Fibromyalgia

[FEIGN]

I am looking for any information on the disease known as "FIBROMYALGIA". My wife was diagnosed with it about 1-1/2 years ago. It is a pretty nast condition. You are severly fatigued, in constant pain, dizzy, headaches, brain fog, non-restorative sleep, depression and anxiety. As far as I know there is Know cure. There are many doctors who don't even believe it is a real disease, they think it is all in the patients head. There is no definitive test for it either, basically they test you for every other known disease and if you don't have any of those then you mus have Fibromyalgia. There are also no specific treatments, what works for some people may not work for others.

This condition is destroying our marriage and our lives.

If anyone have any new infor regarding treatments or cures, please post a reply.

Thank you

[Cedar]

As far as I know, there are no known cures for fibromyalgia, though the symptoms can be controlled through, among other things, diet and exercise. I know more than one woman who has it, and they say it is most definitely real, an autoimmune disorder that has caused them problems ranging from severe depression to headaches. I would suggest reading some online newsletters or finding books about the condition, educating yourselves as best as possible, and finding a doctor who believes you. Remember that when Chronic Fatigue Syndrome first started showing up, no one believed that was real, either.

I wish you and your wife the best.

[bajwae]

Both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are basically catch-all phrases that doctors use when someone has aches, pains, and fatigue that they can't explain.

Either they're real diseases that we don't know the cause of, or these people have something else wrong with them that is being missed.

While there aren't any cures available (hard to do when you don't really know what causes it), some antidepressants have been shown to work. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (a form of psychotherapy) is also helpful.

It may be that these help because there's a strong psychological component to the disease. Alternatively, it may be that they help because people can better deal with the symptoms. No one really knows.

[yoshi]

I have both lupus and fibromyalgia. It totally sucks too. Anyway, my rheumatologist put me on Elavil. Once a day at night. It helps me sleep, it helps the pain. I also take Plaquenil for my lupus and the two together really make a difference. I don't hurt anymore, even during the day. I still feel tired a lot, but that is the two diseases together teaming up on me.

I strongly suggest trying the Elavil. It comes in different strengths. I only take 10mg a night and it works.

Good luck.

[Me So Horny]

There is a standard treatment for fibromyalgia and it includes use of a tricycyclic antidepressant (TCA) like Elavil and aerobic exercise.

Many diseases don't have cures but only treatments. These range from common diseases like hypertension to inflammatory bowel disorders like Crohn's disease. One difficulty in fibromyalgia is that the pain and tenderness can't be seen and is thus hard to measure. We can see things that we think would hurt by visual inspection or xray, but if we can't see a cause we have difficulty acknowledging its existence.

[gonadman]

There are criteria for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. These criteria mainly deal with the location and number of trigger points that are tender to palpation in addition to the chronicity of the symptoms. The older tricyclic antidepressants, such as elavil can help as stated above. Many of the newer seretonin uptake inhibitors(SSRI's) also work well and are alot safer than the tricyclics.

[axolotls]

try trigger point therapy for myofascial dysfunction to help ease the pain.