There really isn’t a simple answer to this question, because it’s both yes and no. Yes, there are milder forms of fibromyalgia that are out there, but they do not have specific names.
Rather, there appear to be “stages” of fibromyalgia that people go through on a regular basis – someone could barely see any symptoms at one point, whereas they could be dealing with severe pain at another point. In this article, we’re going to take a look at those different stages and how they can manifest themselves at different points in time.
First off, these stages are not necessarily a diagnosis, but rather what you may see when you are going through fibromyalgia symptoms. In short, it’s kind of a scale that you can use in order to figure out where you are on the scale. As mentioned above, you can jump all over the place with these and find that you’re in one “stage” one day, and in another “stage” another day. It’s more of a way to gauge where your symptoms may be.
Symptom Free Stages
There are a few times where you may notice that you have few or no symptoms associated with your fibromyalgia.
First off, there are the people who have not seen any symptoms as of yet, but they have some risk factors that they have to keep an eye out for. For example, if they have a family member that has the disorder, or if you have issues with your joints or other issues, you may be at the risk phase. In some research, this is called predisposed.
Another stage without symptoms is sometimes referred to as Prodromal. You still don’t have the symptoms, yet, but you may start to notice that there are some other problems going on that will eventually lead to fibromyalgia.
For example, you may not be in pain all of the time, but certain areas of your body may ache at times. You may have restless leg syndrome when you sleep, or you may start to have terrible stomach pains. The related conditions, of course, do not indicate that you actually have the disease, but related diseases that may raise a red flag.
The Early Steps
Then, comes the periods where a person starts to actually feel the pain that is commonly related to fibromyalgia. For example, they may be feeling a lot of pain on a regular basis, or they have areas of their body that are sensitive to touch and cause pain even when you brush up against them. Usually, this is when an individual starts to suspect that they have fibromyalgia, and should, at that time, see a doctor for a proper diagnosis.
Then, of course, comes the question of where the pain is located. In some of these forms, you may only notice severe pain in a couple regions of your body. Sometimes it’s your back, other times it may be your legs or your feet, or maybe even a shoulder. There are a lot of cases where it’s the face and the neck that have the most pain of any part of the body. This is sometimes referred to as “regional fibromyalgia” and usually concentrated on a single area.
Usually, this regional issue will end up becoming full blown, or generalized, fibromyalgia. This is where the person feels pain all over their body and they have a number of different sensitive spots that are bothered by any form of touch.
At this time, a lot of the other symptoms related to fibromyalgia will also start to rear their heads. Irritable bowel syndrome, sleeping disorders, depression, constant exhaustion, and a number of other related issues may start to form. These are not separate issues, as many people mistakenly believe, but they are all part of the whole disease that ends up being fibromyalgia.
Fibromylagia with Related Diseases
Then, comes the last category that you may come across when you are dealing with other disorders alongside it. That being said, there are two main ways that this can happen. First off, you can end up having other disorders that come because of the fibromyalgia – these are different than the symptoms that we’ve listed above.
You may develop some gastrointestinal issues, or you may end up fighting off other nerve disorders as a result of what is going on with your body. In some cases, immune disorders may occur because of the body’s inability to deal with what is going on with the disease.
There are also cases where a certain immune disorder or other issues may result in the development of fibromyalgia. One of the most common examples of this is lupus, where the body’s immune system isn’t working as it should be to start with, and neither is the lymphatic system, thus making the body susceptible to such issues, including fibromyalgia. That being said, this may end up being a little more localized than other types, but you can also deal with full body pain as well.
If you have any diseases that may weaken the immune system, and you have a genetic propensity toward fibromyalgia, you may find that you are more susceptible to it. If this is a concern with any of the chronic diseases that you currently struggle with, make sure that you make a point to talk to a doctor or rheumatologist in order to see what you can do to take care of any pain symptoms you may start to have.
So, as you can see, there are a lot of different “types” of fibromyalgia that you may end up encountering if you suffer from the disease. As stated above, there really isn’t a “mild” form of fibromyalgia, but rather different stages of severity that the disease can go between depending on where you are and how you are treating it. Always make sure to talk to your doctor if you are struggling with your symptoms, and be sure that you get a proper diagnosis before you try to take care of any of the symptoms.
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