Darlene Beat Fibromyalgia

My Fibromyalgia Success Stories

Hi, I’m Dr. Rodger Murphree, author of Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I’ve specialized in treating fibromyalgia, for almost two decades. I know that finding a doctor, that one, believes in fibromyalgia, many still don’t, two that actually understands your fibromyalgia, and three that can provide any long-term success is rare-sad but true. After years of sometimes rude, sometimes well meaning, but incompetent doctors, all they can tell you is to “learn to live with it.” You may have become so beat down by the illness that you’ve lost hope or find it hard to believe you, or anyone with fibromyalgia, can ever really feel good again.

I understand. I know you’re skeptical, and you should be, of anyone who says they have answers for your fibromyalgia and poor health. I’d be skeptical to, especially if I’d tried so many things to feel better, only to get my hopes dashed again by another failed drug, doctor, fad supplement or diet. It’s not about taking drugs to cover symptoms. There is no magic pill, supplement(s) diet, or cure. But, after almost twenty years of trial, error, and hard work, I’ve found the missing link for helping my patients feel and stay feeling good again. All I ask is that you make time to explore the free resources on my site, free videos, protocols, audios, webinars, and weekly teleconferences.

My Fibromyalgia Success Stories: Each week I interview one, or more new patients on my weekly weekly Teleconference.

Here is one of a growing list of patients who have worked with me personally to find and fix their underlying causes of their fibromyalgia and have gotten healthy and feel good again. I share these success stories in hope that you will not give up, will not buy into you have to “learn to live with it.”

Here’s Darlene’s excerpt from last week’s FREE Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia Teleconference. I do these calls each 5pm Pacific Time, 6pm Mountain Time, 7pm Central Time, and 8pm Eastern Time.

The call in number is 218-844-1930 and the access code is 986495.

I look forward to sharing valuable information to help you in your quest to feel good again. You can ask questions or simply call in and listen to the program.

Darlene From Louisiana Beats Fibromyalgia By Working With Me In My VIP Get Healthy Program

I was a very, very miserable person. I went to bed with pain, fatigue and I woke up with it. I had been in pain for a solid 6 ½ months before I called you. I just was at my wits’ end. I was not ready to give up, but when you feel like you have a gorilla sitting on your back and something just squeezing the life out of you every day, you can’t do anything. You’re just a miserable individual. The winters were horrible. That was my last winter, I can say with a big smile, that I’ll ever have to suffer again. I was in excruciating pain, felt like my bones were broke everywhere, my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my back … everything hurt. My back would always feel like it was broken, pain running up and down it, pain running up and down my arms … trying to raise my arms to cut hair was a nightmare. When I would get through my day, I would come home, sit down and just sit and go, “Oh my gosh, would this please go away?” I was done for the day. I took all my energy, all that I had to get through my day and then I was done. I wasn’t worth a flint for my family when I got through, and that was a nightmare.

My sister passed away 9 years ago. After she passed away, I had this dream that I’d build a 10 foot angel … year after year, I wasn’t able to. I never had a dream like that before, I felt strong about it but I could not follow through. Through the years, I would get a wig for the hair or little pieces of this and that to get it started but I never could get it going. Right before Christmas, the girl that works with me has seen this whole process. She’s been with me since the very beginning, she’s been with me since the beginning of me getting fibromyalgia. She knew me before fibromyalgia and she knew me after. She looked at me and said, “Don’t you think it’s time you make your angel? I think you can.” I said, I think I can too. I had no clue what I was doing, but I put this metal frame together, putting the head on her and her wings on her … I built over 10 foot tall angel that I put in my front yard. I cried almost the entire time that I did it. I was up and down a ladder, oh gosh 20-30 times up and down.

I got it finished thanks to you. I got it completed and I couldn’t believe I did it. Every time I look at it, I’m like I did that. I even put Christmas lights on my house. I was on an extension ladder, I was up and down that ladder and I kept looking at my husband. My husband has a bad shoulder and he had shoulder surgery, so he couldn’t get up there. It’s not that he didn’t want to do it, but I did it. I was up and down the ladder and I told him, “Do you see what I’m doing?”

Dr. M: That’s great. You have worked so hard. Looking back the where we were in May, you were really struggling. I wrote this down in December in quotation marks, you said “I’m in shock about how good I’m doing and what I can do now.” It’s because you hung in there and worked so hard. You did the diet, which a lot of people wouldn’t even do. When people work with me, it’s something you do because you realize you’ve got to get healthy. You lost the weight and as the weight came off, you shared with me that you felt more and more like your old self. You felt so much better.

