Raynaud’s After Running

raynaud's
White, cold, and numb. Yuck.

I ran six miles in 58-degree weather, and even though it was sunny and beautiful outside and I never felt too cold, my hands told a different story. Raynaud’s Phenomenon sometimes turns just one or two of my fingers white and makes them go numb, but this particular run provoked several pasty appendages. I know there’ve been suspected links between fibromyalgia and Raynaud’s, but I wish there were more information for patients. I don’t want to take medications or have surgery or do anything else drastic, but I would definitely like for my fingers to stop going numb when it’s not even extremely cold outside.

Caffeine Provokes Fibromyalgia Symptoms

Caffeine, as I’ve suspected for several months, makes my fibromyalgia symptoms much worse. While that revelation kind of sucks, it’s also always nice when something can be easily controlled, like caffeine intake.

I love coffee. As a vegan, I’ve been enjoying soymilk, coconut milk, and almond milk as creamers. I never add sugar or sugar substitutes to my coffee, which makes me even more certain that it’s the caffeine that, even in very small amounts, massively increases my anxiety and provokes muscle spasms.

I kicked caffeine out of my life for a couple of months, then started drinking less than one cup of coffee per morning last week. Within two days, my neck pain was worse and I felt less hopeful. My running improved. Even hills felt like less effort. But the increasing pain and hopelessness were absolutely not worth it. By day five of drinking less than a cup a day, I was in bad shape.

Going cold turkey wasn’t too hard since I’d only been drinking coffee for six days. It wasn’t great fun, but it wasn’t the worst thing to quit. And, on Sunday, I not only ran eight miles at a decent pace, but I also took my paddle board on a two mile journey.

Fibromyalgia is picky. It demands a lot of sacrifice. But if forgoing caffeine allows me to live a more normal life, then I’ll never touch another cup of coffee again.

Brrr… Is Cold Weather Making Fibromyalgia Worse?

The cold snap across the US is wreaking all kinds of havoc, and I’m curious if anyone else who has fibromyalgia is seriously bothered by the cold?

While I’m still feeling pretty good in general (thank you, vegan diet), my back and neck are super tight and my hamstrings are getting tighter. I feel achier all over, and I’m sleeping under an electric blanket. I haven’t been able to use my hot tub in several days because we turned it down for the cold snap, so maybe that’s part of the equation.

What do y’all think… is fibromyalgia aggravated by cold?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Do you have any resolutions? I do. First, I resolve to not only stay vegan, but also to try a month of being gluten-free to see if more of my fibromyalgia symptoms resolve. Second, I resolve to make a serious attempt at practicing yoga, and to incorporate more stretching into my workout routines. Third, I resolve to stop slipping into hopelessness so easily.

Chronic pain makes it so easy to throw in the towel, but I don’t want to feel hopeless. The day I stop fighting is the day I die. I may smell like a medicine cabinet and walk like an elderly person, but I resolve to never stop working out and fighting fibromyalgia.