OK so I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia

I had been feeling it for a while and it slowly had gotten worse. So I went to my doctor and they gave me the diagnosis. So she has me on Gabapentin 600 twice a DAY .

Seems to work ok and help me t sleep as well

Anyone else using Gabapentin for their fibromyalgia?

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Ex girlfriend was a nurse for many years and fibromyalgia was one of her pet hates as she was adamant it doesn't exist, the experienced Hungarian doctors at her hospital had never heard of it until they started working in the UK and treated it with bemusement. Apparently it's a lazy diagnosis when doctors can't be arsed to properly investigate or diagnose a problem but it stops the patients asking for more tests.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

My son is on Gabapentin for fibro as well as many other meds. It took him several years but he finally got full disability. He is in pain 24/7 and his sleep is really messed up - legs twitch uncontrollably and he obviously doesn't get into full deep sleep at all. The meds or the disease have also changed his personality completely; used to be easy going and very productive, now can hardly function and is angry all the time.

His onset may trace back to a Ciprofloxacin (fluoride) antibiotic he was given for strep throat; I'm unsure because he was away at college at the time but he changed overnight. It was years before he got a diagnosis but 'causation' is never mentioned or addressed. I'm highly suspicious it was the Cipro and there is a lot of reading on line discussing that if you're interested. They also discuss trying to get the fluoride and accompanying neurotoxicity out of your system, sooner rather than later being preferred as the damage may be permanent. Make sure your diet is optimal with large doses of Vitamin C and the B complexes - both being necessary for nerve and tissue healing.

It's definitely a real disease, but like with a lot of other things (vaccines and the possible relationship to SIDS and autism) the discussion of causation is considered a conspiracy theory rather than being honestly discussed. It's known to hit women more so than men but my son is a small, lightweight guy; this may instead point to the dose of Cipro (?) versus body weight.

a reply to: MagnaCarta2015
Sorry. I didn't think it existed myself until I saw a Rheumatologist.
I have horrible joint damage do to chronic Tophaceous Gout and once that was addressed the daily 100.5-101 fevers were investigated.
Every muscle in my body hurt. Everyday.

I considered a good day when I didn't have to psyche myself up for 10 minutes just to get up and go to the bathroom.

He put me on Lyrica and after a while replaced it with Gabapentin(which is very similar to Lyrica in chemical composition).

I feel soooo much better now and it only took about a week before the relief began.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Get a second opinion to be honest.
My mother had it, then when my parents moved she went to a new doctor and when he whipped out her files he had my mother do all sorts of tests ... turned out a lot of the stuff she was on was useless and she was basically just in early stages of arthritis, which EVERYONE gets when they get older, her's was just a little more aggressive due to her past of playing lots of soccer into her late 30s.
I am no expert, but I am sure it exists in the medical world. But it's probably rare. Either way, take caution with this sort of thing, do a little research and get a second opinion.

a reply to: MagnaCarta2015

And why would anyone previously healthy and attending law school with ease all of a sudden overnight develop widespread severe pain, inability to sleep and a host of other problems? Many of my son's symptoms were impossible to fake (like the legs twitching so badly while he tried to sleep that he nearly threw himself out of bed).

Your ex-girlfriend needs an empathy transplant, and the doctors need to stop prescribing medicines without reading the inserts and warnings first... Cipro has long been associated with bad outcomes and yet it's still prescribed. It, along with a host of other medicines, needs to be banned and class action lawsuits instituted against both the manufacturers as well as the 'doctors' that prescribe them.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

That is serious, ChesterJohn. I am sorry. It;s treatable, but will be tough.

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

The symptoms aren't fake, I wasnt suggersting that. Fibromyalgia as a genuine identifiable medical condition is a matter of contention within the medical community. There's a lot of research and forums for medical professionals out there that question it, at the very least it's massively over diagnosed.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in my mid 30's. I'm not currently on any meds but I tried almost all of them in the past. I can't even begin to give you a list of the meds I tried for the various symptoms I have. For me, the meds were just awful. Trading a symptom for a side effect of the meds. I think the sleep problems are the worst IMO because it just exacerbates the other symptoms. Hope you do well.

