I also had the added difficulty that as a man they did not think that I<br>could have fibromyalgia because they think it is a "woman's problem". I<br>also had intense back pain and my doctor ran me through a complete cycle of<br>tests for other things, all of which came up negative. At that point I was<br>hoping that I would have a fatal illness that would at least end the pain.<br>When he applied pressure on the tender points and I responded he determined<br>that i had fibromyalgia.<br><br>Then it got amusing. He asked me if I had any ideas as to how to proceed.<br>I did not know much other than Lyrica was being advertised, so he started<br>me on that. After a couple of days (it was Mother's Day and I was out of<br>town with my family) I broke out in hives, so that ended Lyrica. Then I<br>suggested gabapentin and he started me on that. I began to get relief from<br>the pain when I got into megadoses of it and it has been working for me<br>since then. The side effects have not been too bad for me, so I have been<br>a happy camper, counting myself extremely fortunate, and hoping and praying<br>for other fellow sufferers.<br>