Folks usually find out they have Fibromyalgia after a heck of a lot of testing yields no results. It’s still a diagnosis that gets backed into. Western medicine looks for specifics; if there’s pain, there must be a reason, and often, if we’ve had a traumatic accident, doctors look for something that could still be causing problems.
If you were supposed to recover completely after an accident and haven’t, then I would say your pain is most likely Fibromyalgia and you should go to a rheumatologist for a genuine diagnosis. Fibromyalgia is trauma-triggered pain, supposedly because of a genetic predisposition in a gene that allows inflammation and pain that gets activated by trauma. I think the worst part of Fibromyalgia is the fact that it’s fellow sufferers who help diagnose the condition rather than a doctor doing so- I was helped that way both for Fibromyalgia as well as for my IBS and from what I hear anecdotally, I’m not alone. Yes, a doctor diagnosed me, but only after I went to him after years of fruitless testing and specfically said, “I think this is Fibromyalgia, (and then, with another doctor, “I think this is IBS,” What do you think?”) A lot of doctors think it’s all in our heads- I was certainly treated that way by my neurologists, and I’ve been to several. It wasn’t until I went to a rheumatologist that I got some satisfaction. It’s been speaking about my pain to other women that led to me happening to say the right thing to someone who had first one and then the other. Just think of how many people haven’t spoken up? Here’s a link to a website that talks about treatment using Guaifenesin: http://www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/ It didn't help me, but maybe it will help you. There’s also a link on the website to a hard to understand research article (for me at any rate) that talks about the genetic miswiring that leads to being susceptible to Fibromyalgia, co-authored by the doctor who runs the Fibromyalgia Treatment Center. They’ve found 15% of folks with Fibromyalgia have a mutation that makes them susceptible to the syndrome. The center gives away the protocol away for free. Lots of testimonials from satisfied former Fibromyalgia sufferers are on the website, but one of the Fibro books I’ve read that’s by a doctor says that over the long run, it doesn’t work. My interpretation of that is that yes, you need to be genetically susceptible, but it’s how the brain processes trauma and life after trauma that locks in pain and that I believe can be reversed. Alternative medicine is where I’ve found the most help. Alt med docs believe that Fibromyalgia makes the body not accept thyroid into the cells, which leads to the common low thyroid symptoms found in Fibromyalgia. My lack of energy and sensitivity to hot and cold has definitely gotten much better since I started taking Armour thyroid. Taking thyroid isn’t the whole answer, but it’s helped. I hope to get to the point where I’m improved enough that I no longer need it.
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AuthorElizabeth Morse, author of Your Best Health by Friday. Archives
January 2015
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