To the poster with the exgirlfriend that doesn't believe in it ... I hope she never suffers from it. She will believe if she ever does. I do believe it is something the doctors have no clue what to do about but, that doesn't mean it isn't real.

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
I had been feeling it for a while and it slowly had gotten worse. So I went to my doctor and they gave me the diagnosis. So she has me on Gabapentin 600 twice a DAY .

Seems to work ok and help me t sleep as well

Anyone else using Gabapentin for their fibromyalgia?

i have crps. different illness but basically the same as far as pain. it is terrible. bummer man.

yes, i am on gabapentin. it does absolutely nothing for me. i am going to titrate off on the 1st.
i also get 120 30mg roxicodone...those work....not so nice side effects with those though.

i am very surprised that with a fibro diagnosis you are only taking gabapentin. that is for nerve pain but people prescribed that almost always have something for breakthrough. that is where the roxi comes in.
if they are not on a breakthrough med and are on a long extended release deal then that is where the oxy and opana and fentanyl come in.

if you have fibro and all you take is the gabapentin and you feel better and there is less pain then you are in good shape man...that is awesome. most people with fibro do not have it so lucky.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

A close friend died last year of ,what can only be described as, complications due to fibromyalgia. Over the past several years I began to notice that I was experiencing similar symptoms as her. For many many moons I dismissed fibromyalgia as so much BS. A neurologist nearly killed me with pharmaceuticals dancing around a fibro diagnosis. The first one he tried was Gabapentin. It caused amnesia. Four months of my life a complete blank. The next drug, Cymbalta, is the one that nearly got me and after that I said no more doctors. Seriously, no more doctors until they need one to sign a death certificate.

Anyway the long story short, I've been trying every concoction I've heard about trying to get some pain relief and some "get up and go" back (completely desperate to get some kind of quality of life back). The fibro seems to walk hand in hand with chronic fatigue. Three months ago I caught a Youtube video on iodine deficiency and thought what the hell, what could it hurt to try. Without exaggeration I can say that Lugol's Iodine gave me my life back.

First off, everybody should be taking some amount of it because nearly every human in the Western world is iodine deficient. USRDA recommendations are a joke. The recommendations are set just high enough to keep a rat from manifesting deficiency related health problems but will not provide for optimal health in rats or people (check out Linus Pauling on vitamin C).

You can go the traditional medicine route if you want but I'll tell you what I tell everyone else, keep going to the doctors and eventually one of them will kill you. They can't practice what they're not taught and the things that will keep you healthy without them is not taught. Can't imagine why, can you?

I've recommended Lugol's to numerous people and I've yet to hear of one who didn't derive substantial benefits from its use. I take eight drops daily and will from now on. The wife takes it and promotes it to her circle of friends. It's just amazing stuff and dirt cheap to boot.

I didn't want to get wordy but this is something near and dear and something I've dealt with for nearly six years. I've tried a plethora of things over those years and some worked, but, not for long. This is what I find to be the most bizarre part of the story. The things that worked never worked for longer than two weeks (same complaint as my deceased friend). It's almost as though whatever the root cause actually is (virus, nanite or whatever) it's "smart". It has appeared, at least to me, to adjust to whatever it is that is working and kills the beneficial effect in its tracks. It's for this reason I've come to believe that fibromyalgia is a man made ailment that either escaped from a lab or was intentionally turned loose on us. Yeah, yeah I know. Anyhow I had to see the Lugol's work for at least a month to have any faith at all in it and now it has been close to four months and it's still going strong.

The choice is yours. As for me I refuse to go through life with part of my brain turned off or addicted to opiates to cope. Three years on Oxycontin and the last four months weaning off was a real party I'd suggest everybody miss if they can. Unless you're allergic to shellfish (iodine sensitivity) for less than ten bucks a month what have you got to lose? I'd also recommend the 5% solution as the best all around strength. To your good health my friend.