Darlene: My husband has gotten tears in his eyes several times, because he says I have my wife back. I just turned 56 and I feel like I’m 30. I’m not even kidding, it’s amazing.

Darlene Beats Fibromyalgia and Shares Her Story (Full Transcript)

Darlene: Hi, I’m glad to be here. I’ve got a cold so I’ve got a raspy voice.

Dr. M: That’s ok, we’re glad to have you any way that we can. Darlene is one of my human dynamos. When we first started working together, she was really run down and you’re going to find out in just a minute, that’s not her nature. When we first started working together, you were pretty low. Share with us where you were prior to us working together. Your pain was really bad, tell us where you were before we started working together.

Darlene: I was a very, very miserable person. I went to bed with pain, fatigue and I woke up with it. I had been in pain for a solid 6 ½ months before I called you. I just was at my wits’ end. I was not ready to give up, but when you feel like you have a gorilla sitting on your back and something just squeezing the life out of you every day, you can’t do anything. You’re just a miserable individual. The winters were horrible. That was my last winter, I can say with a big smile, that I’ll ever have to suffer again. I was in excruciating pain, felt like my bones were broke everywhere, my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my back … everything hurt. I’m not like that now and I’m so excited.

Dr. M: Your pain was all over pain too, you had pain pretty much everywhere and it was incredibly intense pain. Tell me how your pain controlled your life, tell us what your pain was like.

Darlene: I’m a hairdresser and we’re go-getters. We get up, I had to suck it up and go to work. Thank God that I could schedule my appointments, because the woman that just spoke reminded me … it’s amazing the camaraderie that we have. If I had an 8 to 5 job, I would have been fired. There’s no way I could have done that. Because I’m a hairdresser, my upper body was the first thing to attack me. I didn’t have it in my hips and legs at first, but it did come. My back would always feel like it was broken, pain running up and down it, pain running up and down my arms … trying to raise my arms to cut hair was a nightmare. When I would get through my day, I would come home, sit down and just sit and go, “Oh my gosh, would this please go away?” I was done for the day. I took all my energy, all that I had to get through my day and then I was done. I wasn’t worth a flint for my family when I got through, and that was a nightmare. Do you want me to start from the beginning of where this came from, how long I’ve had it?

Dr. M: Sure, I want to hear your journey. What you went through, a lot of people think they’re in this alone and they’re not.

Darlene: No, they’re not. I had 2 surgeries in 1996, gall bladder surgery and 9 months later I had ovary surgery. When I had ovary surgery, it was on me within weeks of my surgery. I had pain running up and down my back, muscle spasms, I couldn’t hold my back up straight. I thought oh my God, did they drop me in surgery? I didn’t know what was wrong with me. The pain got worse, I could hardly take a deep breath. I was having so many spasms in my back. Prior to this, I water skied every weekend, I did aerobics, I rode 4 miles on my bike and I was in very good shape. All of a sudden, my world came to an end and it kept getting worse and worse. I was sent to New Orleans to Auctioneer’s clinic, I don’t know if people are familiar with that … because my doctor didn’t know what to do with me. He didn’t know how to explain what was wrong with me. It was there that I was diagnosed by a doctor, and I pretty much thought she was full of it because I didn’t have that crap. I didn’t want to own that stuff, I don’t have that. She handed me a pamphlet and it had all the symptoms. They wanted blood work done and I went through that. My husband was like, “What’s going on?” I said she thinks I have this mess and I don’t won’t it. When I went and got my blood work done, he read the pamphlet.

When I came back to sit down, he’s like “Baby, you really need to read this.” I said I don’t have that, so I denied it for 3 solid years until I moved my Christmas tree a tiny bit because it wasn’t quite where I wanted it, and I could not move for 2 solid weeks. I couldn’t sleep, my neck, my shoulders … oh my gosh, and then I had to own it. I wasn’t sleeping and the pain became worse and worse. It took a few years for it to start hitting my hips and legs.

When it hit my hips and legs, I was like you’ve got to be kidding me. Then it got in my feet, my hands, it got everywhere … it hits wherever it wants to. I spent many years of supplements, I would exercise. Like the lady before, I was trying to help myself with exercise and I couldn’t even move the next day. I did water aerobics and it did help. I’ve tried the low sugar diet, I’ve tried tons of things and I was medicated. The thing about medication and this is one thing that doctors need to understand, all you ladies out there and men, get this. When you medicate us to death, we sleep hard. We can hardly move, our muscles get worse and worse. We don’t feel better, we feel worse. I had this 19 years, but now I don’t claim it anymore.

