I share my personal story of how I defeated fibromyalgia with the hope to empower those who suffer from chronic pains every day, who persevere to search for a natural fibromyalgia cure, and who battle their illness and never give up.
I firmly believe that you deserve to have access to all the information out there that could be helpful to your condition. That’s why since the day I started this blog I knew I had to write about my experience of beating a very severe case of fibromyalgia. I want to tell you that it’s all possible.
Please bear with me as this is going to be a slightly long story – a story in which I had come close to dying and losing hope. Having gone through this, I am now extra grateful for having regained my health back. This experience also gave me new perspective on how to take care of ourselves to prevent future illnesses. For these reasons, I felt compelled to share my experience, in order to help others to fight fibromyalgia and to recognize the power of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The Perfect Storm: How did it all start?
In January 2012, I gave birth to my second child, then my health went downhill pretty quickly in the few months after.
But prior to 2012, I already had a few very exhausting years: having my first child, keeping up with an IT career, buying a new house and moving. We were fortunate to be financially stable, but we weren’t fortunate enough to have much help and support from extended families. I was going through an extremely stressful legal process (from 2010 to date, still on-going) to sponsor my mother to live with me in Canada, but it was not successful. I was burnt out and stressed out. My health was not in the best shape – over 2 pregnancies, I developed digestive problems that often caused me so much bloating and stomach pains that prevented me from eating. I had some achy joints after having the first baby, but it didn’t prevent me from living my life and it eased up on its own after a while. With weakened immunity as a sleep-deprived mother, and constant toddler germs, there seemed to be never-ending sickness for me that couldn’t go away fully before I caught another round of infection and my coughs lasted months on end. What did I do about my less-than-ideal health? I thought I was doing my part attending all the doctor checkups, and there wasn’t anything offered to me by the doctors to improve or strengthen my health. Did I take matters into my own hands to seek alternative care or to slow down the pace of my life? Not much. Aren’t we, as mothers, all pushing our limits and ignoring little signs that our bodies are taxed out, because we simply don’t have the time to care for ourselves, and worse – progress and achievements are valued more than self-care in our society?
2012 soon turned out to be the toughest year ever in my life: My postpartum body was weak and I had a mountain load of work to do to set up the new house, take care the new born baby and my then 2-year-old toddler. My father-in-law passed away 2 months after my second child was born, and as a result my mother-in-law needed more help from us, mainly from my husband but I was left with more to deal with on my own. I worried a lot about my mother-in-law’s financial situation. I tried to squeeze in more work around the new house than I could handle every day. And there was still no hope to bring my mother into the country to help me, with our continued trying. Mentally, I was at my wit’s end. I then had a fall-out with a relative as I desperately needed to stay away from toxic people in my life. Physically, I was quite drained out as I had been exclusively breast-feeding. (Mother’s body naturally prioritize nutrients to our children even if it means depleting our own storage.) Ever since my second baby was born in January, I felt constantly cold in the frigid Canadian winter. My wrists and shoulders were hurting whenever I lifted the baby. My hips were hurting probably since the 3rd trimester. It was amid this chaos that both of my knees started to hurt too – really bad. I didn’t know then, but it went on to become a serious health crisis for me in the next few years. The onset of my knee pain wasn’t the first sign of my health issues, but a turning point, because when walking became painful, I felt significant difficulties managing my daily tasks. Around April to May of 2012, I started to seek help from my family doctor and a chiropractor/physiotherapist.
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It hasn’t been easy for me to get to this point of sharing my private life on the internet. However, I decided to write out the above events with honesty, because I think the story is important for the readers – there are clues and real examples of what trigger illnesses. These are also important data for the studies of chronic illnesses and pains.
I don’t mean to say I was in the worst situation or I needed sympathy.
I do want to call out that there is often a combination of physical and mental components behind the onset of a health crisis and the continuation of chronic health problems. When you look back onto your own health issues, perhaps you had also experienced that tough patch in your life, similar to this “perfect storm” to me, that just pushed you over the limit of your body’s capacity.
