Debra
Hi, I've had five doctors. One said the FM pain strikes the hips. I also see a teaching doctor, he believes FM is a chemical defficiency, Seritonin. Sleepness occured first in my case. It went on for 4 years. 6 months ago the pain did start in my thighs, knees, ankels, and bottom of my feet were sore. In January, the teaching doctor prescribed 2 fairly recent meds called Remeron and Effexor. Remeron knows exactly where the seritonin receptors are. It took about two months before they reached their optimum concentration, every nite sleep got longer and better. I now have dreams again. As for the pain, I've found that a 30mg plus a 12.5mg of Vioxx or 200mg of Celabrex handles it. I'm now starting 5mg/day of Prednisone for 3 months. My girlfriend tried this and claims she's totally pain free. I went to a doctor to get an MRI. His last words to me was don't expect the test to come back positive. The results showed 5 bulges between C-1 & C-5. 20-20 with Barbara Walters has featured FM twice, the 2nd show was about a "break-through". There are two doctors, one in Chicago and one somewhere else in the U.S. that have been doing traditional nuerosurgery on FM patients with good results. MSNBC is going to feature FM tonite 7 p.m. When I pick my medication up, all I see at the counters is Glucosamine Chondroitan, COQ10, SAMe, 5-HTP on the counter when I pay. This is helping us and the doctors become more aware of this epidemic. Never give up.