Will there ever be any relief from Fibromyalgia?

Hi Amber,

I too have to use narcotics for pain relief. And right now I am not too happy about it, but it is what it is. And I have been living with it. I do find that walking helps me, and staying busy. I don't think about the pain as much.

It sounds like you have a lot on your plate. And I am sorry that it feels like medication is the only route. But new things come in all the time, and hopefully we can find another way to relieve the pain.

The Cymbalta can take six to eight weeks to reach full potential. I don't think it is six months.

To be honest, I don't know how you do all that you do. Working so much and so late. That must be hard. I hope the Cymbalta works for you. There is also lyrica and I believe savella. Maybe these can help you too.

I hope that you feel better soon.

Hugs, Karen...

If you are taking less than prescribed, and you have pain, you might want to reassess your treatment plan.

None of use like to take medications. I don't. But choices need to be made. You can get away with fewer pills if you are less active/busy. Many people chose this route. It works well for them, but they know that sometimes they will need more.

The full-time workers or extra-busy people need to be aware of their pain levels and low energy. Since everyone is different, this needs to be considered on a case-by-case scenario. If you stay busy AND take less medication, you will have more flares and feel worse all the time.

For me, I can handle the exhaustion better than the pain. I can generally ignore pain, and take painkillers regularly. This way, I can get through what I need to accomplish. I take a sleep aid and a muscle relaxer at night. I have noticed, over the past decade, that sleep is the most important component for me.

Also, bear in mind that some medications will NOT work for you or be as effective. Cymbalta did nothing to help the pain, and actually precipitated a huge depressive period for me.

Fibro can be managed. It sounds as if your condition is not being managed. So you will need to decide how to tackle it.

Well, in order to successfully ignore the pain, you need to manage it.

Why narcs? I take tramadol during the day, since I drive and work and all that fun stuff. I have been pretty consistent with tramadol during the day, and hydrocodone at night. I only take more painkillers on a very active day, like when we go hiking or something.

Perhaps you also need to try some mindfulness/breathing. It's an active way to relax, because you are working to DO something. It's good for people with fibro and depression to take some time to decompress.

I find i can use less pain killer, if i take it ahead of the pain getting bad...i use tramadol..but if i take a mini dose before the pain gets bad..i can be more active because i did not let myself go there...

Hi Amber. Sorry to hear you are having such a bad time. Did you mean Cymbalta 60mg? I take 60mg in the a.m. and one at bedtime. I'm not sure if it helps with pain but it does help me with depression.

I also take Gabapentin 600mg 4x daily. I think this may help me the most with pain. I usually take 1mg of Xanax at some point during the day to help with anxiety or if I'm about to lose my mind.

I take 30mg of extended release Morphine twice a day. I also have immediate release 15mg Morphine up to 3x a day for breakthrough pain. I take these for Fibromyalgia and Arthritis. I do not wait to take the 30's for pain. I take them almost 12 hours apart no matter what. It's alot easier to prevent severe pain than to lessen it once it's full blown.

I know Morphine sounds extreme but it's nothing like the iv kind people associate it with. I don't feel any type of high with it. I think any type of high is ate up by the pain. I'm closely monitored by a pain management doctor. (I also have a fairly high tolerance to most medication.)

I just started taking just over a teaspoon of virgin coconut oil every morning for several days now. I am truly amazed at the energy I am having for the first time ever since I started having Fibromyalgia symptoms! I bought it for $10 at the local grocery store. I would now recommend everyone try it at that price.

I recently ordered vitamin D3 and Magnesium Malate (UPS delivered it to the wrong house so the company sent more). I'm really excited to try these as well.

Everyone with Fibromyalgia responds so differently to medication. It really does suck to suffer from all these different symptoms and then to have to try a million different things for them to do nothing to little. (I suppose I need to work on my attitude next! )

I really admire your work ethic. You really are working your behind off! I hope you can possibly get a better job that will allow you to work alittle less. Good luck, Amber. Keep us posted.

Dawn

I'm sorry, Amber. I don't mean to hijack your thread but felt I needed to respond to Rickrick's consecutive posts. I do hope you are trying things and find some that help relieve your pain.

Rickrick, I hope you are praising this forum and not belittling it. I can't tell since you don't write in sentences. That would be helpful, by the way. People would understand you better. Anyway, I hope you are praising this forum because a lot of work has gone into it to make it one of the best fibro forums out there. We have just about anything you would want to know about fibro and things are backed up with links. We also allow varied opinions and let the members decide what they want to believe or try. You did imply that our answers are slowly changing. I know mine aren't because I suggest what has helped me and I've been here nine years so I also know what has helped others. This is what I relay to newbies. I also keep abreast of new things and let people know about it. This is how we learn.

The entire forum, HealingWell, has won awards and has been written about in magazines, discussed on TV (that's how I heard about it), and gets much praise. Many of our members have been here for years helping others so that makes us special too.

I do hope you have gotten help here. When you came you said you were going insane and I know I tried to help even though the issues you discussed were not fibro related. But I think you are saying that you are now looking ahead for answers and not just settling for what some doctors have told you. I'm glad about that. I do hope you are on a road to recovery now.

By the way, diet and food discussions are to be put on one thread. It keeps it all together. So, I copy and pasted your food discussions in there and deleted it off Amber's thread.

Sherrine

Hi, Amber,
Glad you are here.
I know they say Cymbalta and Savella can take weeks to start working, but for me, they worked immediately, even when I was on the first week titrating dose and not the full dose. I was amazed. I have been on both of these drugs because for me and many others, these kind of drugs, called SNRI's, can have something they actually call "poop out syndrome," meaning they lose effectiveness after being effective. By saying they work for me, what I mean is that they reduce my pain by 30 to 60%. With fibro, I have never been totally out of pain except for when I take a narcotic.

Like you, I do not want to become reliant on narcotics….having said that, there are nights when I just can't sleep because of the pain. I use tramadol, usually one, sometimes 2, as directed by my doc. I also work full time and have to function all day wether I feel like it or not. At night, I need to get my rest and sleep in order to keep up with it all. I also try to swim laps at the Y 2-3 times a week.

You are among friends here. Have you tried resting on a big heating pad? I do that all winter long. I get fibro knots in my muscles, especially in my upper arms and they hurt quite a bit. I see a therapuetic massage therapist who can relieve my pain for a few days, but I can oly afford to see her about once a month or so.
Keep up with the threads, and use the search feature for threads from the past that you might be interested in.
HEART

Post Edited (<3) : 8/25/2014 6:19:05 PM (GMT-6)