Fibromyalgia:
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Cats
Goats
My Progress on Guaifenesin
Page 1
I purchased my first
guai from Garden Pharmacy,
London. It was the Caraco brand, which is a green 600mg sustained-released
(long-acting) tablet, with lactose used as a filler. Garden Pharmacy's service
was quick and efficient, and I have no hesitations in recommending them for
purchases via the internet. (Note added 16 May 2003 - Garden Pharmacy are no
longer able to supply guaifenesin for FMS.)
On 14 May 2002 I was mapped by my physiotherapist
, and that night I started taking 300mg twice a day (one 600mg pill broken
in two). After two days I began to feel very tired and a little unwell. This
continued for a few days, and I thought it might be the first signs of cycling,
but eventually I came to the conclusion that I actually had a bug of some sort.
There were plenty of 'flu bugs going around a the time. Eventually, I decided I
wasn't cycling.
On 24 May I increased my dose to 600mg twice daily (1,200mg total). It is
supposed to be a week that you stay at that initial dose, but that bug confused
me, so I took a little longer to decide if anything was, in fact, happening. I
have noted things in my diary which may or may not have been cycling, things
like a bit achy, a mouth ulcer turning up (which I've been getting all my life),
my hands being more sore than usual (I have osteo-arthritis in them).
On 24 June I had a second map done
. It showed some differences around the body, but generally a great
consistency with the first map (confirming Lynne's skills as a mapper, in my
opinion), and no improvement in the left thigh, which Dr St Amand says is
normally the first region to clear. I increased my dose to 1,800mg daily; I
chose to do 1200mg at night, 600mg in the morning, but I could have used any
combination that suited me. Again over the month I've noted little things, but
nothing that I could say 'YES! this is cycling'.
Throughout the whole time, from the first 300mg dose, my nose has run and I've
sneezed heaps, mainly first and last thing in the day, an effect of the
mucous-thinner.
On 22 July I had my third map done
, and this is where things got a little confused. The map showed that my
left thigh had broken into two distinct lumps, which I though meant I was
cycling and I was on my way. I posted an email to the list to this effect, and
started a huge discussion on whether or not the left thigh is supposed to clear
completely in a month on the correct dose.
In the middle of
this discussion I hooked up with one of the Guai Buddies (a service that
Guai-Support Group used to offer to its members) privately, and we talked a lot about what was happening and
the experiences the Buddies had put together. Donna also lives in the countryside,
so she understood the difficulties I faced with having to go out and do
farm-type work and not touch plants. We decided that I was very probably on my
cycling dose, but I may have been blocking from too much contact with sals or I might not have been absorbing all the guai. It is
quite possible that I am lactose intolerant, but right now I'm not prepared to
go dairy-free to find out.
Meantime, I increased my dose to 2,400mg daily (1,200mg twice) on 12 August,
still not certain exactly what was going on except that I hadn't cleared my left
thigh within a month.
During this time, Jacqui and Megan were doing the work to have a local
pharmacist make the capsules for us (see
here for
details), so I decided that the easiest thing to do was to change to the local
product. There would be no question of dyes or fillers impeding absorbency with
these capsules.
On 21 August I forgot to take my morning dose, or to take the evening dose with
me to Auckland, as I knew I was going to be out for dinner that night before I
went home. I decided that this was a good time to take a little break from guai
before I switched to the new capsules.
Because we questioned my absorbency of the Caraco tablets, I dropped the dose
down when I started the capsules, and on 24 August I started back on guai at
600mg twice daily. Again, I've not noticed a big increase in symptoms, just the
occasional thing that may or may not be an indication of cycling.
What has changed for me is that I've now learned to map my left thigh so I can
monitor my progress myself. I couldn't work it out to start with, couldn't find
these bumps everyone talks about, so I asked Lynne, my physio, to check for me
when I saw her one day. The only lumps she could find in either thigh was one
near my left knee, otherwise both thighs were quite clear. No wonder I couldn't
find anything :-).
Now, I've been talking to Donna about this, and that muscle near the knee isn't
included in the muscles that should clear within a month, so that meant my thigh
was clear! What we didn't know, because I'd changed my dose part-way, was
whether it had been clear before I changed, and whether it would stay that way.
I'm not sure myself right now, but I will be seeing Lynne for another map
sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Update 05 October 2002:
and Donna has confirmed for me that I am now clearing nicely, on half the
dose I'd needed with Caraco.
Update 12 October 2002:
Update 06 December 2002
showing great progress! Now if I can just keep from blocking by touching
all the grass around here!
Continued in "My Progress #2"
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