Are you looking for a book that describes the guaifenesin journey you're on? Have you wanted a way to explain to family and friends about the treatment? Have you wished for tips on how to cope with fibromyalgia and the guai treatment?
The Pain Behind the Mask, Volume II chronicles the discovery of a remedy for the disease fibromyalgia. If Volume I was a treatise on physical breakdown and losing oneself into nothingness, then Volume II is the pathway to resurrection and wellness. Between these covers you’ll find a synopsis of Dr. R. Paul St. Amand's theory for fibromyalgia and the guaifenesin treatment that reverses the disease. It offers tips on how to begin the guaifenesin protocol and how to cope with its stringent requirements. It also relates the author’s 6-year treatment and describes her gradual journey from ground zero to the quality of life that she hasn’t enjoyed for many years. The Pain Behind the Mask, Volume II is a “must read” if you have fibromyalgia and are looking for the way back to normalcy.
(Paperback: 201 pages)
Published 2007
Take a peek at Volume 2
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Preface
Post-Guaifenesin
Chapter 1 - The Remedy for Fibromyalgia
The Guaifenesin Protocol
An Overview of the Guaifenesin Protocol
Side Effects of the Guaifenesin Treatment
Chapter 2 – Tips on How to Manage the Guaifenesin Protocol
Getting Started
Salicylates and Blocking
Purging (Cycling)
Hard Purges (Hard Cycles)
Stress
Brain Fog/Fibrofog
Moving/Exercise
Draining Exhaustion
Diet
Chapter 3 – So You Have Taken the Guai Road
A Rigorous and Uncompromising Treatment
Especially for Newbies
Suggestions for Normals
The Road to Wellness
Chapter 4 – The Obvious Re-Surrender
My Physical Body
Pain
Fatigue
A Lumpy Body
Chapter 5 – The Not so Obvious Re-Surrender
My Emotional Stability
Frustration
Fear/Anxiety
Anger
Hopelessness
Depression
Chapter 6 – The Invisible Re-Surrenders
My Worth and Identity
My Relationships and Place in Society
My Wants and Desires
Surrendering to the Guaifenesin Protocol
Chapter 7- There’s Good with the Bad and the Ugly
Notes
Resources
About the Author
Preface
The Pain Behind the Mask, was released as two volumes to improve reader ergonomics. I realize that if I release it as one book it will weigh too much for many of my readers. Many fibromyalgics have reached the point where holding a book for an extended period can be very difficult.
The Pain Behind the Mask, Volume II, was born out of a desire to spread the good news about the guaifenesin treatment. A treatment that will give you the cure for all the suffering mentioned in Volume I. This volume will describe how I went from just existing to living again. My days are no longer marked by fatigue, pain, and depression. The sighs of frustration and despair are now just an echo in my memory. My life has been resurrected and has purpose once more.
The purpose of this book is not to explain Dr. St. Amand’s protocol or give detailed information on how to get started. If you need to understand fibromyalgia from a doctor’s perspective, I strongly urge you to buy Revised and Updated What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Fibromyalgia by Dr. St. Amand and Claudia Marek. In his forty-nine years as an internist and endocrinologist, Dr. St. Amand has devoted forty-plus years to diagnosing and treating fibromyalgia. This book is about his discovery of a safe and effective treatment for this condition, one that he himself had to use.
The Pain Behind the Mask, Volume II, is about finding an answer with the guaifenesin treatment and surrendering to the exacting standards this protocol demands. It will give fibromyalgics who have decided to start the guaifenesin treatment a summary of it, what they may encounter as they reverse their fibromyalgia, and tips for coping. It is my hope that it will offer comfort and encouragement to fibromyalgics who have already started the treatment and for various reasons are finding the reversal process difficult.
In sharing my battles and victories, I hope to stimulate hope and courage that will give fibromyalgics the impetus to begin the guaifenesin treatment and then stay on the protocol no matter what difficulties may arise. The guaifenesin protocol isn’t easy, but the reward is improved quality of life. All that has made life worth living but may have disappeared with fibromyalgia will come back. Our brain, energy levels, sexual drive, passion for life, positive feelings, and so many other components vital to our well-being will return. Those gloomy, painful days that are devoid of any hope will be a thing of the past.
The many e-mails I received from fibromyalgics inspired me to write a book that they could hand to someone and say, “Here, read this. This explains the treatment I’m on and what I’m going through as guaifenesin reverses my fibromyalgia.” Our cognitive disabilities, fatigue and emotional instability can intensify initially on the treatment, blocking much of our thought process. The inability to communicate what we’re going through leaves family and friends oblivious to or with little understanding of what we’re experiencing.
You may think this book isn’t for you because your fibromyalgia hasn’t had the same far-reaching affect that it’s had on me. But if you know you have it, I urge you to continue reading to find out about a treatment that will stop your fibromyalgia from progressing to a state that leaves you with no quality of life.
