Update time!

The Savella was awful. It didn't work. I was essentially a month without drugs. I thought it was all in my head, but....well, then someone sent me this link about a group pushing to recall Savella. Nope, not all in my head - it really DOESN'T work. They somehow convinced the FDA that it did, based on 2% of people benefiting from it over a placebo. Two percent? Really? That's...no. Not acceptable. And the risks? I wish I'd done more research on it, because I never would have taken it and wasted my money.

I also had an appointment with a rheumatologist yesterday, for the first time. I liked him well enough. He's not like my regular doc whom I adore, but as long as he fixes me I'll go with it. (Yes I know - FMS can't be "fixed", but it CAN be controlled.) We talked for a bit and he tested my reflexes, noting that my left knee doesn't have any. Why? Well, back in 2002 I drove about 20 miles in stop and go traffic in my truck, which has a very stiff clutch. I've always had problems when driving the clutch - my knee would ache. This time it swelled up. I ignored it the first night, but when I woke up it was twice it's normal size. I waited a week to go to the doc, on the advice of my father, and ended up in a brace and on crutches for about 3 months...while still driving the truck, since I had no other vehicle and I was single. Went through p/t, cortisone injections....nothing worked, and I still have some fluid above my knee, but they decided it was an "irritated fat pack". Joy. Fast forward a few years, and I have fibro. The doc thinks they might be connected...when he heard all this he said "hmm...and the plot thickens". :) He also figured out very quickly that my SI joint is extremely painful to even the lightest touch - there are days when my jeans make my skin hurt back there. So...Xrays of my SI joint area, left knee, ultrasound of my hands since they always feel swollen at night but have no visible swelling, and 6 vials of blood.

He said "Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of elimination - once they test you for everything and there is nothing else, then you have FMS". This is not entirely true. You DO have to meet certain conditions in order to have FMS, and you can have it in conjunction with half a million other things. I think I know what he meant though. Things like low thyroid can mimic FMS. So can CFS. He thinks there may be something else going on in conjunction with the FMS, hence all the testing. I go back in two weeks for all the results. In the meantime, I'm back on Lyrica, which I tried 3 years ago. It worked really well, but I gained 20# in less than a month - not good. I started it last night...and this is my new theme song until the side effects go away: