Yesterday wasn’t a bad day, thankfully. I felt a lot of recovery from the horrifying fibro flares I’ve been having. I took I think 3 days off the medication to let myself reset. I started back up today and took 1/4 of a pill. I’m going to start with that and see what happens. Ideally I don’t feel anything for a few days. If I feel anything, it should be much more mild than what I have been experiencing. 300mg is the minimum dose you’re supposed to take on this protocol, but I just took 150mg. It has been incredibly overwhelming at 300. I don’t have a choice but to try something different. I live in constant flare up, so it makes sense that it wouldn’t take much to start this “clearing” process with only a small amount of the medication. There is supposed to be difficulty for a while after you start. I’m fine with suffering with purpose. I’ll endure the pain as long as there is gain. I don’t see that yet and I haven’t gotten any kind of benefit yet, so it’s all so very impossible. Even these days off I take from the medication aren’t great. They’re all recovery days. I would probably need a week or more to fully recovery and move on, but then again, I would probably end up in a proper flare up before I made it that far. These flare ups I’ve been having for the last few weeks have been caused by the medication. It’s supposed to be a purging of the ‘bad stuff’ in my cells that needs to be purged, and that process is painful. Again, that’s fine as long as I see improvement. Let’s get the dosage dialed in first.
I can certainly feel this first dose immediately. That’s amazing after having taken 3 days completely off. The medication has an elimination time of about 24 hours, so it’s for sure out of my system. I don’t understand how it affects me so dramatically. It feels exactly like the higher doses, just a bit milder. At the moment it’s tolerable. If it stays like this, I might be able to tolerate it, but it rarely stays the same. And fibromyalgia flares – even at mild levels – become extreme after an extended period of time. Anyone can tolerate 10/10 pain, but for how long? For an hour or two? No problem. For a month straight? No way. Most people will tap out after 3 or 4 hours at a 10. The pain accumulates over time. Pain is not a snapshot. It’s a journey. It lingers. It has long term effects. It can break the mind. It can destroy the body. Given enough time, small amounts of pain can drive the healthiest person insane.
I had a worrisome moment this morning when I took the first dose of the medication. I felt it hit me almost instantly, but it eased up fairly quickly. I haven’t felt it for the rest of the day. I took a second dose this evening and I haven’t had any issues. It was slightly more than the first dose. I’m trying to ramp back up to a proper dose. Keep it low so I can keep the flares manageable. I’ll repeat this tomorrow and figure out what to do from there. I should be on a higher amount, but I might have to work my way up to it since I’m starting off in such a terrible state.