New Member Bio/Accupuncture ?

[Guest guest]

Age range: Crowding 40 (9)

Male/female: Female

What are the symptoms? Headache, fatigue, pain, morning stiffness EVERYWHERE,

depression, jaw pain, neck/shoulder pain, pain of top of right foot, touch

sensitivity, noise sensitivity, insomnia

Has your illness been diagnosed? sort of, the MD ruled out everything else

(w/xray and blood work) gave me the FMS pamphlet, told me to go home and read

it, on my follow up appt, asked if I thought I had it. So, I guess we both

diagnosed it?

How long did you suffer before you got help? 1.5 years

Is there a time that you can remember when it started? Not really, about 1.5 to

2 years ago.

Some of us have found lack of exercise we are overweight. Have you found this to

be a problem also? Yes, I am at my all time high, but it hurts to exercise. I

need to start a h20 aerobics program, but see the next question. I'm too broke

to do so.

Are you on disability? Temporarily, going on two months.

If you are any pointers for others trying to get on disability? Cry, cry, cry.

The medical staff nay-sayed me, until out of pain and frustration I started

crying, telling them that I was missing 1-2 per month of work due to pain and I

couldn't continue like this. I had no quality of life and felt COMPLETELY

exhausted.

What have you found that helps ease the pain, warm baths, medications etc.?

Elvavil helps me sleep, massage and accupuncture.

Do you have sleep problems? How do you deal with it? I take elavil to sleep at

night and try to take one nap during the day.

Do you have family that understands your illness? Sometimes, but since I " look

normal " , it gets hard for the husband. We have two young ones, 3 and 5. My

friends really, really understand.

Some have found certain foods causes problems with CFS or Fibro, have you? No

What type of Doctor have you found that has helped you the most? Someone who is

caring and open minded. My regular MD sent me to Physical Medicine MD. He is

the one that ruled it out, although I'm not really happy with him. I had to beg

for Accupuncture since 1 month of physical therapy did nothing. He put me on

Tofranil to help sleep, which wasn't working. I asked to go on Elavil and he

told me to keep taking Tofranil. Thank goodness I had an old rx for Elavil, or I

would still be feeling sleep deprived.

I had chiari malformation surgery in 2/1993, sigmoid colectomy in 5/95 and two

c-sections, one in 1996 and one in 1999. It wasn't until I went back to full

time work in law enforcement after my second child was born that I started

getting migraines and shoulder and neck pain. I have been treated by my

neurologist for the headaches, which have decreased. Neuro thinks they are

stress induced migraines. So, the overall sx started about 1.5 to 2 years ago.

I am taking baby steps now to rid my life of stressors and try to relax more and

take better care of myself. I want to live sx free. I had the first

accupuncture treatment today.

Does anyone have any accupuncture advice?

RATMom