Come walk with me through these pages and I will help you understand how you can recover with the guaifenesin protocol.
(The following are excerpts from the various chapters.)
Side Effects of the Guaifenesin Treatment
Guaifenesin has been used for centuries and has no known adverse reactions or side effects other than rare nausea...
For those thinking about starting the protocol, I can tell you that I’ve never regretted going on the guaifenesin treatment...
I want to share how this drug can bring hope and joy into the life of anyone who has this disease and is living a painful and hopeless life...
I hope the remainder of this book will give you a true picture of a treatment that will change your life. I will honestly tell you the good and the bad. If you’re already on the protocol, then I hope it encourages you to know that you aren’t the only one experiencing bad times. I hope it gives you the perseverance to continue, looking forward to a better quality of life.
2
Tips on How to Manage the Guaifenesin Protocol
Managing something means to have a goal or purpose in mind having figured out how that accomplishment or success we’re pursuing will be brought about. Managing fibromyalgia is no different. We’ve already learned how to control or influence the many areas that make up this disease: pain, depression, fatigue, brain fog, etc. When we decide to take the Guai road, there will be new areas we must learn to manage as we pursue complete reversal of our disease. Some of these areas will be the dosage, the salicylates, the HG diet, the purging cycle, new pain, reliving FM symptoms that may have gone away, etc...
GETTING STARTED
You’ve decided that you want to start the guaifenesin protocol and wonder how you should begin. You’ve been to your doctor, and tests that have been run to exclude other diseases have come back negative. Now, I would urge you to buy the January 2006, revised and updated version of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Fibromyalgia by Dr. R. Paul St. Amand and Claudia Craig Marek. If you’re serious about getting help, then read this book from cover to cover. Take charge of your fibromyalgia and get started today. Don't put off the beginning of a new life...
SALICYLATES AND BLOCKING
“Know thine enemy!” is the most important thing I can say to you as you start the guai protocol. Embracing the fact that salicylates are now your enemy will be another step towards taking charge and managing your fibromyalgia. Salicylates will interfere and stop your reversal process by blocking guaifenesin. If access to the receptors in the renal tubules is denied, no amount of guaifenesin will help...
The guai protocol demands a life change with a complete understanding of what we must do for ourselves in order to experience success in our reversal of fibromyalgia. Just as a person with diabetes or heart disease has to change their lifestyle, so do we who decide to go on the guaifenesin protocol. Exactly as these people must learn the guidelines that are given to them, so must we learn all about the salicylate guidelines...
Here are some tips that I continue to practice to help reduce stress or cope with it:...
PURGING
Once we clear our system of salicylates and begin to take our daily dose of guaifenesin, the fibromyalgia reversal process begins. What we experience in our reversal will be somewhat like the cyclic days we dealt with prior to guaifenesin—repeated patterns of good and bad days (flare-ups/flare), but in a more intense, cyclic progressive fashion. The reason for this is the rapid, simultaneous attack on multiple areas...
Now you’re thinking, Oh, great, why am I even attempting this treatment if I will still have bad days? For the reason that now the bad days are good days. With the help of guai, the body is now purging (transporting) the phosphates out of the cells. Guaifenesin is now making it possible for our body to clear debris out of the tissues—debris that interferes with our body’s energy production...
Managing the pain during our purging periods can be very difficult. Although I’m a person who hates to take drugs, I’ve learned to allow myself pain medication when it just gets to be too much. Trying to suffer through the pain actually caused more stress on my body and triggered hypoglycemic symptoms. I had to accept that there would be pain and that I should control it however I could. Fighting it seemed to make the pain worse. Acceptance of pain and learning how to control it is essential to managing the cyclic purges we’ll endure as we reverse...
My life, for four years, revolved around whether I was in a state of purging or resting in my reversal. Managing the cyclic purges meant coping with the exacerbation of fibromyalgia symptoms and learning how to juggle normal activities during this time. Managing my activities, errands, chores, and social interactions in the days and weeks of purging, has been the greatest factor in successfully working through the whole reversal process...
Here are some tips that I continue to practice to help reduce stress or cope with it:...
STRESS
There was a time when I thrived on the positive effects of stress. Deadlines, competitions, and confrontations were stress with a positive influence, adding anticipation and excitement to life. These stresses compelled me to action, bringing an exciting and new awareness and perspective to life. Even the stress from my frustrations and sorrows added depth and enrichment to my life.
Dr. St. Amand’s theory postulates that the core of fibromyalgia is an energy deprivation problem. When I first read this, I finally began to understand why stress was having such a negative affect on my body. In the earlier stages of my FM, I had enough energy to handle stress. Even though it invigorated me, it also drained me. However, with rest, I was ready to handle more of it by the next day. After having mono, my fibromyalgia advanced to a more debilitating level where I was energyless all the time, with or without rest. There was insufficient energy produced to help me handle any kind of stress...
Here are some tips that I continue to practice to help reduce stress or cope with it:...
