The Guaifenesin Protocol for treating fibromyalgia has been around for over 25 years and it has always been somewhat controversial.

The only significant research study on this treatment method (read about it HERE) did not support its effectiveness, but advocates of the protocol point out significant flaws in how the study was conducted as well as advances in knowledge relative  to how the protocol should be followed since the study.

There are certainly a large number of individuals and medical professionals who believe that fibromyalgia treatment through the Guaifenesin Protocol is effective. One of them is Dr. Melissa Congdon who not only experienced a significant recovery from fibromyalgia herself through the use of Guaifenesin but guides patients through the protocol as part of her medical practice.

This video interview with Dr. Congdon discusses the history of the Guaifenesin Protocol, how you can learn more, important factors for success and how to get started.

The “bible” about the guaifenesin protocol is What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia by Dr. Paul St. Amand, third edition, May 2012

Below is the address for Dr. St. Amand’s website which includes information on how to start the protocol, how to check for salicylates, how to find salicylate free products, how to find a doctor/practitioner who administers the protocol, information on the City of Hope Research Studies on Fibromyalgia and the effect of guaifenesin, and a link to join the online support group (yes, there is a lot of information on this site!).

www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/index.html

Below is the address to Dr. Congdons’s website with attached blog:

www.melissacongdonmd.com

Like all treatment methods discussed on our website – we are not advocating specific treatments or suggesting that one treatment may be better than another. Rather, we seek to provide information about all treatment options and tools to help you track your progress so you can determine through your own management efforts what will work best for you!

Researching and testing different treatment options for the purpose of figuring out what will work best for you is fundamental to getting better. Your doctors do not know what will prove most effective for you. Books cannot tell you, websites offer no cure (including mine!) and there is no magic solution that works for everyone. This is the reality of fibromyalgia. So you have a simple choice:  keep hoping that somebody will somehow come up with the magic pill solution or accept that figuring out what will work best for you is up to you.

No Idea What She is Cooking Up... But Love the Boots!

This does not mean just trying different drugs. While pharmaceutical options are the most obvious things most patients think of  (and why not – we are bombarded with them on TV and Media continuously…. as are doctors) the truth is that for most patients the best treatment approach will be multi-dimensional. Lifestyle changes, sleep hygiene, diet, energy management, supplements and vitamins, exercise, therapy options…  there are literally thousands of combinations that can be tested. Figuring out what combination will prove best for you is not easy, but it is the path to getting better!

Be Your Own Scientist

Randomly trying new things and wandering from one treatment approach to another does not work. Changing your approach from day to day or even week to week does not work. Implementing multiple new things at the same time and being inconsistent on follow through does not work. Doing too many things at the same time does not work. Hey, nobody said this was easy!

An effective testing process needs to be conducted in a scientific manner. To start, you need consistent data to define your fibromyalgia  (no – “I hurt all the time” is not actionable data!). A “baseline” of detailed day by day symptom and causal factor (such as stress, anxiety, fatigue, depression, sleep and others) data that provide you with a clear understanding of how fibromyalgia is functioning in your body now. This can be correlated to what you are currently doing for treatment. You should be able to review all your current symptom and causal factor details along with all of your current treatment actions. This is your starting point. This is what you can measure progress against.

Digging into your baseline of data, seek out primary symptoms and clear causal factors (yea, that’s another blog post of its own!). Next, research different treatment options targeted at your most frequent or severe symptoms and causal factors you feel are contributing to symptoms. Decide on a single new treatment approach that you feel would be best to test. Make sure to include your care team in this evaluation and decision making process! It is important to limit new treatment choices in order to enable accurate evaluation of results. If you decide to test 3 new things at the same time and you experience a negative result, what is causing it? One of the things? All of them… or the combination of them? Testing too many new things at the same time makes correlating results to specific treatments impossible. So conduct your testing like a scientist would – you are your own science experiment.

Stick with it. Measure results. Don’t rely on your memory and guy feelings, remember with fibro your body often tries to deceive you. Over time an effective testing process will help you move forward.

