> Health and Disease > Bones, Joints, and Muscles > fibromyalgia

My experience with fibromyalgia began about 10 years ago. I was a healthy, active 36-year-old male employed as a firefighter for 11 years. I admit I was a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I enjoyed outdoor pursuits like white-water kayaking. I volunteered as a member of ski patrol and a mountain rescue team.

My problems started with knee pain I believed had been caused by pushing my body too hard, but the usual rest and rehab did little to relieve my pain. Six months later, I also developed pain in my wrists, ankles, thumbs and tailbone. Any body part I overused would have acute pain the next day. I quickly learned that if I ignored the pain and carried on, my symptoms just got worse.

I finally reached the stage where I could barely walk a city block or write in my journal. I knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t hold onto a coffee mug or turn a doorknob with one hand because it caused such severe joint pain.

Fortunately, I had supportive friends and family. At one point my resourceful and patient mother was even researching journals from university libraries on my behalf. She would read them to me over the phone as I lay in bed with the receiver propped up against my ear. I will be forever grateful to her. I don’t know how I could have coped without all the support.

Searching For Answers

I underwent numerous lab tests and visits to several specialists. Since nothing showed up on these tests, one doctor even suggested that it must be "all in my head." I was fortunate enough to have a very kind doctor who knew me from the rescue team days and believed my symptoms were real. He referred me to another rheumatologist who ultimately diagnosed me with fibromyalgia.

My diagnosis managed to satisfy the insurance company so I could collect long-term disability. Then about eight months after I had been off work, another firefighter in my four-man crew came down with similar symptoms of fatigue and muscle pain. He, too, was unable to work and the lightbulb came on: maybe we had been exposed to some toxins at work!

I started to research the symptoms of toxic exposure and discovered that many were identical to those of fibromyalgia. In 1996, I attended a three-day conference during which many leading researchers in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome revealed that most of their patients had problems with detoxification. The toxic load of these patients was generally high, but if they worked at reducing it, their symptoms often improved dramatically.
This explanation made sense to me. I had already met people who had fully recovered from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. They had all followed similar programs: improving their diets, reducing their stress levels, starting a gradual exercise program and doing some major detoxifying through herbs, supplements and sauna use. With this in mind, I began my climb from the bottom of the barrel!

On The Road To Wellness

Randy Gomm resides in Vancouver, BC and is an independent researcher investigating various detoxification protocols.

Source: alive #216, October 2000