I have very bad skin burning and itching and tenderness on my back and head that comes and goes randomly. I don’t know the trigger. I also have neuropathy in my feet and lower legs that could or could not be due to my lower back pain. I have tried several medications to help as I also have sever anxiety and depression from this-paxil, Lexapro, gabapentin, Zoloft, cymbalta, Nortriptyline, and now just starting Savella. It’s only been 6 days on the low dose titration of Savella and I have no relief yet. Does anyone take Savella and does it help ? Does it take time for it to work? I am losing my mind and taking so much gabapentin and klonopin to get me through this which I hate. Please please help me if you can.
It's literally crazy how anxiety and depression can exist simultaneously. But they can. Gabapentin did little for me, as did some of the others up there. Some did help. Acupuncture, surprisingly. Elavil at night made a difference. Cannabis can be helpful. I tried every diet, supplement, and health routine I could.
The one thing about this disease is that it's like a Medical-Mental Rubik's cube of symptoms. The combinations are ever changing.
Each person will have different symptoms, at different intensity, at different times. You yourself will have different symptoms and severity throughout your life. Unless a cure is found, which could happen at any time, any moment.
I've had fibro since 1984. My mother had it before me, too. Nobody (including me) believed her complaints because she looked like a very healthy person. She had modeled a bit before my birth, and looking at the photos of that time-she looked exactly the same as the mom I knew growing up. She was repeatedly in and out of mental hospitals, because the doctors could find nothing wrong in the areas that really hurt, and no understanding of the many odd symptoms, like constant thirst, for example.
To avoid the judgement of others, at times I've thought about using my cane when I didn't really need it, or keeping a knee brace on longer than strictly practical. Just so my outside might look something like I actually feel inside. If that makes sense.
For the last 30 years or so, the CDC had considered Fibromyalgia a "women's health issue"-an issue that was put down to mental illness, mainly. My mother was hospitalized at least a half dozen times when I was a kid. It was awful for her. And us. Having your mom taken away by ambulance automatically makes you stand out in school. And not in a good way.
So much has changed. The mere existence of this forum is proof of that. And Stanford scientists are on the job, ready to do the research.
But the needed federal money appropriated by the NIH, to such scientists, is almost non-existent. I personally believe that with the addition of the Covid long-haulers to this incredibly similar disease,-Fibro sufferers will benefit. Something good may come out of this devastating Covid pandemic which has taken so many from us.
Take care. I wish you the best.