Today’s blog is a bit different as I want to discuss some happenings relative to the technology behind the FibroTrack online fibromyalgia management system. I am doing this to seek input and ideas from others that may help in guiding some new development projects.

Since FibroTrack launched back in December, I have received a number of inquiries from medical professionals interested in using the system with their patients. Through the 2 year development process for the main web application and mobile apps it was always my intention to eventually expand the system to include a version designed to help medical professionals improve the quality of the care provided to their patients. This initiative is moving up in priority!

One of the reasons that FibroTrack took so long to build was due to the database design and the management dashboards that were built to help in managing the application setup on an ongoing basis. All of this is designed such that the system can be structured and customized to help track and manage many different chronic pain conditions. Any condition for which symptoms and effective treatments vary from patient to patient can be more efficiently managed through structured tracking efforts.

It is common practice for pain clinics and medical professionals who treat chronic pain to ask patients to complete paper forms seeking to detail their symptoms in an effort to help the medical professional better understand what is really going on.  Many ask their patients to try and update such forms on a daily basis. While this is certainly better than no tracking at all, it is both tedious for the patient and it relies on often impaired memory. It also results in data that cannot be evaluated in more effective visual means such as charts and graphs.

The new direction that I am looking at currently would bring all of the core functionality and management dashboard capabilities to medical professionals who treat chronic pain conditions. Medical professionals who subscribe to the “Pro” version of the system would be able to provide full access to both the main web application and mobile applications to their patients. The system will be “private labeled” to match their own practice. It will function as a shared platform within which to interact with patients on an ongoing basis, as needed. This is aimed at Pain Clinics, Rheumatologists, Neurologists, Nutritionists, Chiropractors, Chronic Pain Coaches, Occupational Therapists and other medical professionals focused on treating chronic pain.

The technology can either be bundled together with a care provider website or integrated into an existing website a medical professional already has. The websites that we are looking at offering (with all the tracking technology integrated) will also provide things like online scheduling and billing functionality.

So why am I bringing all this to you? Because I would really like to get feedback and ideas from the community. If your working with a medical professional to treat chronic pain, what features and capabilities would you like to see from a web application and mobile apps to improve the experience? If you are a medical professional who treats chronic pain, what capabilities and features would help you improve the care you provide? Please comment on the post, or shoot me an email -   Terry@fibrotrack.com.

Among the biggest challenges facing medical professionals when it comes to treating fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions is understanding how and why symptoms occur. Fibro is a shape shifter. It changes and moves around the body, often without any apparent cause or reason. Effective treatment varies from patient to patient. For medical professionals, trying to figure out what is going on and how to fix it is a massive confusing puzzle with many pieces missing!

Patients are difficult to fit into profiles that could help guide treatment efforts. Age, background, suspected triggering events, experiences, symptoms, length of illness, response to different treatments and co-morbid conditions vary to such a wild degree from patient to patient that utilizing knowledge gained from treating one patient to help another is extremely difficult.

Changing this is one of my goals.

The FibroTrack system is designed to aid patients in collecting real time symptom details, tracking treatment actions, causal factors, influencing life events and more. FibroTrack collects detailed patient profile information including family history, other diagnosed conditions, demographic details and additional relevant patient information.

While the FibroTrack system is designed to directly aid patients and their care providers in better understanding their individual fibromyalgia while facilitating the development of a proven effective multi-dimensional treatment approach, this is not the only goal.

I seek to make FibroTrack and the soon to be released care professional version of the system the biggest fibromyalgia focused research study ever conducted! *

Consider the possibilities:  Symptom information, treatment details, causal factors and more all tracked in a consistent manner including real time data collection for thousand of patients over an extended period of time.

What can we learn? What sort of symptom patterns can be deciphered? Can we identify links between symptom and demographic profiles and different treatment options?

Can we match patients to different chronic pain profiles in a manner that will enable the suggestion of likely effective treatment options? Can we jump start patients toward more effective healing by matching their profile to others and suggesting treatments that have proven effective for others who match?

