Fibromyalgia

If anyone tells you that fibromyalgia is reserved for middle-aged women, who are having a hard time coping with the empty nest, tell them to “Go soak your head”! When my daughter, Jenn, was in the 5th grade she had a particularly hard case of the flu. In its wake, it left an excruciating pain under her rib cage. She then developed over-active saliva glands, hypersensitivity to smells, trouble with equilibrium when riding in cars and chronic fatigue. Trip after trip to the physician found nothing. She was in 4 months of psycho therapy…because we thought “It was in her head”. But the psycho-analyst said…”She is experiencing real pain. I’d get her checked out at a children’s hospital”. So we did… “Chronic Pain Syndrome” was the nomenclature assigned to her malady….The pediatric specialist told us to make sure she got a lot of rest over summer vacation and it should go away. She was better in the summer…but it did not go away. 4 years later…a medical technolgist, whose mother was successfully treated with Dr. Brown’s anitibiotic therapy in the 80’s…suggested that fibro.was an auto imnmune disorder…and maybe antibiotic therapy was warranted. (We did not know that Henry Scammell had written his book…and addressed this issue) I went on the web…and there it was..I read the book, compiled lengthy documentation…went to our pediatrician…told her to read the folder…and then tell me what she thought our daughter had. Fibromyalgia! She didn’t know a child could get it…”they” taught her in med school that fibro was a trash-can disease…when you can’t think of something to call a mid-life woman’s disease…call it fibro. Back we went to the children’s hospital…and the rheumatologist concurred that my daughter, indeed, had fibro. What to do? Get rest, exercise and get pain counseling. right. By this time…the child was in the 7th grade….weighed 89 pounds, was deathly ill, and she was to exercise. uh,huh My search continued. I contacted the Roadback Foundation…spoke with a doctor who had fibro and took the antibiotic…found a physician who was aware of the treatment and had faith in it. She took only 50mg. of Minocin every other day…because she was Herxing and her body would only tolerate that much. At 6months….there was major difference…she started roller blading…going to movies…and her sleep patterns changed. Today…she is a lovely almost 17yr old. with a major modeling contract with Elite Modeling in Chicago. She is the picture of health. The antibiotic therapy brought my daughter back. Believe!