There were also other clues such as my weakened digestive health and frequent infections for setting off my health crisis, but more on this later in the section of “The Cause of Fibromyalgia: TCM Explanation”.
The Diagnosis and Fails of Western and Conventional Medicine
1. Chiropractic Mis-diagnosis
When I started seeing the chiropractor/physiotherapist in the spring of 2012, he told me confidently that my joints were “injured” from the heavy work of carrying the baby. In his words, “everyone is an athlete”, so he advised me to “ice my knees” daily to bring down the inflammation. This treatment he prescribed was very puzzling to me at that time, because coming from an Eastern background, my intuition told me a hot compression should be applied in my situation, to improve circulation and promote healing. I felt cold compression on the other hand is an overused westernized approach. I didn’t feel I had an acute injury. I had a wide-spread chronic pain. Even if I had an injury, in my understanding, icing should only be appropriate within the first 24 hours. I raised this question to him, but he insisted that heat would make my condition worse and I must ice my knees instead. This should have been my first cue to not go through with his treatment plans, but after he boosted about his education and specialty in sports medicine with much confidence, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and went with his suggestions, in my state of vulnerability and despair. After all, chiropractors are considered natural doctors in the western world.
Over the weeks I was seeing this chiropractor, he provided other treatments to me including the TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) therapy and acupuncture. I want to be very clear here that the kind of acupuncture you receive from a practitioner having taken a few months of technical training in acupuncture is fundamentally different from the acupuncture you receive from a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner with years to decades of practice, experience, and understanding of the art of Chinese medicine. I am fairly certain that although my chiropractor was practising a treatment modality from Chinese medicine, he didn’t have in-depth understanding of how Traditional Chinese Medicine works.
I couldn’t tell if the TENS therapy had any effect on my pains. Even if it was helpful, for the widespread pains and the severity of my pains in 2012, the TENS therapy was insignificant.
The acupuncture did provide temporary relief. Even the kind of “local acupuncture” (just around the pain area) with less than 10 needles, from my chiropractor who doesn’t understand Eastern medicine, provided much more relief than TENS therapy. However, the relief was short-lived. I would experience a few hours of much reduced pain, but the pain always returned. The positive effects of the acupuncture kept me going back to the chiropractor and feeling hopeful, but I soon realized that he didn’t have the skills or knowledge to treat the cause of my chronic conditions.
During these few weeks, I had also been taking a Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement he recommended and following his instructions to apply daily icing. Not only did the icing not ease my pain, it had made my conditions worse, to the point that I had to stop seeing him and go back to my family doctor for a referral elsewhere. I felt there was a fundamental mistake of treating me as if I had a sports injury. I felt my constant pains weren’t understood at their roots by the chiropractor. At the time I stopped treatments from him, I had developed visible chronic swelling in my knees resulting in limited range of movement in addition to the pains I originally went to see him for. Losing my mobility was becoming a serious concern.
2. Helplessness of Conventional Medicine
When my pain conditions worsened under the treatments of a chiropractor/physiotherapist, my family doctor became concerned. Usually chiropractors and physiotherapists are family doctors’ first line of recommendation for pain related issues. In order to figure out what specialists I should be referred to next, I needed to go through some testing. At this point, I was put through for blood tests, x-ray, and ultrasounds.
The problem was I was losing precious time. When my mobility and range of movements started to decline as a result of the pains and swelling, it quickly lead to a vicious cycle. The less I was able to move, the more swelling I developed, which lead to more pain I was in, and therefore the less I was able to move. By June 2012, my husband had to push me in a wheelchair to visit my family doctor and to attend ordered testings. It was becoming too painful for me to use the stairs in my own house – I say this as a mother who had gone through 58-hour and 29-hour painful labours respectively and insisted on 2 completely natural births without epidurals. If I could push through, I would. But at that point, I had significant problems even moving around in my own house. I couldn’t force my joints to do more than they could bear either, as it would cause more swelling. We hired a care-giver to take care of the baby and cook for the family. My toddler was already going to the daycare. I was bed-bound, using crutches to get to the bathroom, and felt like I was 110 years old.