Oh it's real and it's awful. I have been diagnosed with Fibro as well. Well, one dr thinks its CRPS and another one thinks it's Fibro but at the end of the day, I am in pain 24/7. Somedays it can be 10 on the pain scale and other days it can be 4-5ish. I am or have been at some time on a different concotion of meds - cymbalta, lycrica, gabepentin, flexiril, zolpicone, etc for all the symptons but nothing really helps the pain. Can't make my limbs work some days, and my husband has to help me to the loo. Just a year prior, I had hiked down and back up the Grand Canyon just to give you an example of what my fitness level used to be.

Cymbalta is the devil itself. Dangerous stuff.

I am going to be trying some medical mj soon. Well, medical for my use. The strain I will be trying is supposed to help alot with pain without the physcosis. Wish me luck.

a reply to: SentientCentenarian

How awful for your son, it pains me to hear of someone in such misery at a young age like that. Has it been established that the gabapentin interacts correctly with his other medications? I take gabapentin (300 mg's twice daily) mainly for the neuropathy in my feet caused by diabedes and can honestly say it works beautifully. However, I can also say that if I take too much it really messes with my brain, even my eyes and makes me VERY irritable and takes a while to dissipate. It's not a drug to mess with for sure, so I would make sure it interacts properly with his other meds... or even change to another one that serves the same purpose. All the drugs used for neuropathy or fibromyalgia can have the same contraindications and should be used at lowest dosages to begin with. Good luck with it all.

a reply to: CmdrZero

I've heard of Lugol's and due to your personal testimony, I will be ordering it tomorrow. Did you have sleep issues and if so did the Lugol's help that issue? Honestly, I have just about given up. If it helps even just one of my symptoms it will be worth it. After I was diagnosed, I googled Fibromyalgia because I worked in the medical field and had always been told that it was a crap diagnosis. I had no opinion on it until I was diagnosed. I was shocked at the symptoms that I had. I had every symptom to some degree. Some more so than others. To describe it as debilitating is an understatement. Thanks for the tip.

originally posted by: CCKP72
Oh it's real and it's awful. I have been diagnosed with Fibro as well. Well, one dr thinks its CRPS and another one thinks it's Fibro but at the end of the day, I am in pain 24/7. Somedays it can be 10 on the pain scale and other days it can be 4-5ish. I am or have been at some time on a different concotion of meds - cymbalta, lycrica, gabepentin, flexiril, zolpicone, etc for all the symptons but nothing really helps the pain. Can't make my limbs work some days, and my husband has to help me to the loo. Just a year prior, I had hiked down and back up the Grand Canyon just to give you an example of what my fitness level used to be.

Cymbalta is the devil itself. Dangerous stuff.

I am going to be trying some medical mj soon. Well, medical for my use. The strain I will be trying is supposed to help alot with pain without the physcosis. Wish me luck.

people dog on opiates but i will tell you they work.
there are side effects. with enough mg of it you get constipated. it can be pretty bad if you have a terrible diet. if you drink a decent amount of water and get your fiber right you will be fine.

are opiates addictive? hell yes
if you stop cold turkey will you get sick? hell hell yes. very sick. wishing you would die sick.

those above reasons are why you dont act like pookie from new jack and actually follow the docs instructions.
i take 120 mg of it every day. for about 3 years now. it is the only thing that lets me function and i am high functioning. i work in a high stress environment. im on the hustle all day. it does not effect my abilities. thinking, rational, or anything like that.....because i take it as prescribed.

if i were to stop right now and not take another pill by tomorrow night i would be starting to dt. by the next day i will fell pretty bad and the day after that would be like the first level of hell.
how do we avoid this?

