MelE
New member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2015
- Messages
- 1
- Reason
- DX FIBRO
- Diagnosis
- 01/2000
- Country
- US
- State
- NC
Hello. I'm joining this forum to say hello and to offer my story on my recent use of Mucinex during a 10 day nasty cold virus.
My history with Fibromyalgia - I have known I've had it for over 15 years and I have tried to manage through the pain and over the last year it has almost disabled me to the point I have limited mobility. I've also had Plantars Fasciitis for about the same number of years and it's been hell having went through all the therapy, Osotronic surgery, boots, injections, orthotics, therapies, you name it. So I have been dealt a double punch with Fibromyalgia and P.F. in both of my feet. Over the past two years I have also been experiencing some back pain with a lower disk generation that has caused me a lot of pain.
My Mom has Fibromyalgia. I've been aware of it since I was little, when it didn't have a name, and when I went to poke my Mom on her arm for attention she would scream out in pain .... it was years later that I finally understood she had this condition/disease. When I was 32 years old I realized I also had Fibromyalgia. I tried Cymbalta and Lyrica and within two weeks I got off the drugs because of the side effects. So for 99% of the last 15 years having Fibromyalgia, P.F. and back pain I have not been taking a prescription and trying to "live with it" taking Ibuprofen and occasionally aspirin products.
Recently, I went to my Doctor for an annual physical and they asked me how long it had been since I had a Tetanus/Whooping cough shot. It had been since I was in college and I broke down and decided to get one. I read that my arm would be sore for a couple of days and I just tried to ignore it and move on with my day as I was packing my son up to go to college for his Freshman year. About a week later after I had moved him into his dorm room, I came down with a tickle in my throat and then my ear started hurting. I felt kind of feverish and the next day I felt my lymph nodes under my arm was swollen. I immediately panicked because that never happens and I went on the internet to research the Tetanus shot and this is very common. I also had a goose egg area where my shot was given deep into the muscle. I tried not to panic and know that this was just an adverse side affect of the shot. Within a couple of days my lymph node pain went away and I had a full blown nasty head cold.
This is where Mucinex comes into the story. I was taking 1200 mg once a day with Alka Selter Plus Severe Cough and Cold Day and Night with 200 mg Guaifenesin. I also was using Afrin and Saline nose drops. I felt horrible with this cold to where i didn't leave the house for over a week, but oddly enough my Fibromyalgia symptoms, plantar fasciitis and back pain was greatly reduced. At this point in my life I am in chronic pain so being on these meds alerted me to something may be helping my other symptoms. I kind of blew it off thinking that can't be happening. What sense does that even make?
I was under a lot of stress coming home after my son moved into college, I got sick with this horrible cold and my doggie suddenly went completely blind and was diagnosed with SARDS disease. So I'm basically at home nursing my cold with over the counter drugs, nursing my doggie and taking her back and forth to the vet, and thinking how in the world am I going to make it through all of this. The saving grace was that my previous daily/chronic pain I have
lived for over 15 years had greatly decreased. You know the saying God won't give you more than you can handle... in my case this was so true. If I had to deal with my chronic pain, a horrible cold and the stress of seeing my healthy dog go suddenly blind, I don't think I could have handled it.
Back to Guaifenesin... I've never researched other alternatives in treating my Fibromyalgia so when I went online and saw many are seeing great results of using it for their Fibromyalgia symptoms I was elated. Unfortunately, I had already stopped my Mucinex for a few days and I could feel the pain coming back as it was before. It was pretty clear something in that combination of those drugs helped me unless it was a complete coincidence.
I recently started going to a Chiropractor for a couple of weeks before I got my Tetanus shot and I could not see that it was providing me any pain relief. I had not been to a Chiropractor in years and I was getting desperate to get some help in reducing my pain. I also went out and purchased a back massager and foot massager on Amazon. I would like to credit this as also being one of the reasons for the reduction of my back pain but since I had no relief during the time I was using it, I can't give it any credit, but it's possible that it helped in some way prior to the use of Mucinex.
