There is fibromyalgia and there is CFIDS.  They aren’t the same thing.  Fibromyalgia is chronic pain.  CFIDS is a chronic fatigue immunodeficiency syndrome.  So chronic pain, chronic fatigue, chronic infections.  People with CFIDS may not have fibromyalgia, but people with fibromyalgia will likely have CFIDS.  While there is a lot in the literature about chronic pain and chronic fatigue, there isn’t a lot about chronic infections for people with fibromyalgia, at least I haven’t found much except for researchers looking at the possibility of infection as being as cause of fibromyalgia.  I’m interested in chronic infection as a consequence of fibromyalgia.

As I write this I have an “outbreak” on my chin.  It has happened before, a bit over a year ago.  A large sore on my chin.  I just got the results of the culture and know that it is a staph infection.  Antibiotic pills (which I don’t take well and usually make me sick) and antibiotic cream – I’ll keep it covered with an unsightly band-aide and in a couple weeks I’ll be left with a scar on my chin.  Another one.  Oh well.  I’m not a model and don’t have any inspirations, but this is just another round of infection that has hit me this fall.  I’ve had two upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, since October.  I had a rash of bloody noses for a couple weeks, the source of which is a small bump inside my nose, probably another infection, but it’s so small the doctors don’t really have a grasp on it.  This, like my chin, is a recurring infection.

Scratches and bruises take a long time to heal even when they don’t get infected.  I don’t spend a good deal of time avoiding injury, but I should.  Hangnails get infected.  Basic acne ends up as oil wells in my skin and regularly get infected.

Despite the insistence by doctors that the benefit of vitamin C is a myth, I have had a great deal of success using vitamin C to fight infection, particularly bladder infections.  Since I can’t take a lot of antibiotics, including meds for bladder infections, as soon as I suspect the onset of an infection, a series of mega-doses often stops infection in its tracks.  Regular doses of vitamin C usually helps me fight back the yearly bronchitis attacks I had for many years.  The last two years has been particularly bad, however, with two attacks per year.  Hopefully things are settling down now and my chin will heal and my lungs won’t fight back for awhile.  In the meantime, I’d like to figure out the underlying connection between fibro and infection as its consequence.