Last Updated on January 18, 2015 by melissanreynolds
After a prolonged and disappointing diagnosis process that took several years, several years ago, I have seen a new doctor who understands fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.
He was respectful, understanding and impressed with all my research!
It feels unbelievably nice to have been listened to and heard. I’m getting a full work up of tests and referred to a rheumatologist. He is also going to do something called mapping.
The doctor spoke about adrenal depletion, especially for a busy, type A personality (um, guilty).
I need to really look into meditation and get myself into a more restful place as opposed to the “fight or flight” mode.
He also validated how I felt about my iron tests. My frustration at being told my level was “normal” when it was one point up from the minimum. He said he prefers 80 plus for women. So I have a lot of work to build that up again.
He also referred me to www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com for more information on the understanding of fibromyalgia he follows. Has anyone tried their approach with the guaifenesin and avoiding salicylates? It seems like a lot of work!
Let’s hope I end up with some help.
I remember reading about this years ago. I have to say, I am sceptical, especially as the website makes no mention of the recent research into FM that has found physical differences in FM patients that point to a whole different cause than ‘metabolism’. Also, I’m in the UK, where medications dont get advertised like in the USA, and I cant help thinking that if there was a treatment this cheap our NHS would have jumped on it and be using it for the cost cutting factor alone.
Having said that though, I will follow your progress with interest. I have suffered thanks to lyrica and cymbalta and tramadol etc and now only take a non opiate painkiller that i believe isnt available in the USA, but which research here shows is the only painkiller that does work for FM. I have also found ultra high dose supplements of vitamins, minerals and omega oils help too.Anything is worth a try. I really hope it works. It would be worth all the checking of every label. So dont let my cynicism put you off, please.
Thank you for your comment! I am sceptical also. My Dr did say that different things can work for different patients, other people may have been helped by the vitamins the naturopath tried with me, others will be helped by other things. There are so many “solutions” and programmes. I do think it depends on the individual, as we all got here differently and have different chemical make ups and different presentations of pain. But avoiding salicylates seems very difficult! We’ll see what the tests suggest first 🙂