Hi Carrie,
It sounds like your frustration level is way up there. Your FM pain and restlessness is feeding off that as stress can change the chemical response of nerves to outside stimuli. Weather and loud noise also aggrevates FM. Well just about anything that aggrevates you will also aggrevate it. So basically, steps need to be taken to "calm your nerves" LOL. (a joke but true none the less)
It may not be that your GP has given up on you but rather there is not a lot more he can do. Rheumatologist are the specialty docs that treat FM.
FM is nerve related pain. It has only recently come to the forefront of medicine as it has always been a mystery to doctors until current technology could detect why it exists. People in the past were considered hypochondriacts or "crazy" because of "phantom" pain.
The good new about FM is that it is generally not deforming or disabling except in conjunction with another diseases (i.e. RA and FM usually play very well together). FM pain is different for each individual. Some feel pain so severe they cannot work while others do not. So reasons for not being able to work is subjective and changes with each flare up. Like people who suffer from migraines (also a symptom of FM) the pain from FM comes and goes. It may last hours, days or weeks but can also be gone for just as long or longer.
The bad news is that human resource departments and insurance companies do not extend leave of absenses because the symptoms come and go. Most leave of absense paperwork require physicians to determine a date in which the symptoms will end and you can return to work. That one little line on all those pieces of paper is key. (been there done that a few times in my work history).
There are very few medicines they give to treat FM basically because in order to treat it correctly, overactive nerve endings have to be controlled. However, we need our nerves to be awake in order to feel sensation and touch.
So basically, you are taking gabapentin (aka neurontin) which is one of the 2 nerve blockers they generally give. The other is Lyrica. (Cymbalta and Savella are antidepressant that act in the same way as a nerve blocker and are sometimes given to FM patients.) You are on a med range dose however, you are not taking the complete dosage as recommended. Neurontin does cause drowsiness for some (I am on a higher dose and it does not cause sleepiness at all). However, it is one of those meds that has to stay in your system in order to work properly (aka a maintenance dose..my dose is 300 at 3 times a day). Basically, each night when you take your dose you are starting from ground zero because the dose from the night before has worn off.
It is a good thing that it helps you to sleep. Self help for FM is sleep as it calms the nerves. Generally a sleep aid and/or and antidepressant is given as lack of sleep is part of the symptoms and diagnosing criteria. Muscle relaxers are also sometimes prescribed to help with calming nerves and helping to fall asleep. Pain Killers don't always work on nerve pain but it may help to ask for one.
Out of curiosity was guaifenesin prescribed for your FM? Other than being an expectorant I know that is has been used in the past to treat gout as it can flushes uric acid from the body. But I don't know of many who use it for FM pain as it has not been approved by the FDA for that purpose. Lots of tests for its usage were done in the early 90's but it was determined that it's muscle relaxing effects at high doses were not significant enough to be prescribed over others.
I do not know if herbal remedies help with FM pain but anything is that helps relax the mind will help to some extent. I have however used Valerian Root in the past as a herbal sleep aid. I stinks but helps calm you down at night. Melatonin helps straighten out the misfiring nerve patterns. I know of a lot of FM patients who use meditation and yoga as well as cognitive therapy (changing learned thought patterns in order to calm anxiety) to help control some of their symptoms.
I do not live in Ohio so I can't help you in that department. However, it is definitely to your benefit to change rheumatologists if you are not satisfied with yours. Since finding a good doctor is trial and error, do an internet search to find one.
I have done a search online and only found one doctor in the area that is recommended for FM patients. I called and left a message for him and am awaiting a call. As for the Guifenesin I am taking, there is a book called what your doctor may not tell you about firbromyalgia. The doctor himself has FM and has helped over 5k people with Guifenesin. He has been able to reverse the effects of FM on him and his patients. He talks about how FM is actually at the cell level and how your cells are being attcked. Guifenesin actally helps your body rid itself of what causes FM. He also suggest cutting all Salicylates from your regimine because this will block what the Guifenesin is trying to fix. Like I said before my mom tried alot of things before she tried guifenesin and it has worked the best for her. I figure if I can take guifenesin instead of all those other drugs-why not try it??!! But you have to feel worse before you feel better.
I guess this is why I am feeling so lost at this point. I have 2 docs that dont want to listen to me and feel like I have to give guifenesin a try since it worked for my mom. And finding a new doctor as you know can take time. Nothing happens as fast as you need it to.
Thanks for the info.