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.