I was diagnosed a year ago but have had the pain for a little over 2 1/2 years. I was diagnosed by three different doctors. (Primary, Rheum., and an orthopedic surgeon) I have four kids and don't like takign pills because they make me feel "off" I do take flexeril, trazadone and as much ibuprophin as my stomach can take to try and help with the pain and sleep. I've been doing physical therapy for the past six months and that hasn't help with reagaining any strength. I haven't been able to work for the past 1 1/2 years and I've been fighting with the lovely SSA for benefits. At least I have masshealth so I can go to the doctors. I have heard that you can get cortisone shots in my hip when they are flaring so I can walk. I'm so overloaded with conflicting info that my head hurts. lol Now my doctor just told me she's leaving the state and I have to find a new doctor by the end of the month. It took me a year to find her! no doctor o talk to wants to treat a fibro patient. :( What do I do?

First let me say welcome to the board. I don't know what to say about your doc. It seems that is happening to a lot of people these days. My doc has two children and I worry she is going to want to give up her practice to be with her children more. I have been fortunate that I haven't had to make the search through doc after doc to find a good one. I will say though don't give up your search, you have to be your own best advocate. You could do a search on docs in your area through the internet or try calling the local hospitals, they usual have a physician referral number and you can ask them about docs that treat fibro.

Trying to find the right medication protocol can be daunting. It is a lot trial and error. I try to take the least amount of medicine I can and I use exercise and vitamins to help. The thing that is most important for me to keep going is sleep, I have to take an ambienCR at night and muscle relaxers to sleep. If I can get 8hrs. of good quality sleep then I can manage fairly well with my other meds. I take prednisone and diclofenac for joint pain of CTD and Cytomel for thyroid problems. It takes a while to get to the right meds.

I have had the cortisone shot in my shoulder when I had a frozen shoulder and it was wonderful. It may help you. I think there are others on the boards that have had them. Just remember always to take a few minutes to stop and take some deep breaths. We get in so much pain we start breathing shallow breaths and that just sometimes makes it worse.

There will be others with some great advice that can be of more help than me. Remember fibro is what you have not who you are......attitude is everything.

Glojer

If you're taking lots of ibuprofen you need to be taking Prilosec too. Ibuprofen can destroy your stomach. I can't take it anymore, even with Prilosec.

I agree with you Grapedy. When I was taking NSAIDS - long ago it was Naproxen -- then more recently Ibuprofen -- I always took something to protect my stomach. I'm not sure of the early brand names. But the point is, after taking them off and on for 25 years, my stomach is still okay. So if the nsaids work for you, taking Prilosec is critical. In Canada, it is a prescription called Losec (Pri-losec/Losec - get it?;)) and each pill costs $1.25.
As a matter of fact, I don't take nsaids now, just once in a while, and I still take Losec, maybe every 3 days. I think it helps even though the meds I take for pain are not nsaids. Pile any large amount of meds in your stomach and it has to react, right?
The cortisone shots? I had a few, but honestly, I think any relief I felt was because of the "freezing" put in my hip before the cortisone. Soon as it wore off, pain is back.
Jebrelco - has your rheumie considered any other treatment protocol for your hip? Is there inflammation there, or is it treated as "just fibromyalgia"?
Keep in touch with the board - we will try to help.
Wishing you peace and comfort,
Paddy

jebralco, I'm sorry that you're having so much pain, I am going through the same thing. I feel like I have tried so many different medications and they just don't seem to help. Have you ever tried message therapy? That seems to help me better than physical therapy so maybe you could try that. I haven't worked in a long time either (since 2004) but I haven't tried to applied for disabilities yet, I hear that it is very hard to get. Have you heard back form them at all, I just don't know how people like us are expected to hold a job? I also wanted to ask you out of all the doctors that you've seen which one has helped you the most? I have not seen a rheumatologist yet for some reason they sent me to a neurologist for treatment, do you think that seeing the rheumatologist helped you? I wish I could help you more, I hope you're having a pain free day today.

