Hmm, well…
The pain specialists I’ve heard of on the forums know as much or little about fibro as rheumatologists or neurologists or GPs. It’s more a case of finding one of these that is interested in helping and willing to listen and understand. Mostly it’s been a rheumatologist or a GP/PCP for others on all the forums.
So:
One that is so inclined… I’ve had more help from a cardio and a sleep lab psychiatrist than from the rheumatologist who didn’t dand the other who 3 months later did diagnose me.
In my case it was my pain specialists that did know a bit more about the most appropriate meds, the rest didn’t. But the meds harmed and they couldn’t help me with supps.
To find a doc that is “inclined” it’s good to research fibro experts in our area, there are some old lists out there but also just doc platforms, and then have a look and listen if they really know what they are talking about. One tell-tale sign is if they listen to you, your symptoms, triggers, reactions, rather than knowing-it-all and telling you everything.
Hmm - fatigue can just as well come from insomnia, from various mental issues like stressing, and can also be completely independent as well as being way out of proportion to the pain.
I get my local pains all under control with direct manual treatment, but my energy from fibro and post vac/MCAS is down to 10%.
I’d say my severe Ache from overdoing sort of comes with the exhaustion, not the other way round… And this Ache is a challenge for any doc, incl. pain specialists. They’re specialists for neuroceptive and neuropathic pain, but ours is a very different kind, most pain killers do not work - as well as that they suppress, don’t heal, and can increase the fatigue/fog in body and brain.
Praps more common as “underlying condition” of the fatigue would be ME/CFS or post vac or long CoV or MCAS or similar. Doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a “pill” for that tho…
However there’s loads of supps, plus LDN, which are all “pills” of a different kind, sometimes better, usually less harm.
So I do agree, @Shutterbug, that it’s necessary to find a doc that is looking at the whole picture. My pain specialists were looking a bit at other things, like they started with half-hearted cupping, and recommended Yin Yoga and a few other good ideas (all of which at the time hurt me incredibly).
Strange that you had to sign a contract, but I do understand that it’d be very dangerous if anyone else were dabbling in it.
For fatigue I use >10 supps, and whole body cryotherapy and Chinese acupuncture had a certain amount of success. My energy was down to 30% from fibro, and down to finally 10% from post vac. On the 1st I started LDN, low dose naltrexone, in my case very low dose, one of the last things on my list, and am surprised how little bad and how many good effects I’m having. More details on my blog. However this may be the post vac/MCAS fatigue, not the fibro fatigue. And LDN has varying results and no real medical evidence, just a lot anecdotal.