We will have our second monthly meeting for the Fibromyalgia Support Group Meeting on the 19th of June 2010.  Monthly meetings are scheduled for the third Saturday of each month.  This month’s meeting will take place at Café Blanc, Dubai Festival City, at 10am.  This is a time where we can meet, support each other because we truly understand.

If you can not make it and you would like to ask any questions for the meeting you can post a comment to this thread or follow us on twitter @myfibroblog.  For more information about arthritis in the United Arab Emirates, follow @UAEArthritis on Twitter, Emirates Arthritis Foundation on Facebook, and visit their website Emirates Arthritis Foundation.

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The other day I went to a Kenwood Cooking Chef launch, and I can say that it got me excited about cooking again.  About a year ago I started to read some really nice review of the Cooking Chef on different Fibromyalgia blogs.

What is so nice about this machine is that it combines about four machines into one.  You can chop your food, mix your bread or cake, it comes with blender, and it cooks your food, yes I did say cook your food, you can do this all in one machine.  I can not wait to get my hands on one to use for a few days, to really test it out, that is if they trust me with it.  The Cooking Chef is going to sell about 7,000AED (about $1905) and that is a lot of money to put down on a machine that you think will make your life a little easier.

For me it is hard to work all day and also to make sure that we have something good and healthy to eat, this I believe will make it a lot easier.  You just have one machine that looks good sitting out on your cabinets and not four different machines.  Also you can set it to cook (you set the timer and temp) and walk away to do other things that need to be done. The Cooking Chef stirs as it cooks, so you do not have to worry about it burning and you can make more delicate dishes, with not much more work.

It comes included in the box, food processor attachments, blender attachment, 6.7L bowl, spatula, small scraper, steam basket, stainless steel K beater, whisk, spiral dough hook, stirring tool, flexi beater, and of course you can get many other attachments. There are about 30 different attachments with this machine, from Kenwood.  If you can not find that something special to cook, the Cooking Chef has it’s own Cooking Chef Club, for great recipes.

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On May 15th 2010, there will be a meeting in support of Fibromyalgia at Organic Foods and Cafe, located at The Dubai Mall.  This event is hosted by Emirates Arthritis Foundation will take place at 10:30 am and there will be a tour of the gluten foods that the Organic Foods and Cafe offers.  I hope that people that are affected by Fibromyalgia will turn out, and love ones of people will also come to show their support for people with Fibromyalgia.

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This is a brief interview I had the other day with Katrina Thornley, Patient Support Director at Emirates Arthritis Foundation.

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Mark your calenders May the 15th is Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day.  I encourage anyone that is affected by this, to use your voice to tell your story.  By sharing our stories we can help educate and raise the awareness of this very complex disease.  Better yet, we can use our voices to let others know that they are not alone in this battle and that we there for each other.  Please let me know of any actives that you are planning on doing to spread the word about Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

You can find out some other actives that are happening in the the US at About.com.

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Last weekend the Emirates Arthritis Foundation held a Stress Management Workshop, and it was a lot of fun.  As people with Fibromyalgia know, stress can be a big trigger for a flare.  This stress can be physical or mental, or a combo of both.  It was really nice to hear people talking about how we can manage some of this stress, and to start listening to our bodies.  I know I can be one of the first ones, to forget to listen to my body and before I know it, I am having a major flare.  So, it was great to listen about going back to basics and start to listen to my body again.

One topic that kept coming up was remembering to breath, and relax.  I know we all breath, because if we didn’t we would not be alive any longer.  The breath that they were talking about was taking that time to listen to your breath and have some really deep breathes.   If we would remember this every time we are in a stressful situation, I bet we would not be as stressed after the event.  So a big thank you to Emirates Arthritis Foundation for the Stress Management Workshop, and reminding me to breath again.

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Here’s a video from Friday’s walkathon, enjoy

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Here in the UAE it is hard to find the right meds to help you deal with the different things that Fibromyalgia brings, and the meds you do find here, are most likely not covered by insurance.  Let’s be real, even in most countries it is hard to find the meds you need, because we have no real clue to what Fibromyalgia is.  What the doctors do know is that there are some meds that do help some people.  What are those meds, well they are like Lyrica, Cymbalta, Savella that has been approved as a Fibromyaglia drugs. Lyrica, was first approved as an anti-seizure medication, before it was the first medication approved to treat Fibromyaglia. Most likely this medication is covered here in the UAE under your insurance. Cymbalta, was the next drug approved for Fibromyaglia and it listed as an anti-depression medication and will most likely will not be covered by your insurance.  Savella, has only been approved in the US, and is not available here in the UAE. I must add that all of these drugs are approved in the US as Fibromyaglia medication to help with the pain of Fibromyaglia, and not here as such.

There are other medication used to treat the affects of Fibromyaglia, but are not listed as medication to treat Fibromyaglia.  They may include, Tramadol, amitriptyline, and other anti-depression drugs and pain meds.  It isn’t the case that anti-depression meds, are given for anti-depression, but to help control the pain and sleep with Fibromyaglia. Some patients with Fibro can and/or might get depress, but that is not always the case.

One of the big problems that I see is that everyone with Fibromyaglia is different, what might work for you, may not work for me.  You may have to try different drugs for treatment and also other non-drug treatments, to find your right answer. As I know of, there is no medication to help with sleep here in the UAE.  Most patients with Fibromyaglia have a hard time getting that deep sleep that they need to help their bodies repair themselves.  If we can control our sleep, I think many of my problems would be reduced.  It is so much harder to deal with the pain, when you have not had that good deep sleep.

It you have tried anything that works for you, medication or other treatments?

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Here are some photos from the Walkathon arranged by Emirates Arthritis Foundation on Friday. We’re working on getting some video up as well.

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This is the first episode of the Healthy Voice for the UAE podcast, produced by Emirates Arthritis Foundation and MyFibroBlog.com. We hope to bring you a steady stream of shows relevant to your health and life in the UAE, including diet, exercise, health care, medicine, therapy and much, much more. In this show you will hear the following people:

• Katrina Thornely- Patient Support Director, Emirates Arthritis Foundation
• Dr. Manoj- Physiatrist and Ayurvedic Consultant, Dubai Herbal Treatment Center
• Mr. Rashid Buhari- Senior Physiotherapist, Dubai Bone and Joint Center
• Eileen Domiati- Editor-in-Chief, Women’s Health & Fitness
• Amanda Wilkins- Certified Pilates Trainer, OneHundred Pilates Studio
• And myself, Crystal Nystedt.

We’ll be back with another episode soon. In the mean time, send us your thoughts, ideas and feedback. Do you want to come and talk to us about health issues? We’d be happy to have you on the show.

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