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“Fibromyalgia was a portrait of me. Now I’m better emotionally, mentally
and physically”
I suffered with severe insomnia for seven years. I was only able to sleep
two or three hours a night, sometimes only one hour. I was fatigued,
exhausted. I was not getting enough rest.
This went on for years and years and was getting pretty depressing. Since
starting on the guaifenesin, after several months, I now get an average of
five hours sleep a night, several nights each week and it’s changing my
life.
I had been at the point of exhaustion. It was very difficult for my husband
who couldn’t understand what in the world was wrong with me. I just wanted
to lie around all the time and he would say to me, “You either use it or you
lose it.” I would say, “I just can’t.” That was disturbing. Our social life
went down the tubes. Now that I’m sleeping better we can get out a little
more.
I had pain but I thought it was arthritis because I have some arthritis. I
didn’t realize that some of my pain was not arthritis, but fibromyalgia. I
also had digestive problems, irritable bowel syndrome and burning feet.
I have a lot more energy since being on guaifenesin. I have energy during
the day most of the time now. I had just about cut out everything in my
life. It was difficult to do housework or cook. Now I’m able to do that. I’m
even a little bit active in volunteer work. I’m very grateful that I can do
what I do. I was so very down before. It’s quite a change.
Before being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I didn’t know what was wrong. It
was so enlightening when I found out what was causing all this. I thought I
was some kind of a hypochondriac and most of my family and friends, I’m
sure, thought I was too; that this was all in my head. Now I know there’s a
legitimate, physical reason for my difficulties.
The medical profession, that I know of, doesn’t recognize fibromyalgia as a
‘real thing’. My primary care doctor didn’t know what was wrong with me. He
didn’t want to recognize anything like that. He is just now starting to say
that it is a legitimate medical problem. Nice as he is, I don’t think he
thought, originally, that I had a valid illness, but that I was a
hypochondriac.
He put me on sleeping medication and that was very disruptive. I had a
terrible time getting off it. It helped my sleep at first, for about a
month, but then it didn’t do anything anymore other than make me addicted to
it.
My doctor sent me to a rehabilitation M.D. who knew a lot about
fibromyalgia. He gave me aerobic exercises to do at home and that was about
all.
I’ve been through quite a struggle with this. It has been really very
depressing. I felt I wasn’t ever going to get better.
A friend sent me something off the internet about Dr. St. Amand’s book. My
daughter bought the book and said, “You have got to read this.” I read it
and said, “That’s a portrait of me.”
I went to hear Dr. Penniston when he spoke at New Life Health Store. I was
being treated by a naturopath at that time but not making much progress. I
had been tested and found to have a hormonal imbalance. I went on natural
hormones but it didn’t do enough at all. The naturopath put me on different
supplements—Fibroplex, Seri-phos—but it just didn’t do enough for me. I
decided to try guaifenesin and see Dr. Penniston and I’m so glad I did.
When I saw Dr. Penniston the first time I was having deep pain in my heart,
probably angina, and was very worried about it. My primary care doctor said,
“You had better do a treadmill test.” There wasn’t anything that they could
see wrong with the heart. It was the cardiologist who said, “Since you have
fibromyalgia, the heart is a muscle and it may be due to the fibro.” He was
the first one in the medical field to acknowledge fibromyalgia as a real
thing. Then my primary care doc said that it may be fibro. It was a total
surprise that they would even recognize it. The pain gradually went away and
I haven’t had any pain like that since. Dr. Penniston did tell me that my
heart pain could be due to fibromyalgia and that he had seen this before.
After a couple of months of being on guaifenesin, it started working. I was
able to sleep more. My arthritic pain is probably the same. The muscle pain
seems to go from one area to another. I get severe pain in my gall bladder
area and then a couple days later it goes to my kidneys. Most of my symptoms
come and go now. I’ll have a week or two with a lot of distress of my
digestion and then it will go away and then come back.
I feel much better emotionally, mentally and physically. I have more energy,
more strength. I’m very hopeful.
Sincerely,
Natalie E.
Age 76
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