Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia: An Eye-Opening Discovery

​Back when I was in my 30’s, after having three beautiful children, the only health concerns I had were the unexplained pain and fatigue I was experiencing. It didn’t feel normal as all of my peers were still living hard, active lives doing a multitude of activities with their kids and not complaining of pain or fatigue. I thought it was my diet, lack of exercise, stress of being a mom of three, lazy, whatever-fill-in-the-blank reason I could think of. I tried everything from doctors’ tests, to diet, to exercise, to supplements, to anti-depressants, to find no relief and no answers. Funny how I had a friend back in ’96 tell me she had Fibromyalgia and I thought it was just a cop-out excuse for her wanting ailments, and I was experiencing the beginning stages of my road to deterioration. Those days of thinking are over! Who wants to be sick and tired all the time!
 
But it wasn’t until 2008 when another friend gave me a book about Fibromyalgia written by Dr. St. Amand that I had that AHA moment. I wasn’t just suffering from pain and fatigue! I was also suffering from a myriad of symptoms that he explained were all related to Fibromyalgia.  I want to share with you my experiences with these symptoms and how they have slowly but steadily disappeared.

​Fibromyalgia has this funny tendency to come and go, manifest in various annoying ways, and have no reasons for developing in the first place. I have heard a variety of suppositions as to what causes it: major traumatic events like pregnancy or car accidents; extreme amounts of stress; depression and weakness of mind; lack of motivation and exercise; poor health habits; apnea and not enough restful sleep; imagination and hypochondria; really???? Are these truly the reasons we are suffering? Do we really want to be sick and tired all the time? No, a resounding no!
 
Amazingly, Dr. St. Amand made perfect sense to me. I could feel the nodules on my body that he wrote about. I could feel them going away as I worked the protocol, even though I wasn’t perfect at it. My symptoms started to become debilitating, though, because of using fast acting guai and going on and off the protocol, so that’s when I contacted Becky Johnson to coach me on the protocol. I knew I needed her to guide me in following it correctly to get the results I was looking for. That was only found in the extended release guaifenesin, at the right dose for me, 1200mg twice a day.

​So, what are these symptoms?  Here’s a ‘brief’ summary:
 
*Affecting the Central Nervous System: fatigue, irritability, nervousness, depression, apathy, listlessness, impaired memory and concentration, anxieties and suicidal thoughts, insomnia and frequent awakening due to pain.
*Musculoskeletal Symptoms: pain and generalized morning stiffness arising from muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia of the shoulders, neck, entire back, hips, thighs, knees, ankles, feet, inner and outer elbows, wrists, fingers, and chest, also commonly affected are injured or old operative sites. Joint pains with or without swelling, redness and heat are frequent, including foot or calf cramps, numbness and
 tingling of the face or extremities. “Growing Pains” as a child.
*Digestive Irritations: Often called leaky gut, spastic colon, mucous colitis or irritable bowl, symptoms include nausea in brief and repetitive waves, indigestion, gas, bloating, pain, cramps, constipation alternating with diarrhea and sometimes mucous stools.
*Genitourinary: Pungent urine, frequent urination, bladder spasms, burning urination with or without repeated bladder infections and interstitial cystitis, vulvar pain syndrome, vaginal spasms, irritation of the vaginal lips or opening, painful intercourse, mimicking a yeast infection but without the white discharge, intense PMS and uterine cramping, worsened Fibromyalgia symptoms at the onset of menstruation.
*Dermatological: Various rashes with or without itching, hives, red blotches, itchy bumps or blisters, eczema. Seborrheic or neurodermitis, rosacea, nails are often brittle and of poor quality, hair falls out prematurely, strange sensations common such as cold, heat, crawling itch, electric vibrations, prickling, super-sensitivity to touch, and flushing accompanied by sweating.
*The Infamous Ear, Nose, Throat: Headaches, migraines, dizziness, vertigo, imbalance, dry itchy eyes, blurred vision, nasal congestions, post-nasal drip, painful burning tongue, mouth and abnormal tastes, ringing in the ears or lower pitched sounds, ear and eyeball pain, sensitivity to light, sounds and odors.
*Extras: Weight gain, low grade fever, lowered immunity to infections, morning eyelid and hand swelling from fluid retention, restless leg.
*Hypoglycemia Syndrome: Sugar craving with tremors, sweating, anxiety, panic attacks, heart pounding, faintness, and frontal headaches.

Wow, what a list! And yes, I suffered from most of these, much since childhood, and some as Fibromyalgia progressed over time.  Now most symptoms are now cleared since starting the protocol training with Becky in 2015. What I have discovered is that the symptoms I have had since childhood are still present to some degree, but the symptoms that I developed over the last 5-10 years have disappeared.

Have you read his book? Here is a link to it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Doctor-About-Fibromyalgia/dp/B001Q3M66G
 
I hope you experience relief from your symptoms soon. If you have any questions, call Becky at
719.351.7066 and come to her support groups every second Saturday and fourth Monday of each month. You can find out more by visiting our Calendar page:
http://www.fibro180.com/calendar.html 

​Deanne