Supplements and medications

Early on I started trying various supplements and medications to see if anything helped my pain, muscle stiffness or the dreaded fibro fog.  I've found a couple of things that help:

Malic Acid: this helps with muscle pain, sleeping and the fibro fog.  I take at least 2,400 mg of Malic Acid with magnesium.

D-Ribose: this helps with muscle pain and I take about 2,000 mg a day of this

SAM-e: this I take for depression and my energy levels.  I take 800 mg a day of this

Savella is a prescription medication for fibro.  A lot of people can't take it due to the nausea that effects most people while they are getting used to it.  I took an anti-nausea drug with it for the first couple of weeks to help me stick with it.

Flexeril: I take this muscle relaxer for sleep.  It helps me fall asleep and to stay asleep through the night as early morning waking is often a problem for me.

I also take vitamin B and D supplements.

Lastly, if I'm still having problems with pain I take a 600 mg prescription Ibuprofen and 1/2 of a Vicodin.  I've found that the combination of the two works better than either by itself or even an entire Vicodin.

Tai Chi

Last January someone at my work offered to teach Tai Chi classes at the gym at my work.  The classes were free and they started just 15 minutes after the end of my workday.  It was a perfect situation.  As soon as I started the classes I noticed my leg muscles were stronger and my balance was much improved.  I was only going to two classes a week but trying to practice on the days in between.

I soon discovered that it really was "moving meditation."  For the 45 minutes I'm in that class I'm paying so much attention to my movement, my posture, the placement of my hands, feet, legs, hips, head and the teacher that I can't think of anything else.  I'm focused so closely on what I'm doing right at that moment that I can't think about my problems or my worries.  There was a lot of time that I felt like those were the only minutes where I was sane.

The exercises are simple and can be done at any level.  I work up a sweat during my workout so I know I'm burning calories.  The postures and movements also help me in my regular life to stand straight and to move things with as little stress on my body as possible.  When I'm keeping up with my exercises I feel better and my muscles feel looser.

This is definitely one of the necessary items in my fibromyalgia arsenal.  I feel much better when I keep moving.

Gluten Free?

My son told me last year that his naturapath suggested he go gluten free to see if that helped his ulcerative colitis.  Since it was going to require some work on my part for him I decided to go ahead and join him and see if it also helped my fibromyalgia.  We were gluten free for about 6 months when he decided he wanted to test and see how he felt after eating gluten.  He didn't notice a difference so he went back to eating gluten.  When I decided to test eating gluten I was out for dinner with a friend at a Mexican food restaurant.  I decided to get the flour tortillas with my sizzling fajitas!  Funny thing...they tasted really bland.  I washed the bland taste out of my mouth with my Midori margarita.  YUM!

Before I left the restaurant I started to feel really bloated.  Before long I felt like I was going to throw up.  I decided that gluten was not going to work for me.  The next time I went to that restaurant I got corn tortillas with my sizzling fajitas and washed them down with my mango margarita (okay, yes I am a creature of habit!)

Most recently I went back again and got corn tortillas again and once again washed them down with my Midori margarita.  This time I started feeling sick again.  But I hadn't had any gluten?  A couple of days later I realized the common denominator between the two meals where I got sick was the Midori margarita.  I think that Midori must bother me now for some reason.  It is a little sad to give up one of my favorite liquors...but it is a lot easier to give up Midori than to give up gluten!  When you are allergic to cow's milk dairy it is particularly difficult to give up gluten as well.  I've since gone back to eating gluten and my stomach seems fine.

I've had more pain lately, but I think it is due to other factors.  If fixing those doesn't make me feel better I'll try giving up gluten again.

Acupuncture

My first step in my road to healing was trying acupuncture.  I was a little afraid to give it a try, but at the same time I was willing to try almost anything to rid myself of my unrelenting pain.  I felt I had no life any longer and I was so tired of the constant pain.  I found this practitioner entirely by accident...or some might say that I was guided to her.  She had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia herself years before and was also helped by acupuncture.  Our personalities clicked well and I found myself willing to try anything she suggested.  

After my fibromyalgia was diagnosed my IBS kept getting worse.  On her suggestion I stopped all dairy products and realized that I was actually allergic to cows milk.  Staying away from cows milk nearly completely eliminated the constant diarrhea that I'd been dealing with for years.   Acupuncture itself helped relax and soften my constantly stiff muscles.  My thigh muscles were so hard it felt like they were made of plastic.  After about six months of treatment they feel like normal muscles now.

Acupuncture is not a quick fix.  I've been going now for over two years, but now I'm at the point where I only feel the need for a treatment every couple of months.  At first I was going every week.  Because of the pain I was in my acupuncturist wasn't using as many needles as she might use on a person who was going in for back pain or another issue.  Now I can take as many as she feels would help me.  

