Every day in the run up to Christmas I’m going to post a symptom or side effect of fibromyalgia – at the risk of sounding too twee for words, it’s the blog equivalent of opening the door on your advent calendar. Instead of a chocolate snowman you get a little window into what it’s like to have fibro.

December 4th: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

I mean…I don’t have to go into detail about Irritable Bowel Syndrome, right? You all know what Irritable Bowel Syndrome involves. It’s not fun.

Fibromyalgia and the abdominal pain/bloating associated with IBS often coexist, for reasons nobody knows. The two conditions also share many of the same clinical characterics: both have unknown causes, are made worse by stress and primarily affect women.

For me it flares up without fail when I’ve done too much. If I try to fight past that heavy, sluggish feeling of fatigue it’s a red traffic light telling me to halt immediately, go to bed with a hot water bottle immediately and remain there for at least ten hours.