CC Dreamer is a 39 yr. old wife and mother of 4. My medical history seemed similar to the childhood normal though I see now that it wasn't as normal as I thought it was while I growing up. As a child I know I had many "aches and pains" that doctors told my parents were "growing" pains, which I now know that it was probably not the case at all, but early signs of FMS and Osteoarthritis. I was forever coming down with "strep throat" as a child too, I don't mean once a year, lasting a week like normal kids, I got "strep throat" 3-4 times a year, and each time it would last weeks, the one time I remember it lasted a month, and I was taken to my doctors office every other day for an injection of antibiotics to cure it. I recall the doctor and my parents being concerned over something they called "rheumatic fever" should this strep not leave me. So, with strep throat hitting me before age 13, it just as suddenly stopped hitting me around 14, and then the pains started up even more severe. I would tell my parents about the pains I was having in my knees, when it was cold, rainy or damp the pain would become so bad, that I didn't even want to play, but lay around reading a book, or watching tv. To this day I am an avid reader, and have to read at least one book every day. The doctors kept telling my parents it was nothing more than growing pains, but to this day, I wonder how BIG I would be if that were TRULY the case! *lol* You see, I still get those "growing pains" only now the x-rays and doctors say it is Osteoarthritis, and it is not only in my knees, but my hands, hips, and even my spine. In fact on x-ray my spinal age is around 70 yrs old, and that means it is MANY years older than my TRUE AGE! I also found out during my treatment for 2 herniated lumbar (lower back) disks that I have scoliosis in my thoracic (upper) spine, and I remember having those visits to the nurses office in school where you stood in front of the nurse and bent down so she could look at your spine, well I guess mine looked ok to her, but on film I have some mild scoliosis.
So, at this point I was 31 and had a bad back, ok, that is something we can deal with. But even after treatment, when my back was feeling a whole lot better, I noticed that my body was still hurting all over, it felt like a serious case of the flu, but this flu bug was not going away, I had no fever, and none of the other symptoms, only the aches, a LOT of pains and tiredness. So I asked my doctor who was treating my back what this could be, he ran some blood work and told me he would let me know what came back. The results were all negative for the things he ran, which was RA, AS and a few other things I can't recall. He said he wanted to do a tender point test on me, so when I went back he did this test, I passed or failed (whichever you prefer) with flying colors, he said that this was a sign that I had something called FMS or fibromyalgia syndrome. Then came the news, it was not a curable disease, as the medical community is still trying to find the cause of this disease. In fact, there are many people in and out of the medical community that don't even believe fibromyalgia is a disease, but something that others (doctors and lay persons) use when they can't find a cause for the pain, symptoms, also known as a "PSEUDO-Disease"

From Webster Dictionary - (pseu·do - being apparently rather than actually )

The disease however has a few common treatments that have been successful in others that he would be willing to try, however since there is no known cause, there is no set guidelines for a treatment. Then comes the news that he will NOT give any pain medications for FMS, Arthritis, or any other condition on a scheduled basis. He will give them on an occasional but never as a treatment. Because he says "Pain is a part of life, and as a part of life, we learn to deal with it being there." I did NOT agree with this answer, and actually felt insulted that all the pain I had and that I would continue to have "I was to live with because there was no known cause for fibromyalgia", would not be treated with a pain pill to at least ease some of the pain. Didn't he LISTEN to me tell him I have a husband and 4 kids in the house that I have to TAKE CARE OF? I can't even get out of bed some days!!! This was wrong! This began the most HORRIBLE and time consuming period of my life!
I was in EXTREME pain, but not able to get any pain medications but once in awhile if he felt like prescribing them to treat the pain. I decided to search online and see what I could find out about pain doctors, or someone that treated fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions, and if there were any close to me. To make this part of my story a bit shorter, I was unable to find a doctor right away that treated chronic pain syndromes with pain medications, most of them believed that Physical Therapy, anti-depressants, and anti-inflammatories were the treatment of choice for FMS. If you have fms, or another chronic pain condition, then you KNOW that most of us are in so much pain, that getting out of bed in the morning was hard enough, let alone physical therapy for 5 days a week 4 hours a day!
I called around, saw MANY MANY doctors over the next few years always fearful that I was going to be called a "drug seeker" or "drug addict", until I FINALLY found a wonderful caring doctor. He is 1 hours drive each way from me, but he believes in aggressive pain medication therapy as well as other treatments for chronic pain patients. Thank goodness for this doctor, because I was at the end of my rope due to the pain and watching myself, my life and of course my family fall apart because I was unable to do some of the simpliest things like get out of bed, clean the house, cook a meal, cuddle to read a bed-time story, etc......
And so with monthly visits to my new pain doctor, and all the tests, etc. he gives every month for chronic pain patients, he came to me and told me, I not only had FMS, but Hypertension *high blood pressure* and also Hypothyroidism *low thyroid*. So, I am given new health guidelines to follow, and a few more medications to take daily. At this point with the pain medication and the anti-inflammatories, anti-depressant, etc. My pain levels have come down from 10+ to a 3-4 level, so I am able to be a little bit more "normal" person again, one that I was MANY years ago before PAIN. My life is able to finally go on, taking care of children, house, husband, etc. for approx. a year, then one night while talking on the phone to a friend, I notice some pain in my chest, the pain is warm and radiating down my left arm and up into my neck and face. I told him what I was feeling, and he said to get off the phone lay down and see if it goes away, or gets worse. I hung up the phone, walked from my living room to my dining room and the pain shot up from a low 3-4 level, to a 10! I immediately yelled for my son, and picked up the phone to call 911, as I was sure I was having a heart attack! I was rushed to the ER where they performed many tests on me, I was admitted to the Cardiac unit over night. The following morning I was released and told I had to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist. I went home, and called the number they gave me, I was not able to get an appointment until the following month! So during that month, I had 4-5 nights that I had pain, and would have to take a nitroglycerin tablet, the pain would go away and stay away just for that night usually. Finally the day of my appt. I got there and was all ready for a stress test, the doctor walks in, and after asking me some questions, he says he is not going to do the stress test afterall, he believes I have what is called Coronary artery disease, and that there is one if not more of my arteries that is blocked, and that is what is causing the pain. He schedules me for a cardiac catherization. I go in for the cath, and he finds one of my arteries is 90% blocked, so he does a balloon angioplasty on me, and places a stent in this artery. After the procedure was a nightmare, I had to lay flat on my back with an 8 pound sand bag on the groin area for pressure to the area, to keep it from bleeding and causing more problems. So with my back problems and my chronic pain syndromes, the doctor is very caring and trys to keep me sedated for most of those 8 hours. Though there were many times I had to use the call button to request additional medication because the pain became so overwhelming for me, especially in my spine and lower back areas.
A few months later, at my follow up visit, I report that I am no longer having severe burning, or any type of chest pains, and he reports to me that all my other arteries are clean, not so much as a bump on them at all. A month later, my pain doctor is concerned because my thyroid medication does not seem to be affecting my system at all, my numbers are still not where they should be, so my doctor sends me to a endocrinologist. The endocrinologist runs some tests and finds that I have diabetes and something called pcos *polycystic ovarian syndrome* along with my low thyroid.
So, now my medical history since 1999 reads like a horror novel......
Fibromyalgia
Scoliosis
Osteoarthritis of the spine, hands, hips, knees
Hypertension
Hypothyroidism
PCOS *polycystic ovarian syndrome/stein leventhol syndrome*
Coronary Artery Disease
Diabetes