This is a long winded and rambling account of how I accidentally discovered the benefits of Guaifenesin for Fibromyalgia, foot pain and back pain, but it was such an incredible reduction in pain (at least 80%) that I had to come on here and share my experience.
For those of you who are following the Guaifenesin protocol, using extended relief with short term - starting out with gradual dosing and working your way up to your ideal dose, I jumped in head first without knowing any of it and what I did accidentally worked for me, even with the use of Salicylates.
Because when I am hit smack in the face with having to study health related issues, I like many of you go all in. Some say the Guaifenesin Protocol is quackery, some say it works for them, others say it didn't help but still believe it helps others. Whatever it is, I know that it appeared to have worked for me. Now I'm back at it, using myself as a Guinea pig and using the exact products I used before, minus the Afrin. I'm going to do this for two weeks and I have purchased all Salicylate cosmetic products today at Walmart. I'm going to only reduce my Salicylate in cosmetic products I use on my skin such as deodorant, shampoo/conditioner, moisturizer, tooth paste, etc.
I'll come back in two weeks and give everyone an update on if this combination helped me in the same way it did before. If it does, I will then switch to Guaifenesin 1200 mg twice and day and I may throw in a short release Guai with it. The Alka-Seltzer plus has it in there as well so I'm guessing that was short release, which may aided overall in my accidental protocol.
If you have any thoughts please share with me. I'm not convinced reducing Salicylates is necessary for everyone, but for myself I'm going to try it and see. Salicylates are in everything now and they didn't use to be. I've also had GI problems over the years with IBS-C and bad heartburn and acid reflux. I've been Gluten free for the past two years after I again (accidentally) discovered that when I came off of gluten for a week my acid reflux greatly reduced and a strange rash I had for two years, also went away. Also the odd chest pain I had been having for two years I guess from the acid reflux went away too. I was able to wean myself of Protonix.
Through all of this I've gained a lot of weight and now I'm on a mission of finding away to rid myself of this pain. I had just about given up, until recently.
If you have made it this far reading all of that, thank you. I hope my rambling story can be of some help to someone.
Happy Labor Day!
My history with Fibromyalgia - I have known I've had it for over 15 years and I have tried to manage through the pain and over the last year it has almost disabled me to the point I have limited mobility. I've also had Plantars Fasciitis for about the same number of years and it's been hell having went through all the therapy, Osotronic surgery, boots, injections, orthotics, therapies, you name it. So I have been dealt a double punch with Fibromyalgia and P.F. in both of my feet. Over the past two years I have also been experiencing some back pain with a lower disk generation that has caused me a lot of pain.
My Mom has Fibromyalgia. I've been aware of it since I was little, when it didn't have a name, and when I went to poke my Mom on her arm for attention she would scream out in pain .... it was years later that I finally understood she had this condition/disease. When I was 32 years old I realized I also had Fibromyalgia. I tried Cymbalta and Lyrica and within two weeks I got off the drugs because of the side effects. So for 99% of the last 15 years having Fibromyalgia, P.F. and back pain I have not been taking a prescription and trying to "live with it" taking Ibuprofen and occasionally aspirin products.
Recently, I went to my Doctor for an annual physical and they asked me how long it had been since I had a Tetanus/Whooping cough shot. It had been since I was in college and I broke down and decided to get one. I read that my arm would be sore for a couple of days and I just tried to ignore it and move on with my day as I was packing my son up to go to college for his Freshman year. About a week later after I had moved him into his dorm room, I came down with a tickle in my throat and then my ear started hurting. I felt kind of feverish and the next day I felt my lymph nodes under my arm was swollen. I immediately panicked because that never happens and I went on the internet to research the Tetanus shot and this is very common. I also had a goose egg area where my shot was given deep into the muscle. I tried not to panic and know that this was just an adverse side affect of the shot. Within a couple of days my lymph node pain went away and I had a full blown nasty head cold.
