“It can start off quite subtly: a bit of muscle pain, along with some generalized aches and stiffness.  Then there are periods when concentration is impossible, a day or two of overwhelming fatigue, and maybe a little dizziness, cramps, and diarrhea.  Symptoms come and go at first, and it’s easy to chalk them up to a mild case of flu that never quite localizes, to overexertion and too much stress in your life.

Then, one day, you realize it hasn’t gone away--it never goes away anymore.  One part or another of your body always hurts.  You feel stressed and irritable all of the time.  You wake up tired every morning.  In short, you haven’t felt “right” in a long time.  The symptoms begin to worsen, and you notice new ones.  Perhaps depression, numbness and tingling of the hands, leg cramps, stiffness, headaches, or bladder infections.  Often you can no longer sleep through the night.  Sometimes it’s pain that keeps you awake: sometimes you don’t know what it is that keeps you from falling asleep.  When you do sleep you wake up feeling tired and unrefreshed.

You crave sugar or other carbohydrates and if you give into the craving, you tend to gain weight and feel even worse.  Then, before you know it, bad days outweigh the good ones, and eventually there are no good days, just ones that range from bad to worse.  You become increasingly immobile.  Gradually and without realizing it at first, you stop making plans because you never know how you will feel, and you become mostly house-bound or bedridden.  The simple task of going to the supermarket can be an impossible chore.  By now you have visited doctors or various specialties in the hope that one of them will be able to tell you what’s wrong and set things right….

You have had many diagnostic tests run, costing hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars.  Your friends have offered you a lot of advice about vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, and you do not feel much better.  You may have heard of the word “fibromyalgia”, and maybe you know whether or not you have it.  No one has told you how to treat your disease, although they have many ideas about how to ease your symptoms.

Your life has entered a downward spiral of pain, depression, and fatigue.  You have a great deal of guilt about not being the person you used to be.  Unless you are blessed with an exceptional companion, your personal relationships have suffered or completely fallen apart.  You worry about your ability to care for your children.  You may even contemplate suicide.”

 (Excerpt, used with permission, from “What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You about Fibromyalgia” by Dr. R. Paul St. Amand and Claudia Craig Marek)

Those of us who have fibromyalgia, know that it is far more involved than this.  As Dr. St. Amand says, “This is really just an oversimplified picture of what it’s like to have fibromyalgia”.  The above description described me to a ‘T’.  In reading Dr. St. Amand and Claudia’s book, I was amazed to finally find someone who understood all that I was desperately trying to handle and fix, silently and alone.  I had found someone who actually had an answer to my problem!  Fibromyalgia destroyed the life I once had, debilitating me physically and emotionally, to the point of suicidal thoughts. 

I hope that, as you browse my website, you will find the solution that will put an end to your long and desperate quest for answers about your declining health. May you be informed and encouraged enough to find the impetus to get started on the guaifenesin protocol, because it is the ONLY solution that gets to the root of this silent, insidious disease.

To get started or for more information on the guaifenesin protocol go to Dr. St. Amand and Claudia’s website: http://www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/resources-links.htm

For one-on-one help and encouragement with the treatment go to:

http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=guaigroup&A=1

 and sign up to this on-line support group.  This list is full of information and there are several administration ladies, including Claudia that give of their time and energy to help anyone with questions about the treatment.

For further information click on Info Links to help get you started in the right direction!

Copyright ©  2005 Carol Stous Hetler. All rights reserved.

Contact Carol at: chetler@satx.rr.com