if you are going to come off you titrate down....just as prescribed....
for the next couple days i would take 3 instead of 4. then 2 instead of 3...etc etc.
then i dont get sick. no bad feelings.

i also think that people feel like if you are prescribed vicodin or something you are automatically going to become a fiend. i never feel agitated because i am late taking my pill. my pain level will tell me i am late if i just couldnt do it.
i dont feel like i need to go steal a bunch of # and go score more opiates...

its just a medication like a blood pressure pill or something for a prostate.
many opiates are on the world health organizations list of essential medicines.....
it is like that for a reason.
there are people that need it and when those people take it as they are supposed to it greatly improves their quality of life.
its the people that do not take it as prescribed and snort them and take 5 at a time instead of 1 that # it up for people like me that really need the medicine.

choice is up to each of us of course. some people choose cherry root and cod liver bull#......i choose opiates.
if shark balls work for you then that is awesome. seems like hokum to me but that does not mean a thing

originally posted by: Khaleesi
a reply to: CmdrZero

I've heard of Lugol's and due to your personal testimony, I will be ordering it tomorrow. Did you have sleep issues and if so did the Lugol's help that issue? Honestly, I have just about given up. If it helps even just one of my symptoms it will be worth it. After I was diagnosed, I googled Fibromyalgia because I worked in the medical field and had always been told that it was a crap diagnosis. I had no opinion on it until I was diagnosed. I was shocked at the symptoms that I had. I had every symptom to some degree. Some more so than others. To describe it as debilitating is an understatement. Thanks for the tip.

hey man more power to you. get the lugol and i hope it works but i have a pretty good feeling you are going to be in pain.
my rec would be go see a doc and get your meds right.

it is not just opiates either. those are the main ones but there is neurontin off the top of my head. other nerve pills.
millions of people take this # for a reason.

i dont know. personally i trust my doc and the WHO more than people raving about lugol.
no offense to anyone....i just dont get it.

either way. hope you feel better. quality of life goes way down with a diog like we have but it can be managed so whatever helps you you should do it......cant hurt

Research have a correlation between gluten intolerance and fibromyalgi, however research concluded it cannot be confirmed they are directly affecting.. But the group was pain free when avoiding, egg, gluten and milk in their diet..

First many people that have been told they have fibro don't have fibro.

Many have been diagnosed with fibro really have small fiber polyneuropathy.
Many doctors are lazy or not trained on what new research is showing.
www.medscape.com...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
www.painresearchforum.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
I will BET that no one here has had the punch biopsy to diagnose small fiber neuropathy.
I was told 15 years ago i had fibromyalgia only to find some symptoms did not match fibro but did mtch small fiber polyneuropathy.

15 years ago the doctors found i had the autoimmune disease Sarcoidosis while trying to diagnose the fibromyalgia.

It was not till years later that i found sarcoidosis can cause small fiber polyneuropathy.

Then i took 4 years for me to find a doctor to test my for small fiber polyneuropathy because i already had been diagnosed with fibro.
Only when i hit 65 and went on medicare that i found a doctor that did not know about the fibro and got tested for small fiber polyneuropathy.

Small fiber polyneuropathy is a real disease and not a syndrome and you will be treated better by doctors because it shows on the punch biopsy test.
Unlike fibro that does not show on any lab tests.

I took gabapentin for 9 years and also electrocuted my self for hours a day with 2 TENS units.
the TENS will over time kill the pain and causes the body to create natural pain hormones called Endorphins.
Endorphins ("endogenous morphine") are endogenous opioid neuropeptides that activate the body's opiate receptors, causing an analgesic effect.

Oh wow, i read through the whole post, so many people that just tries to live with pain...
Most people arent the same, when my dog cant digest a certain kind of food, it shows even though his brother can digest it.. Nature gives us a set of genes and removes a set of genes.. Those who survived in the past, well they could eat something someone else couldnt..

Start removing certain stuff out of your food, cause the pain will be there, the rest of your life..Pain free is a sacrifice.. But it gives you your life back..