This is where Mucinex comes into the story. I was taking 1200 mg once a day with Alka Selter Plus Severe Cough and Cold Day and Night with 200 mg Guaifenesin. I also was using Afrin and Saline nose drops. I felt horrible with this cold to where i didn't leave the house for over a week, but oddly enough my Fibromyalgia symptoms, plantar fasciitis and back pain was greatly reduced. At this point in my life I am in chronic pain so being on these meds alerted me to something may be helping my other symptoms. I kind of blew it off thinking that can't be happening. What sense does that even make?
I was under a lot of stress coming home after my son moved into college, I got sick with this horrible cold and my doggie suddenly went completely blind and was diagnosed with SARDS disease. So I'm basically at home nursing my cold with over the counter drugs, nursing my doggie and taking her back and forth to the vet, and thinking how in the world am I going to make it through all of this. The saving grace was that my previous daily/chronic pain I have
lived for over 15 years had greatly decreased. You know the saying God won't give you more than you can handle... in my case this was so true. If I had to deal with my chronic pain, a horrible cold and the stress of seeing my healthy dog go suddenly blind, I don't think I could have handled it.
Back to Guaifenesin... I've never researched other alternatives in treating my Fibromyalgia so when I went online and saw many are seeing great results of using it for their Fibromyalgia symptoms I was elated. Unfortunately, I had already stopped my Mucinex for a few days and I could feel the pain coming back as it was before. It was pretty clear something in that combination of those drugs helped me unless it was a complete coincidence.
I recently started going to a Chiropractor for a couple of weeks before I got my Tetanus shot and I could not see that it was providing me any pain relief. I had not been to a Chiropractor in years and I was getting desperate to get some help in reducing my pain. I also went out and purchased a back massager and foot massager on Amazon. I would like to credit this as also being one of the reasons for the reduction of my back pain but since I had no relief during the time I was using it, I can't give it any credit, but it's possible that it helped in some way prior to the use of Mucinex.
This is a long winded and rambling account of how I accidentally discovered the benefits of Guaifenesin for Fibromyalgia, foot pain and back pain, but it was such an incredible reduction in pain (at least 80%) that I had to come on here and share my experience.
For those of you who are following the Guaifenesin protocol, using extended relief with short term - starting out with gradual dosing and working your way up to your ideal dose, I jumped in head first without knowing any of it and what I did accidentally worked for me, even with the use of Salicylates.
Because when I am hit smack in the face with having to study health related issues, I like many of you go all in. Some say the Guaifenesin Protocol is quackery, some say it works for them, others say it didn't help but still believe it helps others. Whatever it is, I know that it appeared to have worked for me. Now I'm back at it, using myself as a Guinea pig and using the exact products I used before, minus the Afrin. I'm going to do this for two weeks and I have purchased all Salicylate cosmetic products today at Walmart. I'm going to only reduce my Salicylate in cosmetic products I use on my skin such as deodorant, shampoo/conditioner, moisturizer, tooth paste, etc.
I'll come back in two weeks and give everyone an update on if this combination helped me in the same way it did before. If it does, I will then switch to Guaifenesin 1200 mg twice and day and I may throw in a short release Guai with it. The Alka-Seltzer plus has it in there as well so I'm guessing that was short release, which may aided overall in my accidental protocol.
If you have any thoughts please share with me. I'm not convinced reducing Salicylates is necessary for everyone, but for myself I'm going to try it and see. Salicylates are in everything now and they didn't use to be. I've also had GI problems over the years with IBS-C and bad heartburn and acid reflux. I've been Gluten free for the past two years after I again (accidentally) discovered that when I came off of gluten for a week my acid reflux greatly reduced and a strange rash I had for two years, also went away. Also the odd chest pain I had been having for two years I guess from the acid reflux went away too. I was able to wean myself of Protonix.
Through all of this I've gained a lot of weight and now I'm on a mission of finding away to rid myself of this pain. I had just about given up, until recently.
If you have made it this far reading all of that, thank you. I hope my rambling story can be of some help to someone.
Happy Labor Day!
and something more to ask my rheumatologist about.