Another part of acupuncture treatment is herbal.  If you aren't willing to take the herbs as prescribed you won't do as well.  At one point my practitioner was prescribing a special blend from the Oriental College of Medicine.  I was supposed to either drink these in a tea three times a day or mix them into apple sauce.  They tasted horrible...I couldn't gag them down.  I bought some gelatin capsules and filled them and took the herbs that way.  

I started acupuncture in March of 2012 and by July I was feeling almost normal.  I've had a few set backs since then, but the improvement in my life and abilities is easy for anyone who knows me to notice.  I credit the majority of my recovery to acupuncture.

My Road to Healing

Working full time and raising three teenagers is not conducive to blogging.  I wanted a log of how I improved my life after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia...but instead I only have a few entries.  I've improved greatly and I've been doing a lot better for over a year now.  I started going to an acupuncturist and that really started me on the road to healing.  

I was taking Vicodin around the clock before I started going to her.  Then one day there was a mix-up between my pharmacy and my doctor's office and suddenly I had a weekend with no Vicodin.  I didn't realize that I was physically addicted to that drug.  That weekend I went through so much pain.  Before that weekend I was taking 1/2 of a pill every 6 hours.  I kept trying to stretch it out to every 8 hours, but I was finding that almost too hard.  Not realizing I was physically addicted meant that I didn't understand what the drug was doing to my body.  It was actually CAUSING me pain.  I'd take a pill and within 30-40 minutes my pain levels would drop.  I'd have about four good hours but then the drug would start to leave my body and my pain would start returning.  By the time I reached hour six I'd be in so much pain that I'd be counting the minutes until I could take another.  This continued around the clock.  After my weekend of forced withdrawal I realized that my pain levels were far lower.  The pain medication that was supposed to help me was actually making me worse.  I've since read multiple articles stating this same reaction.

Starting with an acupuncturist sent me down a road that I'd thought of before but had been afraid (or admittedly unwilling) to try.  I realized that western medicine did not have my best interests at heart.  I don't blame my medical practitioner.  He was doing the best he knew how with the training he was given.  In the next several posts I'll share the steps I took in order to feel better...very nearly my old self. 

I'm fine, really.

How are you?  the greeting that everyone knows isn't usually a real question.  Everyone expects the usual "Fine, and you?"  The typical North American exchange.  Everyone knows that "how are you?" really doesn't imply any interest in the other person's well being. This is why I'm seldom honest when asked. When a person stops me and asks "really?" after I answer "fine" I'm often moved to tears. To have someone care enough to want to know how I'm really doing is a gift.

I often wonder what people would think if I gave an honest answer.  If I answered every person honestly who asked "How are you?" I'd never get anything done. Not to mention that people would be sure to stop asking me. I hurt. Every day I hurt. There is never a time when I don't hurt. So what do I say when people ask "How are you?" My usual answer is just like everyone else, "fine."  I let myself go silent because I don't want to seem like a whiner.

On particularly bad days I'll usually say something along the lines of "I'm here" or "I'm alive" or "surviving." My own private code that few understand to mean "Please just shoot me now and put me out of my misery."

On my good days I'll usually answer "I'm good."

An invisible illness is easy to forget. If you don't know that the person next to you is dealing with a chronic illness you may not realize how well she is hiding her pain.

Trying to heal

I usually try to avoid New Year's Resolutions simply because I hate the guilt when I break them. This year though I decided that rather than the usual diet and exercise resolutions I'd try to eliminate processed foods from my diet.

This is easier said than done. When I'm hungry and McDonald's is right in front of me it is really hard not to pull into the drive through. For right now just thinking of the pink paste picture that is circling the internet is enough to make me gag and drive right on by.

Sometimes deciding what is a processed food is difficult. I’m not yet ready to start making my own pasta so is it okay to buy sprouted wheat pasta and eat that? What about bread? I have a bread maker so is it better to make my own white bread or is it better to buy sprouted wheat bread?

I’m not going to make cheese, butter or cottage cheese, that stuff I’m going to buy, trying to find organic whenever possible. I’m hoping to join a CSA (community supported agriculture) as soon as possible so I can get organic fresh from the farm produce and grass fed meat.

My goal with this diet is to hopefully make my body healthier than it has been in years. I’m not sure if eating all of this processed foods, artificial ingredients, preservatives and other chemicals caused my fibromyalgia. I’m sure it didn’t help. I don’t know if it is too late to undo the damage already done. I can only be sure that by changing my diet I won’t be doing more damage.