Good question Moetwins; I was sent to the rheumy but that was the worst. She did all the proper test and all and offered to send me to pain management ( which with the place in question would have been nothing more than a pills dispenser). She was rude, short and snappy, and really wanted nothing more to do with me once she found out that there wasn't anything "seriously" wrong with me.
The best understanding came from my reg. doc who was very knowledgeable and compassionate. Unfortunately, I moved to any other state three months ago and most of the medical people around here go "you got what?:confused:" Whoever treats you with the most compassion is the one I'd stick with. Sometimes, the so-called experts have the bedside manner of soured milk.:( If the one that's kindest to you lacks information, you can become informed together. Most caring doctors are always looking to learn new things to help treat their patients.

But it is true, you must be your strongest advocate. If you need meds, say so. If the ones you have don't work, insist on something else. If you are like me and refuse to take anymore meds, then refuse to be bullied into taking them. You are the only one who has to live with the pain, no one else.

Wishing you relief.
Donna:)

Donna1964, I'm so sorry that you had such a bad experience with that rheumy. I have heard that some Doctors act as if FM isn't a problem and that is really sad. A lot of people on here seem to see rheumatologist but I am pretty happy with how my neurologists
has treated me so I guess that is more than I could ask for. I hope you can find a good Doctor where you live now. Thanks for answering my question, it really helped. ;)

My fibro is treated by my PCP who is an osteopath. I do see a rheumatologist though for my joints but he is so far away I decided to try someone close. My first visit with her was to just be evaluated and to take lots of blood. I was impressed with the tests she wanted to run. She had me work off my meds from the first rheumy and then come back to see her for my second visit. She said I didn't have anything wrong with my joints and sat down and wrote me a prescription for antidepressants. She said it would help me sleep. I said I take ambien for that, she said it would help me anyway. I said I don't need it I'm not depressed. She said take it in the morning, I said if I take it in the morning how will it help me sleep. She said it will help you and went and got me a bag full of samples to take and a booklet. I said how about my joint pain, she said oh ok we can give you something for that. She gave me a sulfer type pill which she said would upset my stomach. I left her office cancelled my next appt. and threw the samples of meds and the prescriptions in the trash. My rheumy may be 20mi. away, but he listens to me, never rushes me and treats me conservatively it is worth the drive.

Is is really just rheumys or just some docs in general that are so rude.

Glojer

Hi Glojer,
I think it is just some doctors in general. Unfortunately for us it's a lot of doctors because they either don't believe in fibro or just don't get it. We all have this strange need to explain things. Doctors/scientist have that need in over drive. When they are presented with something they can't dissect and figure out how it works they are either driven to find the answer or they disassociate from the question. That's why you read so many stories about doctors/scientist who got and illness (or someone dear to them did) and they became consumed with finding answers to the what is it, why is it, and how do we make it stop questions. Unfortunately for us we don't seem to have any doctors/scientist who have come down with a terrible case of fibro.:D

I have been dealing with shoulder and back pain for 2 years. I have seen neurologists, orthopedic surgeons and pulmonary doctors. They have found nothing. I recently moved to Florida and started seeing this pulmonary doctor who after 10 minutes and no tests diagnosed me with Fibro. He put me on 450 mg of Lyrica, 150 mg Trazodone and 200 mg Ultram ER. The meds are expensive but if you have it I think they really work. I however don't think I have Fibro so I stopped taking the meds and now take valium10 mg 4 x a day which seems to be working great. If your going to be diagnosed with fibro make sure its done by either an orthopedic surgeon or a neurologist because there's like 26 sensitivity spots which determine wether or not you have it. I hope this helps.

Orthopedic surgeon isn't necessarily a good choice for FM patients. They're not trained to treat muscles, they treat bones. A neurologist can be a good choice sometimes. It all really comes down to whether or not the doc acknowledges that it's real. If a cardiologist acknowledges that it is a real disease he is qualified to treat it.

I'm still a big fan of the internist though. FM is right up their alley since we often require multiple meds to get it under control and that is their specialty.