My oh my, 2024 was certainly a health hellscape for me.

It felt like I was maybe being punished by a higher power for reasons unknown.

There were times I thought to myself “I don’t care if I ever wake up again”, and I meant it.

The good news is that I overcame, and with the help of several doctors, finally reached a diagnosis and started a treatment plan that has led me to being happier than I have ever been in life; no seriously!

So how did we get here?

Basically, in January 2024, I had COVID. In February I had bronchitis. That led to a lung infection through March which only resolved in April after finally being treated with the correct antibiotics.

And while I was finally able to breathe again, something wasn’t right.

I had recently moved to a new city and didn’t yet have a family doctor. I was relying on walk-in clinics for prescription refills and B12 injections, while hoping that one of the doctors’ waiting lists that I had signed up for would come through.

Unfortunately, things got worse before I could land a family doctor.

• I started losing the ability to use my left arm
• I was in constant pain from head to toe
• My period came and lasted weeks (which is especially odd because I take the depo-provera birth control injections and hadn’t had a period in nearly a decade)
• I had a consistent stabbing pain in my lower right abdomen (about where your ovary would be) that felt like intermitten lightening strikes
• I had constant muscle spasms, 24 hours a day, all over my body
• I had relentless and uncontrollable muscle tension as well that left me sore and exhausted
• I had restless legs all night long and would wake up several times through the night, sometimes not being able to get back to sleep for 3 or 4 hours
• I was unable to keep my blood sugar under control (diagnosed T2 Diabetes in 2018)
• I had such intense memory problems, brain fog and migraines

My body was stressed out; that much was obvious.

We tried everything to figure out what was wrong. I did blood tests, urine tests, bacterial swabs, ultrasounds, X-rays, MRIs, etc.

I was sent to whatever experts the doctors could think of with their limited resources of a walk-in clinic.

The only thing we were ever able to determine was I had very elevated inflammation and white blood cell counts.

Over the course of May and June it got worse.

• I was unable to eat solid food and was barely getting 400 liquid calories a day
• I suddenly went from insomnia to sleeping up to 18 hours a day
• It was nearly impossible to walk up and down the stairs
• I lost the strength to lift myself out of the bathtub (hot baths were one of the only pain relieving methods I had at the time)

My life revolved around the bed, the bathroom and the doctor’s office… that’s it.

I missed celebrating my 10-year anniversary.

I missed celebrating my birthday.

I missed nearly 10 weeks of work.

That is how much pain I was in and how bad it got.

Eventually through a process of elimination, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. According to the Mayo Clinic:

• Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.
• Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain and spinal cord process painful and nonpainful signals.
• Symptoms often begin after an event, such as physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress. In other cases, symptoms gradually accumulate over time with no single triggering event.
• Women are more likely to develop fibromyalgia than are men.
• Many people who have fibromyalgia also have tension headaches, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression.
• While there is no cure for fibromyalgia, a variety of medications can help control symptoms.
• Exercise, relaxation and stress-reduction measures also may help.

After I was diagnosed, the doctor I had been working with at the walk-in clinic prescribed me 30mg of duloxetine daily.

Duloxetine is a medication used to manage major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), fibromyalgia, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Duloxetine is a notoriously difficult medicine for some to get used to when starting. It has typical side effects like dry mouth, dizziness, and nausea.

But it was my first time taking an anti-depressant medication and I can only describe the feeling of taking duloxetine that first week as heavy.

I took the medication in the morning, daily, and I was sort of like a zombie for the rest of the day.

I barely talked. I could answer my partner when he asked me something, but I didn’t really have the will or the want to start talking like would be normal for me.

I had done a lot of research about duloxetine before taking it, so I knew that some people feel this way and that I could ride it out.

And I did.

Within about a week of starting the duloxetine, I could feel my brain chemistry changing and some symptoms started to improve!

The only thing was, it didn’t last the whole day.

I have come to learn that I am a “Ultrarapid Metabolizer” of medicine. Essentially, if a medicine is supposed to last all day for someone, it will probably only last a third of day for me.

I spoke to the doctor at the walk-in clinic, and he agreed that I should move to 30mg twice daily (once in the morning and once in the evening) to provide all-day coverage.

It was amazing.

Within 2 weeks of starting duloxetine, and 1 week of starting the double dose the following symptoms were 100% eliminated:

• Restless leg syndrome
• Nighttime Insomnia
• Months-long vaginal bleeding
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Irritable bowel symptoms

Amazing right?

