Hi Donna: I have had fibromyalgia for 10 years now. It took 5 years to get a diagnosis, and another 5 to find a doctor who knows what they are doing. The best I ever felt was taking amitriptiline at bedtime, and a flexeril during the day as well as attending Curves. I have a heating pad by Tempurpedic that I use everyday. Gentle stretching, keeping my weight down, quitting smoking and gentle massage are also good. Getting restful sleep is imperative to treating fibromyalgia. Make that an important goal. The doctor I have now has me only on Flexeril, as the chemical makeup of it and amitriptiline are almost identical. He has also added Klonopin to reduce my jerking. I am sleeping a whole lot better.

My symptoms were many: Restless legs (jerking), blurred and changing vision, widespread pain, multiple knotted areas of pain, TMJ, sleeplessness, migraines, numbness, tingling and on and on. I then developed cervical disk disease and have had surgery at C6-7 to remove the damaged disk and fuse that part of my cervical spine.

That was going well until last November. Unfortunately, fibromyalgia is the least of my problems right now. Overlying the FMS and causing more pain is the set in of rheumatoid arthritis and adult human growth hormone deficiency. The deficiency, interestingly enough, has recently been discovered in many who have fibromyalgia. In my particular case, I now have to have daily injections (like some diabetics) to bring my body back to my age of 41. My levels of growth hormone are that of an 82 year old.

I see you are from Ohio. If you are close to Thomas J. Romano in Martins Ferry, OH - he is one of the top doctors in the US and travels the world speaking and teaching. He also conducts research.

I would also suggest looking at these sites:


[ May 09, 2004, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: Dian ]