My medication list reads like some pharmacy order sheet.......
Celebrex
Nortriptyline
Spironolactone
Plavix
Kadian
Methadone
Aspirin
Levoxyl
Glucophage
Lipitor




March 2006 note:
As of June 2005, I have gone to a more "natural" approach to my health conditions as I was feeling that all these medications in my system were no longer being effective, and were actually making me worse than I was after the number of years I had been on them. So I detoxed my entire system, body and mind! I am no longer on pain medications, or other medications in my above list, and use many of my own developed products for bath that contain essential oils, and multiple blends of salts. From the earliest times of man and woman, there have been natural plants, oils, etc. in this world that many of our "modern" medicines are based on today. I have gone "back in time" and began studying, learning, and experimenting with these naturals and have found many of them to be helpful in my health, life, family and home conditions. In fact my teens love my natural acne medicine over the brand name ones out there today! And ALL my family including the males, use the essential oil bath salts I blend and create, they swear they work no matter what condition they are having problems with at the time I blend for them. These have helped me during some of the worst pain days and withdrawel days that I went through in the beginning of my new "experience", however my pain seems to be under control these days. Do I recommend this for everyone? Of course NOT! Each one of us is different, our health conditions and bodies unique. I do recommend keeping a diary of some sort and write all changes, etc. you are having in your treatment, symptoms, etc. and if you feel as I did that your meds are making you worse, speak with your health care provider, or an alternative doctor to see what is right for you. Since it is now March 2006, and I haven't needed any pain medications over the winter months as I have in the past I feel that I am doing well and am satisfied with how I feel, and am doing with my health conditions. I still have days when my body feels very tired and lazy, but I am not experiencing the pain in my body that I once was. I am a believer in ALL treatment options out there be it modern medications or naturals, and I am a patient advocate and always think of the people I am helping first and foremost with the treatment and options they prefer. It is always YOU the PATIENT that should be heard and come first when you are dealing with ANY healthcare provider, and that is what I and many other patient advocates out here are for, to help you stand up for YOUR RIGHTS as a patient! After all YOU have hired the DOCTOR to do the best thing for YOU, if you are NOT HAPPY, then FIRE HIM and find a doctor that LISTENS, CARES and makes YOU the patient COMFORTABLE!!



So my friend, this is the reason for the Chronic Care Community web site. I spent many hours going to many different sites, looking up so many different medications, symptoms, diseases, etc. I have spent hours and hours, talking with other people online that suffer from chronic conditions. Not only the painful ones I suffer from, but other painful ones, and sometimes not painful conditions. The purpose of this site is to make it easier for you, trying to make heads or tails of your conditions, maybe meet some other people that suffer from the same things you do, or someone suffering something different, but perhaps neither of you are able to sleep, and just need to chat with someone else. I hope that this site will help you find what it is you need. Please sign the guestbook for our site, as it will help let others know they are not alone, and if you leave your email, and a message that you are always looking for a friend to chat with, others stopping by our site can contact you. It is not only a guestbook for myself, but for the many people that are hoping to meet with others suffering from a chronic condition.
Page 2 is about 2 of my children, as they suffer from conditions that are chronic also.

Love,
CC Dreamer