Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Fibromyalgia and Smart Diary Suite

One of the original ideas back in 2002 or so was to provide people who suffer from fibromyalgia a means of keeping tabs on their progress. This concept integrated quite nicely into Smart Diary Suite and thus SDS Medical was born (although it wasn't called "Medical" back then, but rather a "Fibromyalgia" edition).

Well, what is fibromyalgia?

Wikipedia describes it quite well: "Fibromyalgia is a disorder classified by the presence of chronic widespread and a heightened and painful response to gentle touch (tactile allodynia). Other core features of the disorder include debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance, and joint stiffness. In addition, persons affected by the disorder frequently experience a range of other symptoms that involve multiple body systems, including difficulty with swallowing, functional bowel and bladder abnormalities, difficulty breathing, diffuse sensations of numbness and tingling (non-dermatomal paresthesia), abnormal motor activity (i.e. nocturnal myoclonus, sleep bruxism), and cognitive dysfunction. An increased prevalence of affective and anxiety-related symptoms is also well known." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibromyalgia)

When I started working on SDS v3, I worked closely with a great person - Bob Hall, who runs a site dedicated to fibromyalgia - http://www.menwithfibro.com - he provided me with the inside knowledge I needed to write the additional module for Smart Diary that would become the fibromyalgia extension. He's got an excellent community going on there filled with wonderful people.

So, how does SDS relate to fibromyalgia?

Ah, SDS does provide a trule unique experience - it can be adapted to any condition (or a number of) that one has. For example, as mentioned on our "Medical features" page, there's a Pain Map to keep track of where and how it hurts today and see how it relates to other factors in your life. Also, keep track of your medication and get reminders of when to take it and also when to renew.

There's a specific Life Factor pack dedicated especially to fibromyalgia sufferers and it monitors such things as pain levels, physical symptoms (sleep, fatigue, weakness, diziness, eyesight, motion, urination, hearing, IBS, body temperature), mental symptoms (thinking, anxiety, depression, angriness, irritation, happiness), weather (pollens, mold, temperature, humidity) and many others.

Print your records out for your doctor and it'll be easier for both of you to discuss your condition - what works and what doesn't.

To learn more about fibromyalgia, check out the following pages:

Wishing all the best health,

Dennis

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