nytenoise

I want to just say thank you for being so compassionate toward those of us with FM. I've had a long road to find the right regimen to control my symptoms, which started after a traumatic foot injury in '91. I have gone through my share of dr. and nurses who think I'm a hypochondriac, which in and of itself can cause severe depression. :angryfire I thought I'd share some of what seems to work best for me. I use Benadryl at HS, 50mg gives me a good night's sleep and helps with some of the other auto-immune symptoms. I did use Zoloft for a time, but have been off of it for nearly a year, now. Darvocet is the only really effective pain med for me, and as of this time, I just use 1/2 tab prn. (less than three times a week) The biggest help I found was eliminating the stress in my life. I work third shift, in home health care and my husband is extremely helpful and supportive of me. He does anything around the house that could bring on an exacerbation and tries to keep things on an even keel. (Hard job, since we're rebuilding after a house fire without insurance.) I'd say, the biggest help is in reducing stress, because it just feeds the pain...the muscles get tense, start to hurt, tense up more, hurt more.... Again I want to thank you. By the way, the person who first diagnosed me was an Army ARNP.

I have to agree that we are much more than serving girls (and boys) for the doctors and patients, but much of what we have to do is "lowly" service. However, I wonder what he would think of nurses if he lived in a country that doesn't have them (at least in the capacity in which we serve here) A South Korean doctor I was friends with told me that in his country the family is responsible for patient care -- and that included everything from buying and fixing food, to buying the medicine at the corner drugstore and giving it to the patient, and everything in between. He seemed to think nurses were something! The problem with some people (a lot of them) is they just don't think. (I haven't determined if they are unable or unwilling to do so...)