Has it really been that long?
Most of the time I don’t even feel like I have fibromyalgia anymore.

I’ve only written one previous update, which was after being on the guaifenesin protocol one year. I didn’t address some thoughts I had in the beginning. I would like to mention them now so people new to the protocol won’t feel discouraged if they have the same feelings.

When I first learned that it could take months on the protocol before I felt any significant improvement I wanted so badly to fast forward so I could feel better. The task of getting all new personal care products that didn’t contain salicylates was overwhelming. I got exhausted just thinking about it. I was both excited about getting better and frightened it was too good to be true. But I was determined to learn this treatment and give it my best shot.

Just reading the book was a daunting task. My reading comprehension was so bad I had to read paragraphs over several times before I understood. I got the audio book and listened to it for hours every day. Nobody said this was going to be easy and it wasn’t, not at first.

Here I will continue my story where I left of after one year on the guaifenesin protocol.
After a year my most painful symptom hadn’t shown any improvement. My feet hurt so bad the thought of going to the mall made me cringe. They hurt mainly on the balls of both feet. Orthotics helped a little. Going barefoot was not something I did. I would put my shoes on to walk from the living room to the kitchen. The bottoms of my feet felt like they had no padding on them, as if they were just skin & bones. My other symptoms continued to improve but my feet only seemed to get gradually worse as they had for as long as I could remember. They were burning and tingling now too. I had bunion surgery on both feet when I was in my early 30s. Could that have something to do with it?

I decided to go to a neurologist to see if he could help because I thought it may be neuropathy. He did dozens of tests including brain scans, nerve tests, MRIs etc. everything came back negative. He suggested drugs to help alleviate the symptoms. He said the symptoms could be Fibro. I first took Gabapentin, which helped but I had to keep increasing dosage to get relief, then he put me on Lyrica. It helped even better but the side effects were awful. Then I tried Cymbalta. It helped too but again the side effects were terrible. It was a nightmare getting off Cymbalta. It took 5 months to get off it, ever so slowly decreasing the dosage. After I was finally off of it and wasn’t sickened by with drawl symptoms, I noticed my feet were feeling a little better.

It had now been about 2 1/2 years on the guaifenesin protocol and my feet were actually getting better. The pain wasn’t masked by drugs anymore. The pain is going away because of the guaifenesin protocol. I could go on walks in the neighborhood with my husband. I actually felt like gardening again.

I had been on the protocol about 18 months when my husband and I sold our house that was on 3 acres and moved to a townhouse. Hubby was tired of doing all the yard work plus work his demanding job. We weren’t in the townhouse long before I got restless. I was gardening into the common areas. I wanted a bigger garden. Well, fast forward. Last spring we bought a big house on 6 acres. I’m feeling so good now it’s awesome. I take no prescription & haven’t for at least 18 months.

We went on a vacation to England & Scotland last year. We hiked 33 miles of Hadrian’s Wall in 3 days. Then we visited my best Fibro Buddy, Joanne Campbell in Tantobie, England, which was a dream come true. We collected sea glass on the beach together. Hubby and I then hiked hiked for 3 days in the Northern Highlands of Scotland, covering another 30 some miles. It was like a dream come true.

If you’re considering doing the guaifenesin protocol I highly recommend you do it. It has truly given me my life back.”

~Carmen

For more information on the Guaifenesin Protocol, or more success stories like this one, check out the tags below this post, or the linked words throughout the post <3