| The Ultimate Fibromyalgia Recource Center |
| Are you searching for answers about Fibromyalgia? You've come to the right place. There is help and you are not alone! |
| Fibromyalgia, CFS, Autoimmune and Chronic Pain diseases affect a large percentage of people all over the world and more are being diagnosed every day. Awareness about these illnesses is severely lacking as well as medical treatment options. Often we are doped up on narcotics to mask the pain rather than treated in an effort to cure our diseases because the medical community as a whole simply does not know how to effectively treat us. We have a disease for which there is no cure and is very difficult to manage. I hope you are able to find information here that will help you in your journey of treatment and healing. |
You may find this website useful if any of the things listed below apply to you:
| Our Fibromyalgia Forum Share your experience with others or read about how others with Fibromyalgia are coping with the disease. Forums are a great way to share with others and learn from their experience. I have just opened a new site forum here and although it is new, I hope that it will grow into a forum where people who suffer from fibro can come for help. So please, if you visit this site, take a moment to register in our site forum and share a little about yourself. You will not be bombarded with spam or anything, I promise. Remember, your comments may help someone else who is coping with Fibro and Lord knows we need all the help we can get! Join in our site forum. It helps to talk about what you are going through with someone who can empathize. |
 | You feel you may have Fibromyalgia, but haven't been diagnosed. | |
| You have recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and need treatment. | |
| A loved one has Fibromyalgia and you want to learn how to cope with the disease. | |
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| Upcoming Events and Site News First, I would like to apologize for all of the banner ads on the site. Unfortunately, with a basically non-existent advertising budget I am using all free marketing tools I can find to get visitors to the site. As the site grows, hopefully these banner ads can be removed. You can also help by referring the site to others. The April Newsletter will have details on the new contest based on referrals. Visitors will be able to use the form below to tell friends, family or anyone they know about our site quickly and easily, even sharing their whole address book automatically. (Don't worry, the script gives you access to your address book and does not store the information.) There will be some great prizes so be sure and register your email to receive the monthly newsletter for details. I have been working with a wonderful jewelry designer, Lisa of "Sparkle And Support", who has created a beautiful Awareness Bracelet that is now available exclusively here at The Ultimate Fibromyalgia Resource Center. The piece is made of Sterling Silver, lavendar Swarvski crystals, with a silver ribbon charm. In addition, this unique design also features a charm with a red Swarvski crystal to symbolize the pain that we FM sufferers endure and a pink Swarvski crystal to symbolize the fact that over 90% of those with FM are women. Lisa, of "Sparkle And Support" is a talented crafts-woman and her work is exquisite. You will want to tell your friends about this one. Although this site makes no profits from the sales of this bracelet, Lisa donates 15% of every sale to The National Fibromyalgia Association! |
| Why people with Fibro often suffer alone... ...I believe my story is similiar to most Fibro patients. For years regular MD's, without any support from the FDA, have viewed Fibro as a "mental disorder". I was told over and over..."It's all in your head." Finally, the FDA has recognized Fibro as a genuine disease, not a "syndrome" I first went to my MD in 2004 with printed research I had gotten from the internet, telling him that I felt I had Fibromyalgia. He just shook his head at me and then told me that I had Aluminum Poisoning and needed Chelation Therapy. He told me the reason I had stroke-like symptoms was because of the damage the aluminum had done to my nervous system. For three years, I repeatedly insisted that he reconsider a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, hoping to get into some sort of trial program and find a treatment to ease my pain. (Also, a diagnosis would prove to my family that I wasn't just pretending or being lazy!) He refused. Gradually, the pain worsened, the stroke-like episodes became more frequent and my dementia worsened to the point where I had difficulty functioning in my work. In June, 2007 I suffered another stroke-like episode, went to the local ER and was told I had "Vertigo", (because the CAT came back normal). I was lectured by the ER MD that there was no way I could have ever have had aluminum poisoning and promptly sent home. Once again, I received no back up from the doctors and my family and employers assumed I was making it all up!) I immediately sought another doctor, who recommended first that I see a "Pain Specialist" for medications strong enough to control the pain and a referral to see a neurologist. While waiting for my first appointment to see the "Pain Specialist", I "Fired" my original MD