This thread is very interesting and full of food for thought. I'm amazed at the amount of medication being taken by all of us, both prescribed by our drs or suggested by friends and relatives.
My story is similiar to that of most of the rest of you. In 1999 I was seeing a GP, a young man who was fairly new in the practice of medicine. I began to try to explain all my symptoms, the sleep deprivation, the numbness in hands and feet, the pain in my arms, legs, neck, shoulders, feet, everywhere. I told him about the problems with my bladder and bowels. I especially told him about how frightened I was that I got so confused so often, and he just laughed it off. I can't even remember all the problems that I took to him. First he said he could find nothing wrong with me and suggested that I should be on HRT. When I resisted that, he was actually angry with me, and then kind of disdainful. After I continued to take my complaints to him, he called me a "chronic complainer" and said that I was a hypochondriac, and really demeaned me. Since I had so many problems with no apparent cause, I began to think that I was mentally ill, or at the very least had Alzhimer's Disease. I begged him to run some tests or something to try to find what was going on. So, he sent me for some tests, and then called me to say that all signs were that I had Lupus and he was very sorry. I had already left my job, because I couldn't deal with all the responsibilities of it, so at least I didn't have to break that news to them. Decided to wait for a while to tell my family.
In the meantime I had been hearing about FM, reading in some magazines, and seeing on a few talk shows. So back to my dr. He laughed and declared that FM is a "fake disease" that people who are trying to get out of having to work have made up. Then I was just furious. An article that I had read had said that you need to see a rheumatologist, so I asked for a referral. My GP reluctantly gave me one. Voila!!! The new dr did diagnose me with FM. This was in 2001. However, he also diagnosed Lupus, arthritis, and a few other minor maladies. He said to me "you will not die from Fibromyalgia, but you will die with it. There is no cure or remedy." He suggested some very good books, written by medical professionals. But no one then had any idea what to do about stopping the pain. Prozac was the first thing I was given, along with Elavil, and Vioxx.
It was also mentioned that a support group would be one of the best things I could do. And that turned out to be right, I was suddenly in a room with about 30 people who all knew about fibrofog, running to the bathroom, having your arms hurt in the morning and your legs hurt in the afternoon. Astounding! And so validating!! At that point I fired my dr, the GP who had treated me like an idiot. I recommend a support group very strongly. And here we have one starting right at our fingertips.
Since that time my medications have changed so many times I can't remember. Right now I'm taking the Lyrica for the FM. I haven't decided yet how I feel about it, it scares me some. The side effects
bother me a lot. It was originally developed as a treatment for seizures and interrupts signals to the brain. It also seems to be addictive, and I already notice problems if I forget to take it for a day. It supposedly keeps your brain from recognising a pain signal, but if that's the case, why would I still have arthritis pain and other types of pain? So, I'm still taking Mobic for the arthritis. And, for the breakthrough pain I'm taking arthritis strength Tylenol. That rheumetologist that diagnosed my FM told me "With antidepressant medications you'll still have pain, but you won't care." I feel that the same thing is happening with the Lyrica.
We with FM have a lot on our plates, and the FM always seems to bring other problems with it when it comes. All kinds of auto-immune problems. Hopefully someone will come up with a solution to this crap, and in the meantime I'll keep looking to you to see what you are using that works.
