My feelings on using anit-depressants for treament of Fibromyalgia!

Let me start by saying that I believe that anti-depressants have there place in treating FMS/CFISD. I can testify to the fact that they do get you up and moving. They did that for me for approximately 8 years. I started with Zoloft, went to Effexor XR and ended up on Cymbalta.
During that time I was able to function, not without pain though and I still would tire very easily, but was able to do much of what I needed to do to take care of my family. Something about the anti-depressants helped me to cope with what was going on in my body but I never intended to be on them permantly.

Some 3 or 4 years after beginning this course of treatment I started asking my doctor to take me off of them and I was always met with, "you really don't want to do that" and my response was "yes I do". I even went to my gynecologist for help and sought the help of a wholistic doctor who were all reluctant to take me off. I was at their mercy because I knew that you had to be weaned off of them and could not stop abruptly, I had found that out the hard way when I ran out of the perscription and didn't have it for 3 days because I didn't have the money to get it, so I was dependent on them to give me a perscription for a lessor dose to begin the weaning process.

Well, I am sure you would say if they were working why would I want to stop taking them which is what I recently did about 5 weeks ago to be exact. I always had an uncomfortable feeling about taking anti-depressants, maybe because of the social stigma attached or just my feelings about taking prescriptions drugs period. But the main reason was that I knew they were just a band-aid for what was really going on in my body. I wanted to get to the bottom of it and I didn't feel that taking anti-depressants was treating the problem. With the approval of Lyrica for treatment of Fibromyalgia I again approached my doctor with the idea of taking me off of Cymbalta and he was receptive, I guess because there was an alternative to give me. Little did I know what lie ahead.

Where Do I Go From Here?

Back to my story. Released from workers comp, new baby and still in pain. What do I do now? Well I went back to primary care doctor and he again diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia, and tells me about a treatment that involves taking guaifensen which is an expectorant for treatment of fibromyalgia, sounds crazy to me but I try it because I am desperate to feel better. This particular treatment had no effect on me. At this point I am beginning to suffer recognizable signs of depression. I've lost my mother, I have this awful pain which no one can seem to help me with, and I have two small children that I want to play with but don't have the will or the energy to do so because I hurt all the time, 24 hours a day. On a visit with my ob/gyn he suggests an anti-depressant to help with the depression I am dealing with and I discuss it with my primary care doctor and he agrees and tells me that there is some research that suggests Zoloft is helpful in treating Fibromyalgia. So, in my desperation and desire to have some since of normalcy in my life I agree to try it against my better judgement.

Does Chiropractic Care cause Fibromyalgia?

The reason I say my life was changed forever is because at this point my physical health began to go down hill. When the doctor that was sitting in for my docotor adjusted me, something went wrong. I felt something that I had never felt before. I felt worse from this point on than I had felt when I first sought treatment from my chiropracter. At this point my chiro started a real rigorous course of treatment in hopes to restore me to my former self, which I now believe only made things worse. I now believe that I was treated in excess of what the standards or protocol suggests. I was treated several times a week for the next year. I was referred to several other doctors, another chiropracter, an orthopedic doctor, pain management and so forth. I guess at this point workers comp decided there was nothing else that could be done. If only I had the wisdom I have now back then. Once workers comp sent me to their doctors they released me in more pain than when I had started. I forgot to mention during this time I was pregnant with my second child, so pain medication was out of the question. My pregancy was extremely difficult because I was in constant pain. So here I am pregnant, in pain, and no answers for what is wrong with me.

I'm going to skip ahead a few years and tell you one of my therories on chiropractic care and fibromyalgia and in the next post I'll continue my story. I believe that although I may have been pre-disposed to Fibromyalgia. I firmly believe that chiropractic care had something to do with it surfacing to the extent that it did. I understand that they now believe Fibromyalgia is a condition that has it origins in the central nervous system. I also have heard it characterized as a neurological condition. To me it stands to reason if someone jerked around on your spine incorrectly it could definitely cause neurological damage or damage to the central nervous system. I don't have any kind of medical background. This is just my own personal theory. I am curious as to whether any studies have ever been done linking the two. It seems kind of strange that Chiropractic care and Fibromyalgia seem to have kind of raised their heads around the same time frame. I'm curious to know if any of you fibromyalgia sufferers can link the beginnings of their condition to chiropractic care. Post a comment and let me know. I mentioned this to my current physcian and her thoughts were that it would be hard to link Fibromyalgia to a single contributing factor like that because there have been so many changes in the world in the last 30 years, like microwaves, cell phones, etc. What do you think?

Acceptance

It's been approximately 13 years since I was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, WOW!, and I finally within the last week have just accepted that fact. I say that because for 13 years I have said I had Fibromyalgia because that is what the doctors said was wrong with me but I never really accepted it. It has been very difficult to accept what a lot of doctors, most people and the social security disability administration don't believe exist. Imagine people always looking at you and saying, "you don't look sick" all the time. Unless you suffer with Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue there is no way you could know what this disorder is like. I have found it difficult to find words to express what I feel, but others have done it well. One of my favorites is by,

So here's my story. The year was 1994 and I was pregnant with my first child. During my pregnancy I was extemely fatigued, which I now know wasn't exactly normal, but at that time I just though that was how I was supposed to feel pregnant. Are there any other Fibro/CFIDS sufferes out there that can relate to this? Somewhere around this same time frame I woke up one morning and couldn't turn my head; I went to my primary care doctor and was sent to physical thereapy. No relief. I returned to my doctor and this is when I first heard the term Fibromyalgia. He said he wasn't sure but he thought that this was probably what was going on. I researched the condition and decided that this was not what I had. During this time period I had other streesors going on in my life as well. My son was born, April 1995 , and I was extremely anxious. I was terrified of becoming a mother and didn't sleep the first 4 days he was here. December 1996, my mother passes away due to cancer. My mother and I were extremely close, so this was very tramatic for me. In October of 1997, I was involved in an accident at work on board an airplane. I sought treament from my Chiropracter. 6 weeks into my treatment I was ready to be released to go back to work and went in for my adjustment and my chiro had another doctor sitting in for him that particular day and that is when my life as I knew it was changed forever.