Fibromyalgia Support Group

I am having a "flare" and I am getting these horrible shooting pains in my whole right side. My arm, leg and back. It feels like someone implanted an electric poker or a taser on my right side when I wasn't looking. Do you guys have shooting pains?

When I had my first BIG flare, I had shooting pains like that, but only in my nerve damaged arm. If it involves your back it could be spinal in nature and you should probably call your doctor.

If you haven't tried it yet, gabapentin works well for nerve pain. They developed Lyrica from gabapentin. Most people can tolerate one or the other...

My doctor treats me like a drug seeker so it's pretty useless to call her. I just don't know what to do to make these stop!! My fingers are getting tingly now too which is really strange. I have some Tramadol but I hate the way that makes me feel. I have been on gabapentin and lyrica and the gaba made me all sortz of ditzy, I was forgetting everything. the Lyrica didn't do a darn thing for me unfortunately so I just stopped taking it about 2 weeks ago. I am so tired of putting all this crap into my body and not having it help anything!! I need to find a new doc, one that actually believes that fibro hurts (my doc just doesn't seem to get it, and she is a Rheumy and supposedly has many many patients that have Fibro.. doesn't seem like it tho..)and find someone that is more into helping me feel better. My dr recently did some blood work and told me that I came back positive for Lupus, but then told me I didn't have it. Have you experienced that at all?

The blood tests they do for Lupus don't actually dx Lupus they just show a significant indicator for it leading the dr to either run the full panel or not. I think what your dr is determing your dx on is that you don't meet enough criteria for Lupus. There are 2 sets of criteria a person has to meet in order to get a confirmed dx on top of all the bloodwork and urinalysis. It's a tough dx for rheumies to make and not one they give out lightly. It can take several months to several years for some drs to finally confirm cases of Lupus. It's one I would have been happy about having my dr say no about I'm not sure why more people are not happy about their drs saying they don't have it but amazingly many people feel it just has to be more than Fibro but in all truth Fibro is terrible enough on it's own nevermind with companions. Best of luck! I wish you a pain free weekend.

Oh yeah to answer your question shooting pains very common in most sufferers and very annoying. Numbness and tingling is also common as well in Fibro but should always be checked to rule out other issues of course like if anything ever involved your heart you would check it to be safe. So pretty much every other symptom in the world is related to Fibro somehow but with Fibro it's easier to make a list of what you don't have wrong. It's terrible! Everyone suffers so differently. Blahhh.

I tend to have the shooting pains more when I'm having a flare, like now. The rest of the time, either they're not there or not as noticable, I guess.

I have horrible shooting pains all the time but mine are right side nerve problems.. but as has been said really check with your doctor exspecially if you have tingly numbing burning shooting on and on..always be safe, but yeah we fibro people enjoy a big pool of crap

LOL broken, the deep end of the pool of crap.

If something really stressful happens to me, I get the shooting pains in my nerve damaged right hand. First time it happened was when my second retina partially detached and I rushed to my ophthamologist's office and she couldn't find anything. A couple of days later I was at work and watched as my eye filled with floaters. As I was sitting in the chair the 2nd time I started getting the shooting pains in my arm & hand. That was about a year before my dx of fibro. Next time I got it was when my sister was dx'd with metatastic lung cancer.

As I always say, stress=flares.

IMHO, you should have this symptom checked out. Shooting pain seems pretty common in fibro, but when you notice it happening in the same area there is always the chance that some structure is pressing on a nerve. That is fixable, so it helps to know if that's what's going on. If something IS pressing on a nerve, you will also want to know if it is bone, disc, or muscle because that will save you a lot of time trying out the different treatments. I have seen patients who could have been spared months of pain and thousands of dollars in bills if their doctor had just done one simple test to figure out which structure was being problematic.