Can we mine massive group data to prove which combinations of treatment options are most effective for different symptom profiles? Can we build a means of suggesting targeted treatments based upon a patients tracked data? Can we determine effective preemptive treatment approaches to interrupt the negative feedback loops that make fibromyalgia so frustrating?

Can we use massive data to lead us to a cure?

All of this and more is what I seek to do. The database that we are building through FibroTrack and our care professional system will be made available to research professionals*. A huge database of consistent, accurate fibromyalgia patient information can provide new insight into how this condition functions and the most effective means of treating it. That is my goal! 

 * IMPORTANT  -  We NEVER share ANY personal identity or identifying information for FibroTrack members with ANY third party.  The information that will be shared with researchers includes only the details about the condition without anything like name, email, address or any other personal data of any kind attached. We take individual privacy very seriously. Only group data, excluding ALL personal identity information, will be shared with researchers.

I am very happy to bring everyone this video interview with Jan Chambers, President of the National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association.

Jan and her organization work incredibly hard to advocate on the behalf of individuals suffering with fibromyalgia and chronic pain. Part of this effort is focused on working to promote and protect the needs of the chronic pain community relative to Government actions. Jan has worked very hard to stay on top of new Government developments including the current huge changes in how the FDA and DEA classify certain types of prescription pain medications.

In a nutshell, the Government is taking the position that the needs of individuals who are or who might become addicted to prescription pain medications or abusers of prescription pain medications are more important than the needs of individuals who suffer from chronic pain.

The FDA panel recommended to the FDA to move hydrocodone type medications from Schedule III to Schedule II.  The DEA formally advocated that this change be made.  Jan participated in the meetings where this FDA panel recommendation was made. The video below explains what has happened, what it means, how it is going to impact individuals who suffer with chronic pain and what the patient community can do about it.

Please watch and comment!

Your body speaks to you every day. The symptoms that you experience are messages that your body is sending you. Messages telling you that something is wrong! Pain is the bodies means of letting you know that something is not right and it needs to be fixed.

The problem with fibromyalgia is that often, these messages are deceptive. They might even be flat out lies! Fibromyalgia causes your normal pain signal processing to be mixed up so that the signals your body is sending to your brain may be incorrectly interpreted in the brain. Fibromyalgia patients have been shown as frequently demonstrating significant imbalances in pain signal processing neurotransmitter chemicals such as Substance-P, Glutamate and NMDA. These imbalances typically vary from patient to patient thus contributing to the unique nature of individual fibromyalgia symptoms. The way in which your brain is scrambling your pain signals will be different from other fibromyalgia patients.

Because the pain being experienced may be the result of neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain and not due to specific physical defects in the body, figuring out what is really going on becomes extremely complicated! How can you tell when the signals your body is sending are deceptive? How can you best use this knowledge to help you get better?

Typically when working to figure out a medical problem we tend to rely upon intuition and common sense. If you feel completely exhausted after a terrible nights sleep, staying in bed seems the right thing to do. If your having a relatively pain free day, getting lots of stuff done should be your focus. But with fibromyalgia – your intuition or common sense may be dead wrong! Morning pain and stiffness might get worse with further rest. Doing too much on a good day may lead to a huge fibro flare. The way your body actually responds to different stimulus and actions is frequently contrary to what would seem normal.

Learning how your fibromyalgia functions and how your body responds to different circumstances and treatment efforts often means figuring out when acting contrary to your common sense is the best approach. This is at the core of why tracking your pain and things related  to your fibromyalgia is so important. Tracking provides you a consistent and accurate set of data that you rely upon to help you figure out when your body is lying to you and what actually does or does not work to help you.

Who is Guiding Your Treatment Efforts?

Figuring all of this out leads to developing an effective individually tailored treatment approach. This does not just mean a custom cocktail of drugs! It can mean changes in lifestyle, exercise, diet, therapy choices, natural remedies and more. Tracking how your fibromyalgia functions and responds provides you insight that enables more effective treatment. It allows you to tell when your body is deceiving you, how to better control its signals and how to structure your life in a manner to minimize the impact fibromyalgia has on you.

