Evaluating Treatment Options
Until a cure for FM is found, all we can do is search for treatments that will help us manage the individual symptoms. Because FM symptoms are many and varied, no one treatment will help all of the symptoms. Multiple medications and therapies are usually required. So how can you determine which treatment options are right for you?
There are five basic steps in evaluating a treatment option.
1. Research
Find out all you can about a particular treatment option. Search the Internet, check out the library and talk to friends and support group members who have tried it. Most importantly, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or other health care practitioner. Ask about cost, potential side effects, possible interaction with other treatments, when you should expect to see improvement and how much improvement you might expect.
2. Try only one new treatment at a time.
Sometimes, when you are feeling particularly bad, you may be tempted to try anything and everything in the hope that something might help. You might take a new prescription medication, try a new herbal formula and start a new yoga class. Even if you do start feeling better, how will you know which one helped?
3. Don’t start what you can’t or won’t finish.
If the cost or time commitment required for a treatment program is more than you can comfortably handle, do not even start it. The resulting stress would probably make the treatment less effective anyway. And you would be more likely to quit before receiving the optimal benefit, wasting the time and money you put into it.
4. Make a time commitment.
When you choose to try a treatment program, make a commitment to stick with it for a reasonable period of time. Setting a reasonable target date for reevaluation will help you hang in there long enough to give the treatment a fair trial.
5. Chart your results.
Before beginning a new treatment option, list all of your symptoms and rate their severity on a scale of 1 – 10 (1=mild; 10=unbearable). Once a week, review the symptoms and rate their current severity. Your chart will give you an accurate perspective of the overall effectiveness of a new treatment and will help you decide whether it is helping you enough to be worth continuing. Keeping a chart like this on a regular basis can also be an effective tool to help your doctor evaluate your progress.
Finding the right treatment “formula” for your unique needs requires time, effort and a great deal of patience – but can be well worth the effort.
Reprinted with permission of the National Fibromyalgia Association from “Fibromyalgia AWARE,” February-May, 2003.
© Karen Lee Richards
Last updated: 3/16/09
