Fibromyalgia Support Group

Okay, well I am pretty sure you all can expect lots of questions out of me until I master this thing. Well I am an RN so I do have more medical knowledge than most which can be a dangerous thing. LOL. So I have access to My Chart through the Cleveland Clinic and so I see my labs and tests before I actually hear from the doctors. So today I am looking at results and see that I have a low creatinine level. I look up causes and it is apparently a pretty rare thing to have. The only thing I could find was that it occurs when you have muscle wasting and are beginning to lose muscle mass. Have any of you experienced this? I mentioned that I am beginning the graded exercise program and I am sure this would help. I know I have drastically reduced my activity and that is because I can only do so much with my pain levels the way they are because when I overdue it I then have muscles that are so stiff that I can barely bend over. Has anyone told they had been losing muscle mass?

April

Ive been told I have muscle atrophy(sp?). Im not sure if that is the same thing or not. I dont do anything anymore physical. I occasionaly on a very good day,meaning well medicated LOL,walk my children up to the park. Otherwise I drive us there,and sit on the bench and watch them play. Pretty pathetic. My Dr. tells me to excercise as much as I can,but I can barely walk,so I dont excerise. I see a lot of people do aquatic exercise,and that sounds great to me,in the summer I do occasionly swim with my girls,and that is nice. Perhaps the exercise program will help.

oh hun, that's not good....basically its more than just an immobility issue...muscle atrophy occurs because there is an imbalance between protein building and protein breakdown...the body uses proteins and an enzyme called atp to bring energy into cells..so your muscle cells are not getting the protein/energy needed to maintain and prevent atrophy-its more complicated than this (but this is the easiest way for me to put it without sounding to scientific, sorry). So basically the worse atrophy gets , the harder the long haul is gonna be to fix it . It is well known that many drugs are also responsible for blocking some or all of the proteins needed for muscle building/mass, but it never seizes to amaze me that doctors wont tell you this....anyways...the best thing you can do is move, move, move, and with ddd (i also have severe early onset OA and DDD of the spine) i know its not easy but theres a way trust me...the best thing i discovered for myself was YOGA...i dont even have to get up off the floor if i dont want to, its easy, fun, and will definitely prevent muscle atrophy....now depending on how severe yours is and how and why your immobile ,may require you get physical therapy...being that your soooo young, i would do everything possible to prevent this from getting worse sweetie...its not something that should be happening to you, not at all...there are many options for movement even for chronic pain suffers..if you have a doctor and insurance, then DEMAND physical therapy (they should have aquatics/swimming-jacuzzi therapy) and if thats not a possibility then take matters into your own hands.....YOGA CHANGED MY LIFE - it can do the same for you....take care, xoxoxoxo ,innana.

sorry, i forgot to say that my comment was for sunnydays...take care all =D

Oh yeah I lost alot of muscle mass 3 and half years ago.... My levels were super low .. I am happy to say they are still low but because I exercise regularly they have gone up to a normal low....

Thanks mindful,Ive herd so much about Yoga,and have considered buying a DVD for it,but just wasnt sure I could do it! I will definately pick one up and give it a try. I certinaly dont want to get any worse then I already am!

Mindfulmel I also have DJD and OA in my spine. Thank you, I haven't spoken to my doctors about all of this yet and I am just seeing the labs start to come in and I won't talk to the doctor until later this week to get his thoughts. So he did already order the aquatic therapy and graded exercise program and at the end of my visit he said Yoga would be great for me. I was looking back to try to figure out what my last creatinine level was and it hasn't been checked in almost two years. I am to young for all of this and now I am going to more forceful with the pain management team because I used to be so active and went to the gym 4-6 times a week. I think that is my goal. It is hard to force yourself to do things that we know will cause us to end up feeling more pain and weakness but when we are this young having muscle loss its just bad care from our doctors. The Cleveland Clinic was the first place to order PT for me. I did start looking for a therapy center and not all can do both of these but I found a healthplex that offers both and I am going to set up appts starting Monday. Wish me luck..........or wish my body luck. LOL.

April

I have muscle atrophy. I went into physical therapy and then was scheduled for aqua therapy but was too sick to go.

I think we all go through a decrease in muscle mass but I have not had any tests that show this except related my experiences with my doctor. Throwing my neck out, cramping by doing simple neck exercises was why she sent me into PT.

it only take 24 hours for your muscles that arent used to be come weaker and depending how strong you are depends how many days before you realy cant use them... At least your doctor is sending you to PT. I had to do it all on my own and trust me I fought my way back from nothing( barely moving) to Still having bad days but now going to get certified for zumba.. I will never go back to not walking ever again... EVER

good luck with your PT...aqua therapy is the best then the treadmill and then whatever else you can stand to do Have fun its going to hurt but that is what meds are for and we hurt everyday so..whats a little more :/

Hugs and love

I also have muscel atrophy mine is in my right leg but it is due to the nerve damage, when you go on your tip toes you know that bulge in the back of your leg(calf muscle) I dont have one mine is flat..

I have alot of muscel weakness and loss of tone every where else though I use to have good muscel tone in my arms and legs but I must agree with what has been said keep moving you dont move it you lose it..(and mindfulmel thaank you for the info its great to have you here)