Hi, all! I have fibro, and have had for several years - in addition to nerve pain/damage on my upper back as a result of a bout of the shingles, and pain from trigeminal neuralgia (nerve problem that causes facial pain).

My fibro has been flaring the past few weeks. Usually, the pain I get from it is confined to my limbs as stabbing pain that comes and goes very suddenly OR it's stiffness and achiness in my neck or back.

The past week or so I've had weird bouts of pain in my lower abdomen, sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left, sometimes like a band just above my pubic line. Came on suddenly, seemed to flare for an hour or two, then disappeared just as suddenly after two or three days.

Following that, I had a few episodes where I had spasms of pain on the lower left side of my back, just above my waist; I had a sharp burst of pain as if someone had kicked or punched me there, and it was such a sudden, strong burst of pain that I gasped and nearly dropped to my knees.
A few episodes then it disappeared.

Does anybody else have weird episodes with their fibro like this or is this likely something else?

Any sudden change in your pain you should have checked out. With fibro it's very for you and your doctors to blame any pain on fibro, and overlook other conditions. My sinus pain was attributed to the fibro for a long time before a move to another state and a new ENT decided that we should eliminate other causes before assuming fibro was to blame - and sure enough he found a fungal mass in my sinuses. Not only did surgery improve the sinus pain, but it dramatically improved my breathing, my resistance to respiratory infections and my sleep and (because of these I believe) significantly reduced my overall level of joint and muscle pain from the fibro.

That being said, the pain from fibro for me does change in terms of what hurts, and how severely. Sometimes I have a headache involving my ears, other days it's mostly in my hands, sometimes my lower back... Usually I can tell it's fibro and not something else by what the weather has been doing - whether my sleep patterns have changed (lack of sleep and weather changes are my biggest triggers, followed by overexertion).

Hi there,
I have had Fibro, and Lupus for 20 years or so and the pain Changes day to day. I am generally able to tell when the fibro is acting up vs the Lupus. Try to stay in tune with your body and see if certain activities or lack of activity cause pain. If you overdo it on exercise you will feel it for days! Slow and steady is the way to go. Talk with your doctor if the pain is severe or concerning otherwise keep your chin up This is harder than it seems but you can do it.

I agree with kaplods, any change should be checked out.

That said, the stabbing pains you described are very familiar to me. My doctor wanted to check me for a kidney infection / kidney stones when I had similar lower back pains...nothing showed up, of course. :\

Hope you feel better...

I am new on here...but yes..if you are losing weight, the pain let's up...When I 1st was diagnosed they had to pack me in ice to take down the swelling
and the pain..If you are over weight, you will benifit by losing...I have
gained 40 pounds this past year, and I now have pain...so hang in there..
The pain never totally goes away...but with weight loss it is something
you can live with...