If your interested in learning more about the science behind pain tracking and how effective it can be in helping you treat your fibromyalgia I highly recommend the book “Pain Tracking” by Dr. Deborah Barrett. You can learn more about it and see a video interview with the author by clicking HERE. Also, please check out FibroTrack – a complete system to help you figure out your fibromyalgia.

Many skeptics and members of the “Fibro Ignorant” feel that individuals with fibromyalgia could recover if they would only try harder. They observe that many with fibro do not exercise, are significantly overweight, have terrible diets, live a fundamentally unhealthy lifestyle and appear to be doing very little on their own to get better. They conclude that laziness and apathy are the root cause.  Many believe that individuals with fibromyalgia have brought the condition on themselves and they suffer simply because they refuse to do whatever is required to get in shape and get healthy.

It’s easy to understand why the fibro ignorant come to this type of conclusion. Our society and culture view hard work as naturally leading to positive results. Individuals who put forth massive effort and leverage extreme tenacity are rewarded with big success. This is true in sports, business and many aspects of life in general. Determination and fighting to our utmost ability for things we desire are core values to our culture.

The observation by many that people they know with fibromyalgia do not appear to be fighting hard is both correct and in error. There is no denying that a percentage of individuals with fibromyalgia do not exercise, are obese, eat a horribly unhealthy diet and in fact do little on their own to try and get better. But why is this? There is no one answer. For some, it boils down to the effects of chronic pain and depression plus a lack of education and understanding about what is going on in their bodies and actions they can take to try and correct it.

For most however, the reality of fibromyalgia is that just living day to day with fibro is a monumental effort. Fibromyalgia leaves its victims with a very limited amount of normal “go juice” to distribute on a daily basis. Exceeding the limited amount of energy and focus that patients have available often results in a giant fibro flare-up. Pushing harder and trying to use tenacity frequently backfires bringing on the opposite result from what is desired!

Yet, not fighting hard to do all of the things that make up an effective self-management effort means that the odds of a patient recovering are minimal. Getting better is up to you.

This is a terrible Catch-22! Fighting too hard will make you worse but not fighting hard enough will prevent progress. How do you deal with the reality of not having enough energy and focus to accomplish daily everything you need to be doing? Is it impossible to fight hard enough without pushing too far?

Fighting Smart Enables Fighting Harder!

The title of this blog posting is a trick. Fighting hard and fighting smart are not an either / or proposition! With fibromyalgia, the two tactics should be simultaneous and symbiotic. Effectively fighting smart will increase your ability to gain results from your limited capacity to fight hard by ensuring that your hard fighting is targeted in the best direction. You must get everything possible out of your limited ability to fight hard!

Well structured systems and defined processes form the core operating principals for all successful organizations. They are required to achieve the best results when dealing with any complex ongoing effort. Corporations, Government and high achieving individuals all rely on quality systems to help them best direct their focus and efforts. If you are fighting fibro and you want to recover – you must do the same!

I hope you will check out the ultimate tool and system for fighting smart – FibroTrack. But regardless, if you wish to make the most of the fighting hard you can do, you need systems and well defined processes to guide you in fighting smart!

Fibromyalgia is such an up and down roller coaster. Sometimes it seems like nothing goes right and things that were making sense are suddenly all out of whack again, and then at other times its like some crazy complicated scheme has all come together.

We have had both over the past couple of months. Healing from the spinal disc fusion surgery that Michele had last October should mostly be complete by now (we hope). Back in mid January, Michele experienced a very sudden and sharp increase in pain associated with her upper neck, above where the fusion was done. It was weird. She described the pain as being like something hard had come loose from where the surgery was done and was floating around behind her throat rubbing on various important parts of her anatomy. Headaches were bad and pain once again radiated down her arm causing really bad weakness.

So it was off to the surgeon and then to a fresh MRI to see what was going on. Oh joy of joys… another $800 for a test that yet again showed nothing conclusive except that nothing from the surgery had fallen apart and everything looked fine.

As mysteriously as the strange neck pain arrived… it vanished. Sometimes Fibro is like a thief who sneaks into your house and steals money from your wallet. I hate that!

