Mr. Fibro Became His Best Advocate

Today Norman aka Mr. Fibro from Men with Fibromyalgia shares how he treats fibromyalgia. Please remember that Norman and I are not medical professionals and cannot give medical advice. We are just sharing our experiences and opinions. Check out Men with Fibromyalgia and be sure to follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

I have been honored by the Disabled Diva to answer some questions she has about my fibromyalgia journey. Before I delve into these questions, she asked me over a month ago, but due to fibro fog, I forgot to get this done early and am writing it the day before the due date. I have many irons in the fire as I am helping to start a “Veterans with fibromyalgia” program, helping the NEW “International Support Fibromyalgia Network” get off the ground, and personal projects for my website and around the house. I feel like I am running on fumes, with not even one spoon in reserve. However, this also puts me in a great state of mind in answering her first question.

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When was I diagnosed with Fibro?

I was diagnosed in 2014 with Fibro, but have had symptoms and indicators of fibro since 2009/10. In 2012 I broke down and started going to the VA here in Tucson as I could no longer maintain living in constant pain and fatigue. Now between 2012 and 2014, I had 3 different doctors at the VA. The first, a woman, said I am too young to be in this much pain, it’s all in your head. The second was a male doctor and he said if you were a woman I would say you have Fibromyalgia, but that is just a woman’s disease. And the last Dr, well he said he did not know, but sent me to the Rheumatologist and the Pain Clinic.

THANK YOU! After seeing the Rheumatologist, finding I have osteoarthritis, bulging disks… well okay but what’s with the disabling pain and fatigue? When I first saw the pain clinic in 2014, the Dr. there surprised me with a Fibromyalgia diagnosis that the year previous the last DR and Rheumatologist had both noted was possible in my file

In the beginning, we tried basic muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory, and low-dose morphine. Along with pool therapy, and yoga. While the pool therapy and yoga helped, I still needed meds every day. I still do. However due to my high metabolism, we have found that my body builds up a tolerance, so we have to swap out meds every 6 to 9 months to maintain effectiveness.

Now, believing that becoming your own best advocate, and not relying just on Medical professionals, I started, and continue to look for new research and studies into fibromyalgia and treatments that work for others. The Vital Plan by Dr. William Rwals worked well for me for a while, but not working I found it cost-prohibitive. Also diet and lifestyle, it where I have found the most improvement with my fibro. Currently, I am on a paleo/ketogenic style diet. It is an inti inflammatory style of eating that helps with the over inflammation of muscles and joints.

For the lifestyle, I believe and do my best to achieve what I call my 2x daily 15 min a day habit. That is 15 minutes 2x daily of some sort of focused physical activity. Depending on how my pain is on a given day that could be a gentle walk and doing the laundry, or just a gentle walk. Some days it is 1 hr outside working in my yard or focused on house clean-up. Either way, 15 minutes of making yourself move, from Yoga and exercise to just doing basic house chores helps keep my body limbered up, and my fibro fog a little less.

So with that said, there are many who say CBD oils or pure Marijuana helps. Being a patient with the VA where they are still under federal regulations, I have not been able to try this for myself. I hope that will soon change.

So in closing, let me say Thank you again for this opportunity to be the Disabled Diva. Also to let everyone reading this know, whatever your chronic illness. YANA – You Are Not Alone! There are many resources out there where you can find the love and support you need along with truly helpful information.