I finally said after Lyrica, no … I cannot do this. I basically would take supplements, I may take a Tylenol and suck it up. It’s pretty much how that went and woke up again the next day with it. I got to the point this past year, I just was not ready to give up and I kept seeing your site popping up. I listened to one of your videos, I leaned back and I told my husband, “You have got to listen to this man. This man makes so much sense, more sense than any doctor I’ve been to.” My husband and listened to it and I said I’ve got to get his book. I have got a real bad eye injury, so it’s very hard for me to read for long periods of time but in 2 days, I had over 200 pages read.

I could not put the book down, because everything was like oh my gosh, this makes so much sense. Then I made the phone call and I do not regret my phone call at all. I never will regret that phone call. My world has completely changed, I have my life back.

Dr. M: You and I got off to a bumpy start, truth be known … and it’s like that, it happens that way. Not everybody is easy. It’s not that everybody would get over fibromyalgia with a handful of pills or a handful of supplements. It takes work and fortunately, you hung in there till I could figure it out. Our first challenge was that some of the things I recommended, you couldn’t take because it bothered your stomach. We couldn’t get you sleeping, it took a while, we finally changed some things around … at one time, you were ready to throw in the towel. I knew you were really discouraged, but fortunately you hung in there a little longer. Fortunately we got you on the right track, then you started to make enough progress and then it was just a snowball which is typical for most of my patients. If they can get on the right track and get some momentum, then it gets easier and easier. Tell me a little bit about that. What was the process like working with me by phone, because obviously that’s a different arrangement than going to your doctor every couple of months or whatever?

Darlene: I’m so glad you asked this question … the big awesomeness. I do have trouble taking this and that and never ever did you make me feel like it was in my head, or I didn’t try hard enough or long enough. You always made me feel like, “That’s no problem. We’ve got another thing we can try.” I was like, “What? You mean you’re not going to question me?” That was the most ultimate thing for a fibromyalgia patient, to hear a doctor not treat them like it’s all in our heads. I know everyone listening right now understands that, and you didn’t one time make me feel bad or like I was stupid, like it was in my head, like I haven’t tried hard enough.

That’s what I found so amazing, that I have someone here that’s listening to me. I have someone here that very much knows what he’s doing and has an answer for pretty much most everything. We’re difficult, we have weird stuff happen that is hard to explain. We can’t explain it ourselves, so how can we explain to someone else? I don’t get this but this crazy thing is happening, I don’t know what else to tell you. You always had an answer. I remember telling you 4 ½ months into it, I’m waiting on this anti-inflammatory thing to kick in. You said, “Yeah Darlene, I understand but you’ve had this a long time. You can’t get rid of it overnight, please keep working with it.” When it kicked in, it wasn’t even 2 weeks that went by. I had a spell and I said oh Lord, here it comes … the next morning I woke up, it was gone. My legs would be aching, I could hardly walk. I was standing up on my feet and I thought, oh gosh here it comes. The next morning I got up, and I’m like you have to got to be kidding me.

I know this may sound crazy but that’s the way I’ve always been, it was just a roller coaster of goodness every day, something different every day. My mind was racing like crazy. My daughter is 32 years old, she looked at me and said, “My gosh mom, please can you slow down?” I said no, I will not slow down. I have been held down a long time and I won’t slow down. I thank you all every day, your staff and you go way above and beyond and are highly educated. You know exactly what you’re talking about and pretty much have an answer for everything. It’s been the most wonderful thing to happen to me since this long painful journey, which is now like a distant past. It’s unbelievable.

Dr. M: Tell me about your angels. That was so special over the holidays, beautiful art … share that story with me.

Darlene: My sister passed away 9 years ago. After she passed away, I had this dream that I’d build a 10 foot angel … year after year, I wasn’t able to. I never had a dream like that before, I felt strong about it but I could not follow through. Through the years, I would get a wig for the hair or little pieces of this and that to get it started but I never could get it going. Right before Christmas, the girl that works with me has seen this whole process. She’s been with me since the very beginning, she’s been with me since the beginning of me getting fibromyalgia. She knew me before fibromyalgia and she knew me after. She looked at me and said, “Don’t you think it’s time you make your angel? I think you can.” I said, I think I can too. I had no clue what I was doing, but I put this metal frame together, putting the head on her and her wings on her … I built over 10 foot tall angel that I put in my front yard. I cried almost the entire time that I did it. I was up and down a ladder, oh gosh 20-30 times up and down because we’re perfectionists. We’ve got the have it just right.

