Fibromyalgia Awareness, an interview for a public access channel

This is very much worth 15 minutes.  I'd suggest people PRINT THIS PAGE and give it, mail it, fax it, tape it to the door of their doctors' offices so that their physicians might find Lumigrate and the link Aimee was so generous to take the time and place here today for everyone to look at in the future!  

Due to the economic reasons of having insurance that would cover me to go to the MD and cover my Rxs, and in years when my pay had been reduced by massive layoffs in the medical/ therapy industry in the late 1990s when I was a new OT, I utilized exclusively allopathic medicine.   And Aimee does an outstanding job of articulating what fibromyalgia is thought to be and she has the latest info from allopathy as far as I know!  I would bet that if someone gave an exam about what FMS is to her and to all the primary care physicians in the country, she'd get a very high score and be higher than most of them!  So I'd love to see THEM come here and learn!  

About 5-10 years ago after my fibromyalgia had gotten very bad and I found MDs who knew what to do for it via prescription pharmaceuticals.  I credit them with having gotten things shored up for me when supplements and herbs just didn't cut it, and in retrospect the vicious cycle of being too fatigued to eat the way I knew I needed to be eating due to food allergies and the specifics of fibromyalgia.  I was on sleep aids, muscle relaxants, thyroid, GABA / antiseizure meds (including Lyrica and the older/cheaper but similar Neurontin) and very much appreicate their being there for me.  Oh, Vioxx... I actually called the company that made that and asked them to thank their drug developers for it when I finally got approval from my HMO after a very bad ankle sprain about 7 years ago which was what kind of flared everything back up for me after I had it under control about ten years ago due to proper eating strategies based on my food allergies.   

And I found the timing VERY interesting because Wm Marcus Spurlock, MD's first installment on Lumigrate.com was being posted at the very same time Aimee posted this, and so between the two I think there is a REALLY BIG BAND today in terms of offering valid, progressive, streamlined, and FUN health education for the public and providers alike to learn from.  And learn from each other -- "cross pollinating" as I call it. In this case today, it was TOUCHING, to see the tears and I speak for myself that I do not like to cry in front of people and I have teared up like this and everyone with fibromyalgia who is frustrated tends to do so.  So I think Niki Wilkerson's tears and admission in this segment are touching and I also admire how Aimee showed her professional abilities as a social worker in how she handled it. 

I would like to say that as I ended up finding more progressive providers I was able to get things turned around.  My thryoid had not been tested properly time and time and year after decade and so THAT was huge, when I started on a T3/4 thyroid a few years back.  I also had gotten so much better and had started rotating foods I had known I had allergies to such as dairy and wheat back in, and as I understand it, that is part of what sets the body up to have reactions that then set the hormone cascade we experience with FMS into motion.  It kind of creeps in on you and when I didn't have an GI issues because I wasn't eating THAT much of it, I believe it was affecting my thyroid, as currently I am back being pretty compliant about foods and not needing thyroid hormone supplemented for many months. 

And I was able to lose weight once things got going in the right direction, but I so commiserate about how frustrating the weight piece is.  I had cut back to eating 1/3 what I normally did just to maintain and not go over the 200# I had hit (I used to be 133# and 13% body fat before FMS onset in my mid 30s, 15 years ago).  I just saw a former coworker last week who hadn't seen me in a few years or so and she didn't recognize me, as I am down from my diabetic 200# at age 40 to an okay 'normal weight' for me of 145 or so I'd guess.  So I did lose the weight, but once I had my health shored up and worked as an OT before I poured all my money into Lumigrate to help others with education, I was able to pay for some things that traditional medicine/insurance does not. 

As more of these things that are not paid for are utilized and show successes and consumers/ members of insurance companies let these companies know the benefits in cost savings, they will become more available.  There is wording in the "Innovative Therapies" section of the health care bill that passed in the US for approval pathways for biosimilar biological products.  And I was told this by someone who said 'thought you'd want to know what I saw in the bill, because I spent time last summer educating him as he works for an insurance company. 

I encourage people who are wanting to learn about what integrative medicine providers do in addition or instead of the allopathic approaches covered here to investigate other areas of Lumigrate as well.  Dr. Spurlock Forum under fibromyalgia and Dr. Rawlings area (currently in Nutrition, though I might move her up to be in fibromaylgia as I now realize HOW focused she is on foods and fibromyalgia, though I want EVERYONE coming to Lumigrate to see her!  AND I want everyone coming to Lumigrate to explore about fibromyalgia to watch this WONDERFUL 15 minutes interview with Aimee and Niki -- I think it is better than what I've seen Dr. Oz do so far!  Oh, that's right, he didn't say the F word yet!  Again, I hope when he does, he invites Aimee and Niki to join him!  And Oprah if she ever does a show on it, which I thought for SURE was going to happen in the winter of 2009/10.  Until then, this is 15 really good minutes!   Please let others know it's here ... YOU can be a liaison for Lumigrate and health education that will help MANY if you can turn just your own providers onto progressive and valid information such as this. 

Again, Aimee -- kudos!  And thank you -- you are GRATE! ~~ Mardy

 Two years later, I still REALLY love this interview by Aimee Shannon and our coverage of it at Lumigrate.com.