Fibromyalgia Q & A

I have had FMS for 17 years. I am a hairstylist, I also have swollen muscles arms,legs that have very painful knots in them. I have been to several rheumatoligist and no one seems to know anything about this. My MD said he thinks I have some underlieing rhumatic because of the swelling and an elevated sed rate for all these years. The hightest was 57. I have tried every  medication for arthritis,steroids,elavil,paxil and wellbutrin.  I understand that sometimes it the correct mixture that will help.  I am on wellbutrin 300xl, paxil 2o mgs, and 5 to 10 mgs of ambem.  I take darvacet for pain, I have also been on pain patches for several months,not a lot of releif. This time I have been down for a month. I also have the fibro fogs for several days at a time. This has gotten progressively worse over the years. I have done water arobics, curves, walking (seems to do best). I am at my witts end because I was working to try to forget the pain and then it caught up with me. Do you have any sugestions?

Diagnosed 3 yrs ago with mild RA and last yr with Fibromyalgia. I’ve been on Methotrexate only for 6 months with great results, but I now get attacks up to once a week on a random limb joint. It starts to ache until the soreness prevents use and after 2 days disappears without a trace. Only when I’ve had several attacks on one joint does the ache start to dwell there, eg my wrists now need braces regularly and that was where I got my first attacks. The pain seems to be more muscular without any accompanying joint swelling hence the Fibro diagnosis. My question is why do I find that any antiinflammatory type brings a huge improvement within a couple of hours since many people say there is no inflammation associated with Fibro? Second question, I believe joint deformation tends to occur in the early years of diagnosis and that RA disease can sometimes ‘burn out’ after some 10yrs. Does this mean my symptoms have to worsen considerably before I can start counting this time?

My wife suffers from fibromyalgia and I would like to find someone who specializes in fibro to have her evaluated and treated. We live in Dover, Delaware but are willing to travel. Who can we contact and how can we set up an appointment?

My wife has been diagnosed with Polymyalgia and Fibromyalgia (high sed. rate, trigger points, pain in arms, legs, groin & etc.) She has been on prednisone for apprx. 9 mo. and methotrexate for 6 mo, now up to 15 mg. She has never been able to get below 15 mg. prednisone along with MTX without huge pains. Below 12 mg. pred. her sed. rate goes up. Now the bicep area of one of her arms is swollen with red splotches apprx. 5 places that have kinda combined into one red area about the size of a teacup, it looks like it has a deep bleeding in it. She says at times it feels as though the meat is being pulled from the bone. It has a continual dull toothache like ache in it. Is this commom to PMR/FMS? MTX makes her nauseous and weak for about four days, but she continues to take it and hope.

My wife was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Any recommendations for a good specialist in the Baltimore/MD/DC/Virginia area? We cannot travel to MI to see the specialist who you always refer people to.

Can Fibromyalgia be treated with Remicade or Arava?