and upon getting my records from his office I learned that he had in fact diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Aluminum Poisoning back in 2004 when I first went to see him and suggested that I had Fibromyalgia!!! Why he never told me, I guess I will never know. Someone suggested to me that doctors do not like to be told by the patient what he/she thinks they have...perhaps he just resented my input. For three years he had known that I had Fibro and did nothing to treat it except offer pain medications that weren't even strong enough to lessen the pain, much less control it. He did not refer me to a "Pain Specialist". He did not refer me to a neurologist. He did nothing...and my friends and family continued to doubt the validity of my claims. The "Pain Specialist" who treated me put me on the Fentanyl patch, which is a very strong narcotic drug for pain and openly admitted that she knew nothing about Fibromyalgia. She referred me to a neurologist whom she felt was qualified to treat me. As it turned out, she had referred me to a leading doctor in his field. With over 1500 MS patients and 1400 Fibromyalgia patients, during my first office visit, he confirmed that I did have Fibromyalgia with Complicated Vertebral Basilar Migraines, (with aura). (This verified that all the times I had complained of stroke-like symptoms it had indeed been TIA's which do not show up on a CAT scan!) He immediately began my treatment program and although his diagnoses are not always good news, at least someone is taking good care of me, knows and understands the disease and confirms that my claims are legitimate!!! Due to the fact that my MD ignored my claims that I had suffered a stroke on at least four occasions, I now suffer Cognitive Dysfunction and have to take Aricept, an Alztheimer's medication and at age 44, have the cognitive skills of an 85 year old woman. I cannot work and am fighting for my disability insurance; however, in my state of Texas, because I do not have small children in the home, I do not qualify for any state programs! I believe this all could have been avoided had my MD treated me for Fibromyalgia from the beginning. Due to the fact that my MD was not trained to treat me and ER doctors ignored my claims, I am now divorced, disabled and very ill. (My marriage of 23 years dissolved, partly because my spouse did not believe me, not having the support of my family physician.) The pain worsened to the point where some days I could not even get out of bed. The dementia worsened to the point where I could not even carry on an intelligent conversation because I could not find my words. It seemed that no one believed me and I felt totally alone. Why do we suffer alone? Because regular MD's are not trained in the treatment of Fibromyalgia! If you think you may have fibromyalgia and meet the symptom criteria, yet get no support from your MD, ask for a referral to a Neurologist who treats Fibromyalgia. |
| Things You Should Do 1. Start a daily journal about how you feel. 2. Learn all you can about vitamin supplement therapy. 3. Find a Neurologist or Rheumatologist who treats Fibromyalgia. 4. Read everything you can find about FM and CFS. 5. Try different products to see which works best for you. 6. Use an exercise program that stretches your muscles but does not over-tax them, like yoga or swimming. 7. Have an ATP screening and check hormonal levels. 8. Eliminate all possible causes of your symptoms, THEN, see a doctor about a diagnosis of FM/CFS. |
| The Symptom Checker at Revolution Health This site has a lot of great information about Fibromyalgia, treatment, an overview of the symptoms, as well as a Symptom Checker. Of course, this is not intended to be used as a substitute for visiting a licensed physician but it can help you decide if you need to seek treatment for Fibromyalgia, CFS or outtoimmune disorders. Knowing what the symptoms are is the first step towards a diagnosis. |
| Medications You can find out more about these and other medications on the "Treatment Page" Recent FDA Approved Medications for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Lyrica is the newest medication for the treatment of Fibromyalgia. Click on the graphic to the left for more information on this drug. (I took this drug twice a day.) If you watch TV or spend any time on the internet you have probably seen advertising for it as it is being heavily advertised by the manufacturer, Phizer. I only took this medication for three months and I could not see a difference in my pain levels at all and still relied heavily on my methadone for pain relief. It has minimal side effects; however, one of them is weight gain. (I personally gained 37 pounds while taking it.) There are members of the site forum who take it, with good results. Phizer offers assistance for those who cannot afford medications manufactured by their company after completion of a simple application process and even provide a discount card to use while waiting for your application to be approved. You can click on the link below for more information about Fibromyalgia and the drug, Lyrica. I have included Phizer's banner for the Assistance Program below. |
