A Link Between Fibro and Oxygen Levels

By Marika Nicoll

I was diagnosed a few years ago with fibromyalgia, although I realised afterwards that I had had it for as long as I could remember, but had never heard of it before then. Then last year I was also diagnosed with second degree heart block of unknown origin. I got a pacemaker, and all of a sudden my life improved immeasurably. A majority of the symptoms I had put down to my fibromyalgia, and also to depression, disappeared in the space of a few days! I certainly still had plenty symptoms; tiredness, stiffness, sleep issues, but now suddenly no longer affecting my quality of life and ability to do what I wanted. Nobody could quite believe what a different person I suddenly was. I have heard that there are studies into whether oxygen chamber treatment could help with fibromyalgia, and I wonder if all of these things could be connected?

My heart block was only discovered eventually and accidentally, because I am a very stubborn person, and kept going on willpower, until I eventually developed serious symptoms and ended up in hospital.

It still took several months for the diagnosis, I was repeatedly told they could find nothing wrong with me, even when I was fainting multiple times a day. But there could be lots of people with fibromyalgia, and cardiac conduction problems, and not knowing it, and never being diagnosed. I am only 49, and the doctors were baffled, they never could say what the cause was, everything possible was excluded. The other thing that happened that made me think about the connection again, was that a couple of weeks ago I developed a fault in one of my pacemaker leads, and now I am back to feeling awful, exhausted, sore, and low. Because of Covid-19, there is not much they can do for me just now, one of the leads works, so I just have to wait and see. 

This is why I'm writing this, and I plan to send my little story to whoever I can think of, as I am not a researcher, but maybe somebody somewhere will read this and consider the possibility of a connection. Maybe there is nothing to it, but I want to at least share my story, in case there is a slightest chance it could help someone. I am happy to be contacted if anyone wants to ask more. Thank you for reading.