Posted by BarbaraCat on July 14, 2004, at 13:33:31
In reply to Re: Chronic pain -best med and weird reactions, posted by Cairo on July 9, 2004, at 21:42:59
Hello Cairo,
We are in the same boat. I have fibro, HPA axis dysfunction, have sleep apnea and depression (actually bipolar disorder). I also have hypothyroidism. I had a thorough workup and found that my hormones were malfunctioning, which is typical with HPA dysfunction. I am menopausal and was already on natural hormones, but tests showed they were way off. Getting my estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA balanced helped my pains alot. Another thing is thyroid. If your thyroid is even a little low your fibro pains will be increased. Some theories say that fibro is really an undertreated hypothyroid condition. Your TSH scores should be under 2.0.I still get depression, anxiety, and insomnia, but since getting the hormones balanced, at least my muscle pains and flares are greatly diminished. In fact, I recently went back on lithium because my bipolar disorder just wasn't getting better. Lithium can make hypothyroid worse. I started feeling the old muscle cramping, aching, tired sluggish feeling again and sure enough, my TSH values were 8.5. Upped my thyroid and the pains went away.
When the pains get bad I take oxycontin. It doesn't really get rid of the pains. Not much will get rid of that drawing pulling ache. But it helps me to not care so much about the pain. I take just one pill. There's no fear of addiction, I can take or leave opioids. But it does help.
You may need to find a progressive doctor who is willing to look at a more comprehensive picture for you. I go to a naturopath have an appointment with an Environmental and Functional Medicine MD next week for this thing. Let's keep in touch. I will let you know what I find out. - BarbaraCat
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:363567
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040714/msgs/366115.html