In this case at least, we have one good hypothesis as to what may have caused the pain (of course we do… we track everything!). Michele had 2 sleep studies conducted in December and they resulted in a CPAP breather machine that she is supposed to use when she sleeps. The mask that she wore (which made her look sort of like Darth Vader) had a strap that went across the back of her upper neck. Perhaps the strap was leading to the pain?

So we swapped out the mask for a different one that does not have straps and instead goes into the nostrils. Now she just looks like an alien when wearing it. Its ok – Vader or not, I know she is strong with the Dark Side of The Force.  

The change in CPAP machine mask helped her neck pain as shortly after the swap the pain began to improve. It is not totally gone, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was in mid January!

The CPAP machine took some getting used too, but Michele is now sleeping between 7 and 8 hours per night using it. Her fatigue is much improved, so much so that she has started back with dance exercise! When I married Michele she was an aerobics instructor and loved dance exercise videos. Now she is working hard to get back into it and she has the energy to do it. I am really proud of her.

After over 10 years of taking Prozac her depression had increased and she was experiencing more severe emotional spikes. Those fun crying spells that come on for no reason at all. I really hate that. She has felt that the Prozac had been slowly diminishing in effectiveness over the past year and we investigated a number of other possible treatments to test instead of Prozac.

Michele’s neck pain and the pain she gets in her “spot” in the upper right side of her back still get to the point at times where she needs pain relief. The problem is that most “pain medications” really do not seem to work. She has tried oxycodone, hydrocodone and many other opioid combinations but their side effects are as bad as any pain they may relieve.

So she decided to test Tramadol taken daily to see if perhaps this could work to address both issues. Tramadol is not typically prescribed for depression, but it does function to help regulate serotonin and norepinephrine. We had also read that for some patients it can be effective to reduce frequent pain.

So she has started taking Tramadol. She began with 50mg taken 4 times per day. We noticed that within a few days her sleep quality was getting worse. So she began to take it earlier in the day and that has helped. But a better solution was to try the time release version of Tramadol so now she is taking a single 200mg time release pill in the morning. So far – so good. Her pain is reduced and she is back to sleeping well though we are still tracking closely as this latest change was only last week.

Michele has made so much progress. I am really pleased. Her overall demeanor and mood (note – NOT all the time for sure!!!) is better, she has tons more energy, she is happy about exercising again and she is setting weight loss goals! I expect with the arrival of Spring and warmer weather things will get even better!

I have a simple question for you. Please: Seriously think about this. It could hold the key to really helping you overcome fibromyalgia.

Do you just want to “Be” better….   or are you willing to “Get” better?

There is a huge difference between the two choices. The first implies an instant transformation. To suddenly be better. To be cured, miraculously and immediately without side effects or hassles. 

“POOF” —> Your Cured!   Hurahhhh and Yipeee!

This is what we all want. Give me a pill and make the pain all go away, NOW PLEASE. We want a  “Magic Pill” solution that cures all of our symptoms. If you have spent any time on any fibro focused forums, chat boards or Facebook pages then you have seen all the postings from people desperately pleading for someone (anyone) to tell them what the magic pill is.

Some people spend years chasing the magic pill and are convinced that if they just find the right doctor or get the right medical test or contact the right internet expert, they will finally be told the miracle solution.

There is no magic pill. There is no cure. There is no one thing that works for everyone. There is no easy solution. Sorry, but that is the reality of fibromyalgia.

So that brings us to the second part of the question -  Are you willing to Get Better?

“Get Better” -  this implies a process. This means that you have to do something in order to achieve the objective. You have to work at it. You have to manage it. It takes effort. You have to be willing to expend your own time and energy on the process. But… the process works. It is possible to get better. You can figure out what combination of treatment options will be effective in reducing your symptoms and helping you regain control over your life.

As long as you refuse to accept that no magic pill exists and you continue to chase instant solutions, your unlikely to make progress. Your not going to suddenly “be better”.

When you get to the point where you are finally sick of it, when the pain and frustration overwhelms you to the point of despair – then you have a choice to make.

