triggers & Tender Points
Tracking pain triggers, the time your pain is most frequent or intense, where the pain is on your body, and other information about your chronic illness is very useful. Tenderness refers to when you touch an area of your skin and pain is felt in that spot. Generally tender points are clustered around your chest, neck, hips, knees and your elbows. The points can affect both the upper part and lower part of your body. Many incidences may cause flare ups such pain such as lack of sleep, stress (physical or mental), surgery, and mood.
Keeping a health diary allows you and your health care provider to better understand your illness and condition. Tracking your health is extremely useful for effective chronic disease management. As a result, you can ensure that your treatment plan addresses every detail and leads to the best outcomes. As an example, many patients report rashes, writing down when they occur can help professionals diagnose what could be causing it further down the line.
Empower yourself and your health provider with CareClinic
Your health shouldn’t just be in the hands of your doctor. Tracking your health means taking the lead on your health. It will help you foster a stronger relationship with your health care provider so that you both can work together to achieve your health goals.
Most importantly, if you are playing an active role in your health, you are more likely to follow through on your care plans. Tracking your health also increases your adherence to taking medications of appointments if you are playing a role in managing them.
Furthermore, tracking your health is the best way to educate yourself about your illness or condition. Tracking one’s chronic illness allows one to stay informed about their health. Patients can learn about what works best for them in terms of management and coping strategies. In this way, they will be able to identify the most effective treatment options for them and subsequently adopt sustainable lifestyle changes.
All of these advantages combined mean better health outcomes for you. Better health outcomes mean that you can achieve your health goals and be at your strongest to achieve other personal goals.
CareClinic, all in one healthcare management
CareClinic is a comprehensive tool for adequate medication management. It allows you to bring together your medical information, health data, and ongoing treatments. Therefore, you can remain informed about all aspects of your health.
Patients can use CareClinic as a pill lid tracker, alleviating the stress and task of manually timing your medication intakes. Furthermore, it highlights potential drug interactions and offers a health journal to document different aspects based on your personal diagnoses.
The application is available for free and patients can use the app on various smartphones and even computers. It complies with the current privacy laws and safeguards your medication information. Moreover, the app seamlessly performs through a sleek and innovative user-friendly interface. Therefore, CareClinic can assist both patients and physicians in improving medication management and adherence to complex treatment plans.
Furthermore, the simple to use measurement input methods allow for patients to easily check-in with the app daily. Patients can also share information with their caregivers. Their care-team is also able to communicate with patients through the app. Therefore, doctors can receive notifications and keep up to date on their patients 24/7. This also allows users and their healthcare provider to create flexible and adaptive care plans.
Our platform assists in self-monitoring by using reminders, rendering useful reports, and keeping everyone in the loop. Therefore, we encourage you to try CareClinic out for yourself. The app is free to download on iOS and Android by clicking here.
