Fibromyalgia anyone??

I am a sufferer of Fibromyalgia. Are there any others who suffer from it too?

If so, do you have any tips for making life easier? Especially for those involved with YM.

Hi there, yes, I have fibro.
Diagnosed after my surgery for a pituitary tumor when I was 40.
At the time, before it was a fad, they said there was nothing you could do. I was on Celebrex, till it ripped my stomach up, and took Skelaxin when I needed it.
After a couple of years of just living with it, I switched doctors, for nothing to do with the fibro. I happened to just mention it in passing to him, when my arm went numb every time I raised it above shoulder height. My neurosurgeon is who had said I had fibro, and it had never even been put in my records, as, there was nothing you could do about it.
This doctor, fortunately, wasn't one of those who went, pfft about it. He'd done lots of research. After lots of dollars worth of tests to rule out Lupus, Arthritis, and all that stuff, he started me on Elavil, made me gain weight, and feel like a zombie. I also had the wildest dreams in the world, since I was probably in REM sleep for the first time in ages. Went off it after a few months.
Got divorced, decided if I was going to keep wrecking my health working two jobs at a time when he'd quit his job every couple of years, I wasn't going to do it for him.
Anyway, now, I take an Ambien, and a Xanaflex a couple of nights a week. I do stretching exercises. Luckily, he requires his sleep too, he gets up at 4:45 AM, so getting enough sleep isn't a problem. I can't take meds when I'm on call, so I limit it to a couple of nights a week. I fought the doctor on taking ambien for a long time, I was scared of taking a sleeping pill, but it's been the best thing so far.
David's awfully understanding when I'm achy, helps me stretch my shoulder when that damn spot in my back is bad.
Mostly, I just live with it though. Sleep is the most important treatment of all.
I can't do counted cross anymore, the needle starts flying out of my fingers, and my hand cramps after about five stitches. When I'm super tired, I have some vision blurring. I try to avoid refined carbs most of time, so my blood sugar stays steadier.
He's patient when I do the brain fog stuff, too. He knows its temporary.
I've been really lucky with him, my ex always said the only thing wrong with me was that I was nuts, so he is a blessing.
Realizing the fibro wasn't going to kill me, or put me in a wheelchair, unless I choose to quit moving and let my muscles shrink up was the main thing. Its just a major pain in the butt.
Pun intended.

I can totally relate to everything your saying, except for the carbs and refined sugars. I crave them so badly, I will wake up in the morning and go straight for the pringle potato chips.

Ive found that a magnesium suppliment does wonders for you. Helps with cramps, spasms, and energy. You might want to talk to your doctor about it, especially with all the meds you take.

I take Vioxx, Klonopin, Skelaxin, and tramadol.

I dont take any narcotics because I did not want to get hooked on them. Im sure I have a dependency to the tramadol, but not an addiction.

I was diagnosed after falling and breaking my tailbone, and then one month later losing my Mother tragically at a young age.

My YM is very sweet and understanding, we try to laugh about it when I cant speak properly and my words get mixed up. Its good to laugh about things. He also helps me when I ache and will give me massages.

I have it as does Dragonfly and a few others. It's actually not uncommon. It helps that some of the vets who fought in the Gulf War are coming down with it. When men are aflicted, medicine listens harder.

I take no drugs regularly except for Extra Strength Excedrin. I take a Tramadol at bedtime but am no longer conviced that it does anything. I do find that 3mg of Melatonin helps me sleep, as us Fibro folks don't tend to make enough of it for ourselves.

Have you read the latest research about Substance P? Substance P (http://snipurl.com/7pkb) It's not your imagination that you hurt... we make too much of this pain conductor. Now lets see what they do about it.

Magnesium is being tied in with FM. Check out this link. Role of Magnesium in Fibro (http://web.mit.edu/london/www/magnesium.html) I have leg cramps and am taking more Mag. My Physical Therapist also suggested tonic water. I'm trying but it tastes awful! :p

I just found that the doctor I have been trusting to keep me updated on treatments doesn't believe in FM and thinks that Rheumatologists created the disease because they didn't know what to do with the symptoms. He said it was because I was depressed but didn't seem to understand that being in pain all the time MAKES you depressed. So now I have to find a new doctor. :(

I'm going to lose weight and tone up and to hell with the medical profession, they don't know what causes this and have no help except more drugs. I'm keeping an eye on the research on Substance P, but I hold out no hope because I'm not being treated any better today then I was in 1991 when I was diagnosed.

Dave is very sweet and very helpful. He rubs the sore spots and massages my shoulders to help keep me mobile. What more could you want?

Peace,
Jane

All the meds??
I only take an Ambien and Xanaflex two or three nights a week. Period. As long as I get enough sleep, and destress as much as I can, things are pretty well ok.
All the others I mentioned were tried and stopped.
My sister is going to an internist who is doing tests for an autoimmune disorder. She has microscopic colitis, which is strongly hereditary, and only diagnosed by biopsy. We've both struggled with irritable bowel our whole lives, as have most of our siblings. She also has many of the symptoms of fibro, as do most of our siblings. Mom did too, she was regarded as a hypochondriac for years. Interestingly enough, one of the symptoms of microscopic colitis is fibromyalgia. Hmmmm. It also is part of an autoimmune syndrome, which is also strongly hereditary.
I've been putting off the scope that was recommended for several years, well, because I'm chicken, but perhaps when she gets the results of all her other tests in, I'll take her info and see what happens.
It'd just be nice to be able to have a name for something wrong without having to reassure doctors that you truly aren't nuts.
The sleep aspect is pretty interesting. As a Respiratory Therapist, I deal a lot with sleep issues. Go figure, who knows how sleep became a Respiratory issue, but it is. On a sleep study, the sleep that people with fibro have is called "non-refreshing sleep syndrome" Basically it means you never sleep deep enough to heal all the microscopic stresses of the day, so your muscles stay sore.
The things we don't know about the human body is so vast.