And yet, some symptoms persisted, some got worse or came out of nowhere:

• I still experienced some pain, especially in my lower right abdomen
• I could not tolerate exercise at all
• I was having increased difficulty with focus and attention, both at home and at work
• I was having increasing issues with memory and communication
• And the most severe persisting symptom was I could not stay awake for longer than 4-5 hours at a time

I talked to my doctors about this and we decided to move the timing of when I take my medications to see if that could improve the fatigue and other symptoms.

It didn’t help at all.

I started doing my own research, and found that in some countries when patients with fibromyalgia experience extreme fatigue, they are prescribed meds to help them stay awake.

I talked to my doctor about this and she was not interested in that line of treatment at all.

She told me that I should double my evening dose of duloxetine to help me get a better sleep at night, which would then make the daytime fatigue go away.

I told her I was sleeping at night… sometimes up to ten hours. It wasn’t a lack of nighttime sleep causing the fatigue.

She told me to try it anyways. She wouldn’t look into other options until I tried upping the dosage of duloxetine.

So I did it.

It didn’t work.

In fact, not only did it not work… it almost killed me.

I ended up having a serotonin syndrome incident.

For those of you unfamiliar, serotonin syndrome is a potentially life-threatening drug reaction that results from having too much serotonin in your body:

Mild symptoms

• Nervousness
• Nausea, vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Dilated pupils
• Tremor

Moderate symptoms

• Agitation, restlessness
• Muscle twitching, involuntary muscle contractions, muscle spasms, muscle rigidity
• Sweating, shivering
• Abnormal (side-to-side) eye movements

Severe symptoms

• Confusion, disorientation, delirium
• Rapid heart rate
• High blood pressure
• High body temperature (greater than 101.3 Fahrenheit [38.5 Celsius])
• Seizures
• Abnormal heartbeat
• Passing out, fainting

Terrifying, right?

So I stopped taking the double-dose of duloxetine in the evening, went back to my regular dose and stopped working with that family doctor.

I happened to have an appointment with my chiropractor a few days after the serotonin syndrome incident, and I shared with him what had happened.

I was seeing him to help me with my frozen left arm and shoulder but over the course of treatment, he had also been exceptionally kind in chatting with me about the fibromyalgia diagnosis and the symptoms I was continuing to experience.

He mentioned that in a podcast he was listening to, that there was some research to suggest that low-dose Naltrexone was picking up speed as a useful medicine for combatting fibromyalgia and was not known to have serotonin interaction.

What was so interesting about that, was that a pharmacist had also mentioned low-dose naltrexone just the week before. She said that many of her patients with fibromyalgia were being prescribed the low dose and seeing lots of success.

I went back to the walk-in clinic doctor that helped me before. When I told him that the family doctor had prescribed the extra dose of duloxetine and the resulting serotonin incident, he was appalled.

I talked to him about both the chiropractor and the pharmacist recommending low-dose naltrexone. He said he hadn’t heard of it for fibro but would look at the literature.

Fifteen minutes later he came back into the room and said that while there wasn’t a lot of Canadian research done yet, that there was enough global evidence for us to try it out.

I was elated! Finally, a different option to help.

I stayed on my twice daily dose of duloxetine and added .5mg daily of low-dose naltrexone.

Within two days all my pain was gone.

To this day, I have not had a need to use a painkiller again.

This is why it kills me when I see people in my fibromyalgia support groups refusing the pharmaceutical route.

I know that pills don’t always get to the route of the problem.

And for people that can solve their issues without medicine, awesome!

But for those that can’t, why continue to suffer? The physical and mental pain of fibromyalgia is beyond comprehension for those who have not experienced it.

Quick side note here that the fibro meds did not fix my chronic fatigue or attention issues. I ended up also being diagnosed with ADHD and am working with a new doctor to address the ADHD and fatigue. You can read about that here.

It has been said that fibromyalgia is the suicide disease.

It has been said that people with fibromyalgia are significantly more likely to end up divorced and alone.

Not for me.

I fought back.

I used all the tools, including medicine, to fight back.

And with this treatment plan in place, I do have my life back.

This summer for my anniversary, instead of laying in bed for 18 hours crying and moaning in pain, I am going to be on a 2-hour river cruise with the love of my life.

What a beautiful gift life has handed me; gratitude for regular pain-free days spent doing regular everyday things… an absolute gift.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I strongly encourage you to speak to your health professionals to find the right treatment plan that eliminates your symptoms entirely.

No one should have to live in pain.

No one should be told it’s all in their head.

You have the right to live a healthy, confident, and happy life!

Remember, you don’t need to be an expert to have an opinion!