Dr. M: Yeah, it’s beautiful. We’re going to put it on the website so people can see it. It’s gorgeous.

Darlene: I got it finished thanks to you. I got it completed and I couldn’t believe I did it. Every time I look at it, I’m like I did that. I even put Christmas lights on my house. I was on an extension ladder, I was up and down that ladder and I kept looking at my husband. My husband has a bad shoulder and he had shoulder surgery, so he couldn’t get up there. It’s not that he didn’t want to do it, but I did it. I was up and down the ladder and I told him, “Do you see what I’m doing?” My husband has gotten tears in his eyes several times, because he says I have my wife back.

Dr. M: That’s great. You have worked so hard. Looking back the where we were in May, you were really struggling. I wrote this down in December in quotation marks, you said “I’m in shock about how good I’m doing and what I can do now.” It’s because you hung in there and worked so hard. You did the diet which a lot of people wouldn’t even do. When people work with me, it’s something you do because you realize you’ve got to get healthy. You lost the weight and as the weight came off, you shared with me that you felt more and more like your old self. You felt so much better.

Darlene: I just turned 56 and I feel like I’m 30. I’m not even kidding, it’s amazing.

Dr. M: What would you like to share with us, any parting words for those folks who are trying to figure out what they should do for their fibromyalgia? This working by the phone, can you even make it work … what would you share with folks that are not real sure what they should do?

Darlene: Absolutely yes. There are a lot of things out there. We get disappointed because we try them and you think oh here you go, here’s another deal. I’m here to tell you this is a different deal, this is the real deal. Get the book, this book will educate you. Fibromyalgia people are not dumb people by any means. This book is definitely the truth. You can’t stop, you just want to keep reading because you keep going “Oh my gosh.” I was in a struggle about whether or not I can do this. He knows this, we know this and I thank God every day that I followed through and I went with this program, because it has changed my life. He knows what he’s doing. His staff knows what they’re doing. I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I was sick of feeling pain but I wasn’t ready to give up. When I got the book, like I said I read 200 pages in less than 2 days and that’s not like me. My eye usually won’t let me do that, it’ll start pouring water and I can’t see. It was pouring water and I was grabbing tissues, but I was going to keep reading. It truly works and yes, there are things that you have to do but my thing is, how tired are you of having this? How much do you want to get your life back? I’m here to tell you, you can get your life back. I was in misery. I was a very active individual, there wasn’t too much I couldn’t do but let me tell you something, I’m ready to go ski in the summer. I got a bad bulge disc in my neck, but I said maybe I could put a neck brace on and get on the ski … I promise you it’s going to happen. I’m not stopping. To have seen me last year, you would not believe the things that I do now. I plan things. We don’t plan things, we can’t promise people things because we don’t know how we’re going to feel. Somebody asked me what do you think about going somewhere, and I’m like “Yeah, I’m all for it” I cry almost every other day but I cry happy tears. Please check into this and please do yourself a favor. Help yourself and read this book, listen to what this man has to say because I promise you I’ve tried everything but acupuncture, but this worked. I catch myself telling people all the time, “I don’t have fibromyalgia. I say I had it.” I ain’t claiming it.

Dr. M: I love it. I think anybody that’s heard your story can see how far you’ve come, because obviously you’re a human dynamo. You’ve got this big personality, big heart, big ego … when I say that, I mean that you’re not going to let anything stop you. You’re just not going to let that happen, you’re confident that you’re going to be able to overcome it. In the past as you said, people try a lot of different things but a lot of it is kind of a shotgun, scattered approach. To your credit, you were determined that you were going to keep trying. A lot of people just give up, you didn’t but you had to work to get where you’re at. I have no doubt that with your determination, you’re going to do it … I’m a little concerned about you water skiing with your bulging disc. Other than that, I think you’re going to do great.

Darlene: A neck sprain is not cancer. We’ll think about it, but I’m going to get in the water somehow or another.

Dr. M: That’s fine. I really appreciate you sharing your story. You’re just a wonderful person and you’re part of our family now. Juno and Gina and Cheryl, we’re all so glad that you’re part of the family. We always look forward to talking to you, and I can’t wait to share the angel on the website so people can see what you did. It’s a beautiful story and I can’t wait to share that.

