CNN article on Fibro

CNN has a new article about CFS/fibro
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/06/21/pain.remedies/index.html  Go most of the way down the page.

"In the past year, some of the biggest headlines in pain management have been about fibromyalgia (chronic bodywide pain in joints, muscles, and tendons) and CFS, two conditions that strike women at as much as six times the rate of men. After years of failing to take these conditions seriously, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other groups have recently mounted aggressive public-information campaigns alerting women to the prevalence of these conditions and the importance of accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Experts have also made dramatic gains in finding treatments that work by focusing on the sleep problems and physical weakness that seem to fuel these diseases. (Could painkillers be hurting your heart? )

Marly Silverman of Pompano Beach, Florida, learned she had fibromyalgia and CFS more than 10 years ago. "It felt like acid chemicals going through my veins," she says, describing the excruciating pain that forced her to quit her job as vice president of a bank after fruitlessly seeking treatment from a variety of specialists.  Today, Silverman manages her pain with a plethora of remedies, including painkillers, anti­spasmodics (muscle relaxants), and lidocaine patches for localized pain. To speed research into these complex and mysterious illnesses, Silverman founded PANDORA, a patient advocacy and research organization that cosponsors a national conference on the latest research into these and related neuro-endocrine immune conditions.

"There's no question that women aren't always taken seriously when they ask for help with a condition that doesn't have a clear-cut explanation."  "The solution is to take a proactive approach, the Shurmans say, even if you need to look in the mirror and give yourself a pep talk and write down a list of symptoms or questions before you head for the doctor's office. "The most important thing is to be persistent," Gloria Shurman says. "If you're in pain, don't ever take no for an answer."

I'll echo what Gloria Shurman said -- "don't take no for an answer". If that doctor won't take your pain seriously, do whatever it takes to get to a pain management clinic. Most PCPs are hesitant to prescribe pain pills because of a fear that they'll be investigated. Pain management specialists don't have that phobia.

At the medical group where I was repeatedly refused pain pills, apparently because they didn't believe my reports of severe pain, the head of the pain management clinic says his policy is "pain is what the patient says it is". If I could've somehow gotten to him, the problem would have been solved and I'd be back to work.

Tags: CNN, fibromyalgia, pain