BRAIN FOG/FIBROFOG AND MEMORY LOSS
Brain fog, or fibrofog, the term used by fibromyalgics to describe their cognitive difficulties is one of the most devastating symptoms of fibromyalgia. Not only does brain fog affect us physically, but it affects us emotionally as well. It’s difficult to do anything when we feel as if our brain has disintegrated and our head is full of cotton...
I have found that my fibrofog becomes extremely worse when I’m in a purging process. It seems especially bad at the beginning and the end of purges, though there are times when I have severe brain fog during an entire purge period. Although my ability to handle it has improved considerably since first starting the protocol, there are still times during a purge when my fibrofog gets unmanageable and I have to resign myself to lying low and putting everything I possibly can on hold, patiently waiting for it to pass...
Here are some tips that I continue to practice to help reduce stress or cope with it:...
MOVING/EXERCISE
We all know that exercise has been established as the approved and even lauded medical treatment plan for fibromyalgia. We’ve read it and heard something like, “Exercise releases chemicals in our body: endorphins are pain killers and serotonin helps with depression, sleep disorders and anxiety. Therefore, these people need to exercise for their FMS. It will help them sleep and feel better...”
As we listen to the doctor extol the benefits of exercise, our mind wanders. We have visions of going home, getting out of the car, barely walking up to the house because of severe, shooting pain in our hips and legs. Having finally made it in, we slump heavily into a chair with vacant eyes because it took all we had to go to the appointment—for nothing. How can I exercise if I can’t even walk to my mailbox, we wonder...
Here are some tips...
The Road to Wellness
For years, I was on a road on my fibromyalgia journey that only led to a place of more fatigue, pain and depression. Now I’m on the Guaifenesin highway. This road is taking me away from a place of physical disabilities, mental limitations and emotional instability to one of hope...
Volume I is the story of my surrenders to fibromyalgia. It’s about how I came to terms with my disease before the guai protocol, and how by God’s grace, I resurfaced from the deep waters. Like many other fibromyalgics, I came to grips with the complexity of my disease and relinquished my normal life to it. I accepted my altered life and held no hope that it would return to normal. The only ray of light was the hope for slight improvement...
Surrendering to the guai protocol turned out to be easier than surrendering to fibromyalgia...
The following chapters are about embracing these lessons in light of my fibromyalgia journey and surrendering to the guaifenesin protocol. It’s about recognizing and acknowledging how I felt and why I was struggling. I will share the wonderful results of the guaifenesin treatment, but I will also share the struggles I’ve had and what someone may encounter with this treatment...I
4
The Obvious Re-Surrender
My Physical Body
Surrendering our body to the guaifenesin protocol is similar to submitting to a bad fibromyalgia flare...
In short, surrendering the physical body to the guaifenesin protocol is a matter of surrendering all over again to an invisible disease that brings chronic pain and fatigue as well as other symptoms that can become debilitating...
Six years later, there’s no question. I did do the right thing and today I’m so glad that in spite of the worsened symptoms, I didn’t give up. I had nothing to lose, so I didn’t quit. Instead, I kept hoping that someday I’d be like the fibromyalgics I was reading about on the GuaiGroup list who had reclaimed the life they once had. Some even said they were physically better than they’d ever experienced in their life. I dug deep and with God’s grace and the support of family, I found the courage and perseverance to stay on the treatment and surrender to the guaifensin protocol...
5
The Not So Obvious Re-Surrender
My Emotional Stability
It would be so much easier for us fibromyalgics if fibromyalgia only affected the muscles and fibers in our body, as most medical literature states. Unfortunately, it insidiously and invisibly invades every cell in our body, not only affecting our muscles, but also every bone, tissue, gland and organ. This all-encompassing affect on our body is that which can destroy our emotional stability.
After contributing many tears to Fibro Tears Lake, I’ve learned what I must do to cope with emotional instability...
As I surrender to the guaifenesin treatment, I remind myself of the following...
6
The Invisible Re-Surrender
Occasionally I have days of bad brain fog and fatigue that limit my production. This still affects my self-worth. So I continue to use these tips and lessons learned to help me surrender my worth and identity to the guaifenesin treatment. They have helped me to manage the feelings of worthlessness...
My life is slowly returning to what I recognize as normal. It humbles me that God heard my cry for help and led me to the library that had What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Fibromyalgia. I will forever be grateful to Dr. St. Amand and Claudia Marek for all their hard work in spreading the word about the guaifenesin treatment, disregarding all the controversy and criticism. I can now enjoy life, family and friends again...
And more...
The Pain Behind the Mask - Volume II, will help you to recognize the journey you are on. It will aid you in describing your guaifenesin journey to your loved ones. It will be your guide as you travel the road to recovery. When you’re finding it difficult to persevere, the material presented will remind you that you aren't alone on the Guai road. My first-hand experience and insight will help you find the courage to persevere. In time, you’ll see your life resurrected!
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