Darlene: I can’t wait to come and meet you all. I have to come and meet you. I feel like I can just see y’all’s faces the whole 9 yards. I love you all so much, I think you just gave me life back. You gave me my life back and I’m so grateful.

Dr. M: I’m so happy that you’ve got your life back. You’ve got a wonderful life, I’m glad you can enjoy it now.

Darlene: Absolutely.

Dr. M: I look forward to talking to you soon. Thank you for joining me tonight, I really appreciate you joining me.

Darlene: No problem, I thank you very much for all that you’ve done to help me.

Dr. M: You’re so welcome. Have a great night. I’m not going to tell you to slow down because that ain’t going to happen.

Darlene: No, I’m not slowing down.

Dr. M: I look forward to talking to you soon. Take care, have a great night.

Darlene: You too, Dr Murphree.

As you heard and as I shared with you before, Darlene came on and she’s a dynamo. She’s got this wonderful energy. When she starts interacting with you, you’re drawn in because she’s got this great personality. But fibromyalgia had almost destroyed that; she was not able to do the things that she loved to do. That’s what happens with fibromyalgia. It prevents you from having a social life, it prevents you from being intimate with your spouse, it drives away your family members and friends sometimes. A lot of times you have to go on disability, you can’t work and pretty soon you almost become a hermit. You just withdraw from life.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but what I want to share with you is that the reason I’m bringing these people on here is I want people to realize that there is an opportunity for you to feel good again. It’s not going to happen for everybody, I know that. There are patients that I encounter that I know I can’t help, and I tell them that.

There are people with illnesses that are something that I’m not going to be able to help. Fortunately the patients that I work with, I’d say 90% at this point, the patients that I accept as patients and work with me one on one by phone every week or individually by appointment and they work with me in a Get Healthy program, 90% of those people are able to get their life back. They don’t care whether you call it a cure, gone into remission or whatever it is. They’re just glad to have their life back, to not be in pain all the time, to have the energy to do things that they want to do. They’re happy to be able to interact with friends and family again. Many of them are able to go back to work again. Whatever it is, they’re just glad to have their life back.

There are so many people out there who are convinced that they can never feel good again, and they get angry at me for sharing these stories. But I’m going to continue sharing stories, because I don’t know if there’s a lot of hope out there anymore. All I see in the fibromyalgia community is a lot of doom and gloom, and my goal is to be a beacon of light. People who want to reach out and see if I can help them, then hopefully this will give them the motivation to do that.

The book is out there, you can get it probably at the library for free, you can get it on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble and most bookstores for a nominal fee. I would encourage you certainly to do that. If money is an issue for you, there are a lot of free resources for you on the website at www.YourFibroDoctor.com

There are so many free videos, there’s one series of 9 videos where I’m teaching doctors in Pittsburgh several years ago that goes into a lot of the details, a lot of the protocols that I share now what I’m teaching doctors. Some of that has certainly changed over the years, but there’s so much there that you can take and you can use. There are past audios, teleconferences like these and others where I go into detail about how to get deep restorative sleep, how to repair adrenal fatigue and leaky gut. All those things are on there if you really wanted to.

People will say, well it’s all about you trying to make money on fibromyalgia. Well, this is how I make my living. It’s just what I do, I get paid to help people to get healthy and get well. That’s how I get compensated. But there are so many free resources on there that if you didn’t want to spend any money out of your pocket, that’s fantastic. If you can get what you need from those free resources, that’s wonderful. If you can get what you need out of the book and go to a health foods store and get the supplements, you don’t have to get anything from me. Do it by all means.

I also know there are going to be people who are going to need help. They’re going to need someone to coach them on a weekly basis. They’re going to need to have somebody do special testing to find out where they’re broken down, and know from that testing exactly what they need to be taking, exactly what they need to do to first feel good again and then to get healthy so they stay that way. That’s what I do with my patients.

I don’t have all the answers, I certainly don’t but what I do know is I’ve been doing this for almost 2 decades. I feel confident that I know what fibromyalgia is and I know how to help people who seek me out. I feel very confident about that, but if you can find another doctor who does similar things to what I do and you’re successful, I applaud that and I support that. I think that’s wonderful. But for those of you who are looking for help and haven’t been able to find it, then I would encourage you to learn more about the phone consults or if you’re near Birmingham Alabama, come into the clinic. You can learn more about those consults on the www.YourFibroDoctor.com site, or call the clinic 205-879-2383 or see the question and answer section for consults www.fibroconsults.com We love answering any questions, my staff is wonderful. You can find the phone number there on the website, so I encourage you to do that.

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