Am I willing to do what it takes to get better?

Because you can. Make no mistake about it – Getting Better is not only possible, it is the most likely outcome from an effective self-management program. It will take time and a process but it is possible.

FibroTrack shows you how. FibroTrack is a complete online Fibromyalgia management program that will teach you step by step exactly how to manage your fibromyalgia and GET BETTER.

So, if your willing to Get Better – check it out. If your still chasing the magic pill, bookmark this page and when you do get to the point where your sick and tired of being sick and tired, give FibroTrack a serious look. Maybe we can help you supercharge your fibromyalgia treatment efforts!

Check Out FibroTrack Now!

Lots of great stuff is happening with FibroTrack so lets jump right into reviewing what’s going on and what new stuff is coming soon!

I posted the video interview last week with Dr. Deborah Barrett, author of Paintracking. When I first posted the video I really goofed and somehow managed to upload the incorrect edited version which had far too much boring video of me talking! I had to re-edit the video and I got the corrected version posted the next day but I know many of you missed it because when you first visited the blog page the video was not present. So… all is fixed now so PLEASE – check out this really great interview here -

Dr. Deborah Barrett Video Interview

Making it Easier to Get Started with FibroTrack!

One of the main challenges with designing a system like FibroTrack is to have it provide all of the deep functionality and features that some users may need while also having it be quick and easy to learn so that new users can jump right in. We need both sophistication and simplicity – not a combination that is easy to define!

It has been fantastic getting feedback from users since the FibroTrack launch and the overwhelming majority of comments I have received from users have been very positive. But – I have gotten some suggestions and complaints (and I definitely welcome complaints as this really helps me work to improve the system). Pretty much all of the suggestions have been focused on making it easier to understand what the new user should focus on first and simplifying the process of starting to use FibroTrack.

The tutorial videos are sometimes fairly long (up to 40 minutes) and they cover a tremendous amount of material. This is because the tutorials are designed to teach the user every tiny detail about exactly how to use all of the features and functions contained in FibroTrack. But the reality of any software system is that most users will never use all of the features that are available – and this just fine! A great example is Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet program. I am an expert Excel user. I have put together some massive spreadsheets in my day including formulas that run pages long. But even though I have been an expert Excel user for over a decade, there are still tons of features and capabilities built into Excel that I have no idea what they do and probably never will because its stuff I don’t need.

The number and length of the tutorials and the obvious presence of so many capabilities built into FibroTrack can cause some new users to gain the impression that FibroTrack is too complicated or difficult to learn. This feeling of being overwhelmed is exacerbated by fibro-fog, fatigue and other fibromyalgia symptoms.

FibroTrack is simple to learn and use. Once the basics of how the user interfaces function are understood, moving forward with using the system is quick and easy. But – this only becomes obvious to the user after they have actually begun to use the system and getting to that point may be a struggle for the new user who first logs into FibroTrack and feels a bit lost relative to what they should start doing first.

FibroTrack Quick Start Guides.

To address these issues and make FibroTrack much easier to rapidly get started with, over the past several weeks I have produced a series of 7 new videos that make up the new “Quick Start Guides“. The Quick Start Guides are exactly that – a simplified and much briefer set of instructional videos that walk the new user very quickly through learning what should be done first. The QSG videos range from 3 minutes to 6 minutes long. These videos walk the new user step by step in a very easy to understand way through exactly what they should focus on doing first and then next. FibroTrack automatically sends an email reminder to do the next Quick Start Guide video every day over the course of the first week when a new member registers for FibroTrack. This helps the new user to very quickly and easily gain an understanding of how FibroTrack works, why they are doing the things they are being asked to do and how to actually use the system. Anyone who is interested can view the Quick Start Guide videos on YouTube using the links below – the QSG videos are also now built directly into FibroTrack in Tutorial #1.

- QSG #1 -  “Stuff You Need to Know”

- QSG #2 – “What Do I Do First?”