| Cognitive Dysfunction Medications Individuals who suffer from "Complicated Vertebral Basilar Migraines, (with aura)" often suffer cognitive dysfunction due to damage caused by TIA's or "transient ischemic attacks". These are commonly known as "mini-strokes" and although most people recover from their effects, some do not. Many neurologists, including my own, prescribe Verapamil to help control these migraines, thus reducing the number of TIA's suffered. Also, Aricept is a common medication used for many years for Alzheimer's Disease and is now being used in the treatment of Fibro patients for Cognitive Dysfunction. Click on the graphic to learn more about this medication. |
| Search Within This Site To search for a specific keyword, just enter it in the search below. |
| The "Fog Blog" Click on the little, green guy to read my daily Blog at it's new location, Blogger. It's all about living with Fibromyalgia and maintaining this site! For Yahoo 360* Archives of past posts, Click Here |
| A Letter To The Healthy World From The Land Of Chronic Pain And Fatigue A must read for "Normal" people!!! |
| Here you will find two very good but different symptom checkers, one at WebMD and the other at Revolution Health. Try them and see if you have FM symptoms. |
Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com
I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not. Also, you can hover your mouse over a link to see a screenshot of the site link.
Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.
| Important Site Information This site is owned and operated by Tammy E. McPherson and is updated daily. The purpose of this website is to provide a resource for information on FM, CFS and other chronic pain or Autoimmune diseases. Information provided is not intended to endorse or recommend any particular product or treatment and should not be used as a replacement for a consultation or treatment with a licensed physician. All information is provided free of charge unless otherwise noted and is presented here with permission. Any personal information or email addresses, we receive will not be sold, traded or used for any purpose other than stated when requested by this site. If you find this site useful, please support it by referring it to people you know or by using our affiliate links to do your web shopping! If you would like to receive our Monthly Newsletter, please leave me your email address before you go and don't forget to bookmark the site for future use. Thank you...Enjoy the site! |
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| If you have FM/CFS, then you can probably relate to this graphic. Just a little humor, LOL! |
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| The website is growing and receiving traffic from all over the world! To see an awesome map of the most recent visitors to my site, click the button below. (This is really cool!) Your browser's back button will return you here. |
| Featured Article Fibromyalgia - An Overview Author: Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed. Fibromyalgia or FM targets approximately 2 - 6% of the US population, and is a very difficult condition to live with. It is considered a non-life threatening syndrome, however symptoms can be quite debilitating. It is generally thought of as an arthritic type of syndrome, with aching joints, bones, muscles and a significant amount of pain. There are many other symptoms of this syndrome, although the actual term 'Fibromyalgia' usually refers to widespread musculoskeletal pain and general weakness and exhaustion. The severity of symptoms may fluctuate greatly from one individual to another as well as from day to day or even hour to hour within the same individual. There are usually periods of time that are called "flares" during which there is an intense worsening of symptoms and there may be periods of remission, when symptoms decrease or even disappear... ... more -You can find this article by Cynthia Perkins and many more articles about Fibromyalgia and related illnesses in our Article Room. |
| Election Year Call to Action I am sure that many of you are following the election process and I wanted to bring something to your attention that may not have occurred to many of you. Presently, there is no legislation on the floor of the house or the Senate, calling for additional funding towards research in an effort to find a cure for Fibromyalgia. In fact, if any organization affiliated with FM is involved in lobbying for more funding towards a cure I am not aware of one, (so if anyone knows of one, please let me know.) I would love to join. I recently attempted to gain the attention of the Clinton Campaign when they were here in Texas and made efforts to call attention to the need for SSDI Reform, as well as unite the Fibromyalgia Vote. I wasn't surprised by what happened afterwards but many of you may be. Please read my account of how I was treated and the efforts that were taken to silence me in an update on the "Disability Page" as I think you will find it interesting. The time has come for us to unite as a voter base and call for change. We desperately need SSDI Reform. You can make a difference! Join the site Forum and let's get busy! |
| New Feature! Introducing "Fibro Fanny"! (An original comic character and strip for people with FM) Follow "Fibro Fanny" as she goes through every day life just as the rest of us do with FM. I bet there is a little bit of her in each of us. Visit Fanny's Page |
