Some flare ups can be down to stress, overexertion etc. But I find a lot of flare ups coincide with weather changes.
My whole body reacts fo different weather. When it is humid, I get pressure headaches and my brain is super foggy and fuzzy. When it is stormy, my skin gets prickly.
By far the worst weather is when it starts to get colder. This year it was the end of August it hit hard. My joints started stiffening, and I just couldn’t get warm. They say with fibromyalgia the body can have problems regulating temperature. I definitely feel this especially when it is cold.
No matter how many layers I wear or how high I put the heating, I just cannot get warm. At work I’m wearing so many layers including thermals, I feel like a penguin waddling around umable to move from the masses of clothes surrounding me.
I also wear arthritis gloves. My fingers really suffer in autumn and winter because they are the first part of my body to feel the cold. The arthritis gloves are really helpful to keep circulation going and still be able to use my hands normally as if without gloves.
It is really important to stay active in winter. My work is a lot more office based at that time of year but I make myself go out when I am able to. If the weather is awful, I do walking around the house. Putting a good TV show while walking on the spot distracts me from the pain. I need to keep my muscles strong or else the pain gets even worse.
A few years ago, my knees started getting bad and I stopped exercising for a while. The pain got so bad that winter that my muscles weakened to the point I could not walk normally. After lots of physio and getting my act together by walking whenever possible, eventually I regained the muscle I had lost and the pain was more manageable. This just proves how important even the smallest amount of exercise can be.
Heat packs are a blessing when it gets colder. I have one specifically for knees, and one use heat patches I can use all day while on the move as well as the usual hot water bottle to warm up the aches and pains.
It is hard during the winter months, but I always know spring is not far away and I look forward to it every year, when my pain can start to ease slightly.
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