Fibromyalgia: The New Integrative Approach. How to Combine the Best of Traditional and Alternative Therapies

This book by Milton Hammerly, MD, with "Putting the total well-being of the patient back in the center of the health care universe" to me, has one of the BEST stories ever from my time seeing patients who had fibromyalgia. Remember what the home page model on Lumigrate.com is ... YOU in the center with the providers all around?  

That model was a creation that came out of meetings from when I'd co-created a Fibro Forum in the medical building with Chris Young, PhD/psychology.  I'd been asked by a local rheumatologist if my clinic could become THE clinic in town for him to send his patients with FMS to -- none so far had really knowns what to do.  He mapped out his vision of a patient going every month to a different provider among those people with FMS need to go to typically.  That wasn't something the clinic I was at wanted to take on at that time (though they later did, gradually, once a wonderful patient came our way to demonstrate to us how much properly trained therapists could help a properly consciountious patient with fibromyalgia.  

Part of that came out of Dr Young and I having collaborated with good success with patients who had head injuries he obtained referrals on and so it was interesting when a patient with FMS appeared on my schedule at the start of 2007.  I suggested she also see Dr Young and potentially be sent along to another therapist at his Behavioral Health and Wellness clinic but he kept her to himself and had a revitalization of his enthusiasm professionally to focus on fibromyalia. 

He and I met every week for an hour and discussed what people with FMS need from a group .. 'support', 'education', 'community', 'therapy', 'guidance', 'leadership possibilities', etc.  He had a lot of input in those times for what I went on to create and launch in 2009 as Lumigrate.com, including the way the You model came out looking like a molecule. Then I had to find a graphics artist who could draw it the way we envisioned it and drew it in our non-artistic hands.  We then invited our patients who had worked with us because they had FMS, and they'd done well with us and would be a good beginning group to hopefully get leadership from related to what was wanted/needed and then grow from there.  It became clear to me that educating the patient so they could shuffle information that was valid, progressive, streamlined and FUN to providers was a concept that I wanted to develop. 

Somewhere in that time, one of the women who had never been my patient but was a long-standing 'once a monther' with Dr Young brought in a book and plunked it in front of me as the Forum was settling in to begin and she said 'I want you to read this book'.  It was a just a little paperbackbut it was quite thick and had a lot on the front page, no photograph of the author, just a lot of words.  I returned to my office after the discussion forum concluded for the day and threw it where I'd read it when I had some spare time between patients, though typically I was working on orders for patients to be faxed to doctors and figuring out billing issues, not with time to do what I'd LIKE to do, which was learn more. 

The next week I was on the phone and was on hold waiting for a doctor / provider and took out the book and started looking at it.  "WOW, this is a GREAT book!  I wonder who wrote it" I thought, and turned the book's cover to where I could read it.  LOW AND BEHOLD it was written by my MD from when I was FIRST an OT in Denver in 1997, Milton Hammerly!!!!  

I wanted to at least get this book placed here on the bookshelf and say I'll come back and write more about it.  It is produced by The Philip Lief Group, Inc and published by Adams Media Corporation, Avon Massachusetts.  It was published in 2000, and I've seen it on Amazon.  I cannot more highly recommend your purchasing a copy.  Mine has been loaned out over and over, so before I loan it out again -- as I just got it back and someone said 'I'd like to read that' --  I want to re-read it and now that I have Lumigrate's Bookshelf to write a review about it on, cover the highlights in the hopes it will resonate if it's what is 'right for YOU'.  "If you have fibromyalgia, you must read this superb book.  Then share it with your doctor!" is the cover's statement from Lynn Durand, MD, Medical Director for The Center for Integrative Medicine, in Concord, NH. 

I was able to find Dr Hammerly on the Internet a few years back and he met with me at the time that the website that you now see as Lumigrate was being constructed, as I was in downtown Denver meeting with intellectual properties attorneys about the contracts for the providers, the user agreement for the website, etc.  He was worked for a Catholic organization which has hospitals and was essentially the grand poohbah of innovation for them.  He has always reminded me of Martin Short with a centeredness a bit like the Dalai Lama.  I would not have created Lumigrate after having had a career in OT to the extent I was able to eek out if it hadn not been for my reading about him in the Rocky Mountain News when I moved to Denver and was doing internships at the Denver VA.  I recall his interest went from GP/primary care to being into integrative and alternative things with medicine because he'd had a knee surgery and felt his progress was not as rapid as he felt it could be. 

Since then he's provided input for The Denver Post article written by Nancy Loftholm for the influenza season which is in the Section in forums on colds, flu, bugs --  H1N1 was being so hyped and we were being scared silly by the media -- and I recently spoke with her and she recalled how top knotch he was in the information he provided and how he provided it.  He's retlurned for some more higher education in order to pursue different aspects of administration within health care and as much as it is a loss he isn't seeing patients anymore, nor interested in participating with information on Lumigrate as he just does not have the time currently, I like the idea of someone who has his background about health care solutions being part of the future of hospital administration. 

I'd like to underscrore that what I've done is loan it out to someone starting a compounding pharmacy (as it has a section about Meyers Cocktails, which I've been really helped to keep functional back when I was most depleted).  I've loaned it out to people doing media stories.  I've loaned it out to medical providers who work with people with FMS.  As the cover's endorsement statement says: Read it, then give it to your doctor.  I up that one.. Buy TWO so you can keep one and loan the other out to your Providers and people who have FMS or are developing it.  20% of people are on that continuum now and it'll keep growing until we each reach out to make the solutions happen. (Even back when he wrote this book he stated 3-5 million knew they had FMS and it was only half the people who have it, so if anyone questions the figure that 20% of people in the US are demonstrating symptoms of what could be or lead to be FMS if not correctly, I hope YOU start looking at resources which might lead us to intervening with people so they do NOT get a full blown case of FMS and reverse it before it gets almost impossible to do so.)

I'm so very grateful I had Dr Hammerly as my doctor and that he took the time, energy, and money/ resources to create a book so much for education and then went on in his career to do more and more.  For the record, he also wrote books about diabetes and PCOS / poly-cystic ovarian syndrome.  I have not obtained those yet but look forward to someday and learning more from this talented teacher and healer.   

~~ Mardy

Here's the link to see it on Amazon and I recommend doing the "Look inside" feature so you can see the table of contents and how easily the book's information flows.  www.amazon.com/Fibromyalgia-New-Integrative-Approach-Traditional/dp/1580624642/ref=sr_1_1

I notice there are many resale sellers with pretty high ratings and this book can be picked up really inexpensively.  I reviewed it again last night, and in addition to information about what FMS is and what to do about it, there's a lot mixed in about how the medical system of conventional medicine is melding, with difficulty, with complementary and alternative medicine.  Interestingly to me, ten years ago when he wrote this book about half of people wanted alternative; that is now up to 75% of those surveyed.