One day while putting lotion on after a shower, I noticed something felt different. I couldn't identify it. I was over 50 years old and never notice this before. By this age, you know how your body feels. Not to long after a friend with fibro sent me an email complaining of the same thing. You start thinking it's a new epidemic! To my "Fibro Bible" I go. Sure enough there is a section on "Ropey Muscles." In part, Dr. Pellegrino describes the fibromyalgia muscle like this. "Normal muscle has a texture of firm gelatin. Imagine that you take this firm gelatin and put in some grapes and strands of carrots and a couple chunks of pineapple, and when you palpate the gelatin fruit salad, you can imagine the lumpy, bumpy consistency (grapes and chunks) and ropey consistency (carrot strands). This is what fibromyalgia muscles feel like." You can see why I enjoy his writing style. :>)
My body shows me new "feels" every day. Some come and go, some stay forever. Gotta roll with the punches or you will go nuts (my opinion). When in doubt about what to do...REST!
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Thank you for saying this, Deb. I've been diagnosed with fibro for a few years now, but I had been wondering if my "ropey" feeling muscles (and accompanying pain sometimes) was the fibro or something else. No one has ever told me I might have ropey muscles.
ReplyDeleteI too have noticed the ropey muscles. They are all over the body and very tender when pressing on them. The strange thing is, deep pressure relieves, at least temporarily, the pain and gives me greater range of motion. My mother gave me a hard plastic, nobby, curved back device. If I lay on it and even put my feet in the air which creates more pressure, it is tender at first, but if I take deep breathes and go through the pain, the back at least in those areas pressed, loosens up. I bought a set of very hard balls and have been playing around laying on them prone and supine. It does the same thing as the back device. I am now on year 26 of developing fibromyalgia and am always interested in learning anything that helps others and helping them if possible.
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