- QSG #3 – “Getting and Using the Mobile Apps”

- QSG#4 – “The Basics of Updating”

- QSG#5 – “Meeting Other Fibrotrackers”

- QSG#6 – “Treatment Programs”

- QSG#7 – “Moving Forward”

Remember – These QSG videos are not intended to replace the longer and more detailed tutorial videos, but rather to get the new user active in FibroTrack very quickly and easily so they begin building their own “Baseline of Data” while learning the deeper functionality at their own pace.

FibroTrack System Updates.

In response to several user suggestions, I have added some new symptoms to FibroTrack and added additional detail buttons to a number of others symptoms. The new additions are outlined below -

LifeTrack:  2 New Tracking Elements Added

- Weather Impact:  This allows the user to keep track of the weather and the impact the user perceives the weather having on their Fibromyalgia

- Energy Envelope:  This new tracking element helps the user to focus on managing their own daily energy envelope and understand the impact on symptoms of exceeding their energy boundaries.

Middle Back Body Area:   1 New Symptom Added

- Spine Area:  Allows the tracking of pain associated with the central area of the back focused in the immediate area of the spinal column.

Lower Back Body Area:   1 New Symptom Added

- Spine Area:  Allows the tracking of pain associated with the central area of the back focused in the immediate area of the spinal column.

Anxiety Symptom: Added detail buttons for – “Panic Attack”   ‘Excessive Worry”  and “No Known Cause”

Headache Symptom:  Added detail buttons for – “Cluster”  “Back of Head”  “Behind Eyes” and “Sinus Pressure”

Stiffness Symptom Changes:   I changed the name of this symptom from “Morning Stiffness” to “Body Stiffness” and added the following detail buttons: “Morning”  “When Awoken”  “From Sitting”  “After Exercise”  and  “Evening”

Fibro-Fog Symptom:  Added the following detail buttons:  “Memory Impaired”  “Poor Concentration”  “Cannot Focus”  and  “Confused”

Fatigue Symptom:  Added the following detail buttons:  “Mental Exhaustion”  “Body Weakness”  “Sleepy”  and  “Energy Crash”

Sore Throat Symptom:  Added the following detail buttons:  “Voice Impaired”  “Virus”  “Cold / Flu”  and  “Infection”

Heartburn Symptom:  Added the following detail buttons:  “After Meal”  “Acid Reflux”  and  “Throat Burning”

Menstrual Cycle Tracking:  Added the following detail buttons:  “Aching”  “Cramping” and “Excessive Flow”

PMS Tracking: Added the following detail buttons:  “Moody”  “Sad”  “Cramping”  and “Spotting”

What’s Next for FibroTrack?

We have a ton of new development work that is ongoing. Current efforts are focused on completing the last of the tutorials focused on the reporting functions. These should be complete within a week or so. We are also finishing up a new feature that allows individual line graph type analysis reports to be locally saved on your computer. The user can define a date range for the report and when the report is generated they can save the report to their hard drive thus making it very easy to share the report and to open it again anytime. This also makes it possible to open multiple report at the same time, thus making comparison analysis much easier.

We a new type of line graph report in development that will be formatted specifically for printing. These simplified reports can be emailed or printed making them easier to share with some care providers.

The Kindle mobile application is still in development and hopefully will be released before the end of February. There are also a number of new articles, blog postings and additional content scheduled for February.

A very exciting development is focused on bringing care professionals into the FibroTrack system. I have had inquiries from a number of different care providers ranging from fibromyalgia coaches to doctors, pain specialists, occupational therapists, chiropractors and others who focus on treatment fibromyalgia. These specialists are interested in using FibroTrack as a “home base” for managing their patient relationships and to increase the effectiveness of the care they provide.

To support this type of capability we are developing a new user type in FibroTrack called “Care Provider”. The care provider users will be bringing in their own patients to the FibroTrack system as well as potentially offering their services to other FibroTrack members as well.

I am very excited about the expansion in this direction, more details will follow on this in March! PLEASE – share FibroTrack with your care providers. If any of them are interested in using FibroTrack with their fibromyalgia patients, please contact me. You might even be able to earn a few bucks on the side by referring them!