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| Fibromyalgia in the News |
| ***The Video News Room*** |
| News and Story Feeds I am very pleased to bring both the news articles and the news videos here on this page from a site called, of all things, "The News Room". They have a huge selection of articles, videos and pictures for webmasters to embed into their sites and by doing so, offering their visitors news on just about any published topic. Here, I will try to keep my articles and videos related to the discussion to FM, CFS, IBS, etc. If it related to these illnesses I will put it in the list. The video presentation on this page is different than the one in the "Video Room" as the one on this page is "News based". Be sure and check them both out! Both the News Articles and News Videos each show one at the top in full view with a list of other topics you may also view underneath. Just pick an article or video from the list and click on it to view. Enjoy! |
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| Our Monthly Newsletter provides valuable information for those searching for information about FM/CFS, including upcoming webinars, treatment protocols, medications, applying for SSDI, Supplemental Income, Internet Resources and Support information. It also keeps you informed of website updates, changes or upcoming contests. It is free and registration is quick and easy, so why not register today? |
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| Webring Information Webrings can be a great source for FM information and this site is a member of several. Please click on the links below to visit some of these sites. |
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| Break The Cycle of Dysfunction Fibromyalgia/CFS, together is a continuous cycle of dysfunction caused by a hormonal imbalance which creates Mitochondrial Dysfunction. (UH, cough....in ENGLISH please!) OK, Hormones basically tell our body when to manufacture ATP, a chemical which generates energy. In CFS, our bodies have an "energy crisis" because our hormones don't cause our body to make the needed amount of energy and do not create new energy, so what little bit we have is all there is. This is referred to as "Mitochondrial Dysfunction". This is often worsened by the fact that most FM/CFS sufferers do not reach Delta or REM sleep, which are the two stages of sleep where "the house gets cleaned and we take out the trash", then dream. Since these levels of sleep produce HGH, which improves ATP production, sleep deprivation further complicates the Mitochondrial Dysfunction. It seems that FM/CFS patients get all the breaks, huh? LOL! It seems that so much is known about the causes and effects of these diseases, yet medical science still has no cure. All we can do is approach each individual case and apply symptomatic care to their disorder in an attempt to balance the system and improve overall health. As it is becoming more and more apparent that the hypothalamus, thyroid and adrenal glands all play an important role, the first step in stablizing the symptoms and balancing the hormones would be to have these levels tested, yet standard testing methods are by design, of little use. Mitochondrial enhancements can be administered if numbers are low and in studies, have shown to improve health in FM/CFS patients. Also a treatment regiment for sleep deprivation would assist the patient improve HGH levels through the ability to reach deeper sleep. Many physicians encourage FM/CFS patients to have these hormomal levels checked and then take appropriate action to correct low levels or imbalances through the use of nutrient iv's, injections or supplements, depending on the seriousness of the imbalance, in an effort to stabilize their symptoms. ...more on Mitochondrial Dysfunction Resources include The Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers Inc., Dr. David Mikel and Wikipedia |
| To read more about Mitochondrial Dysfuntion and other adrenal related topics as presented with FM/CFS, please see the following links: Dr. Mikel's Website Mikel Therapy Dr. David Mikel Explains FM on Video Listen to Webinar by Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, Inc. Download Presentation of Recent Webinar ...or visit our page about mitochondrial dysfunction. |
| You can bookmark this site, add it to your blog, MySpace, Google or other pages by grabbing this easy to use snippet. It also can be inserted into email to share with your friends! Help spread FM Awareness and support this site easily with "Addthis.com". |
| Finding reliable and useful information about FM can be difficult and frustrating! If you find this site helpful please show your appreciation with a small "tip". I'll make ya famous! LOL! |
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| The DoClix Tag Cloud At the bottom, right of this page, you will see a tag cloud that includes many keywords from the content on this page. You can find and search for related content, without having to leave this site by simply hovering your mouse over a topic you choose. A small window will open on the opposite side of the page with additional resources on your topic that you can view. When finished, just close the box using the "X" in it's upper, right hand corner. I hope the use of this tool will enable you to find even more information here at this site. |