My blood test results came back normal, which means there was still no conclusive diagnosis from my family doctor. I was finally referred for an MRI in July 2012, but the wait time was 2 months, meaning I wasn’t going to receive the MRI until September 2012. I asked to be sent to a rheumatologist, but since my blood tests showed no indication of rheumatism, despite the obvious inflammation in my joints, I could not get referred until I had further MRI testing results. Even if I did get referred, a rheumatologist would have been completely useless in my case anyways, which I eventually found out many months later.
Seeing as how I was already using wheelchairs to attend appointments, I desperately asked what else could be done to help. My family doctor prescribed strong NSAIDs for pain relief, which wasn’t effective when I took them and I grew very concerned about the side effects and irritation on my stomach. Based on my past experience with pharmaceutical drugs, I had too long a list of negative experience from my 20s to feel comfortable taking medication for a long period of time, so I stopped.
In July 2012, my conditions deteriorated quickly by the day. I lost most of my appetite due to stomach aches, slept poorly, and my atrophied leg muscles were visible to the eyes. My weight dropped to under 100 lb from 120 lb post labour and continued declining, which was very concerning. I am 5 foot 6 inches tall, so at less than 100 lb I was feeling extremely weak. I had no energy left to get out of bed even if I didn’t have the pains. But being in bed all day didn’t make the pains any less either. My body hurt so much from lying that I had to sleep on the hardest mattress in order to get some rest. The swelling was getting worse, and the pain was spreading wider too. Even my toes, neck, elbows, fingers, and face started to hurt. I could no longer straighten my legs or bend them for greater than a 15 degree angle, and most of my other joints developed some degrees of swelling. I was getting tinnitus, worsened headaches, pains in my chest and soreness in the uterus, and chills all over my body in the middle of the summer. I cried a lot being in complete mental distress and started to lose my memories. I was getting numbing and tingling and would lose sensations in my arms and legs completely during my sleep – those were scary moments when I suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I was partially paralyzed.
Deep down I knew very clearly, at the rate my illness was progressing, it was life-threatening. Even if I didn’t die from this, I would have become permanently disabled by the time I could get my MRI in September. My very optimistic husband even said to me that, “you have to live, even if they chopped your legs off.” I told myself I couldn’t die, I had to live for my two little children. We needed something drastic to happen, right away.
By then, I had reached a very low point feeling completely helpless from the conventional health care system. I realized that instead of waiting for my family doctor to come up with a diagnosis and a referral, I had to listen to my own intuition to find the treatments that’s right for me, on my own. I considered many other alternative methods and naturopathic medicines, but either based on my past experiences and understanding I didn’t feel confident they were “powerful” enough for the severity of my condition, or I had tried and they weren’t helpful. As many Chinese and holistic-minded people would have done in my situation, in July 2012, I started treatments with Traditional Chinese Medicine, a system of many thousand years of history that I felt I could put my trust in. I didn’t know if I could be cured for sure, but I felt going with Traditional Chinese Medicine was my best shot.
3. The Incurable Fibromyalgia
Now skipping over my pursuits for treatments in Traditional Chinese Medicine and fast-forward to September 2012, I finally had the MRI done on my two knees. Although I had wide-spread pains and swellings all over my body, it wasn’t feasible to have MRI on all my joints, understandably.
As soon as the MRI results came out, my family doctor called me in for an earliest possible appointment. The urgency was due to the finding of the MRI (as of September 2012), as I was told by my doctor that the report showed irreversible joint damages.

The MRI results of my right knee, as of September 2012.
Note that at this point I had undergone 2 months of treatments using Traditional Chinese Medicine. Although I was still in pain and swelling all over the place, the severity had reduced. I still couldn’t carry objects or take the stairs, but my knees were able to bear my body weight as I walked very slowly, and all my joints (neck, shoulders, wrists, knees, etc.) had gained bigger range of movements. So if my MRI in September had gotten me an urgent appointment at my family doctor’s office, my results would have been much worse in July was I able to get an MRI then.
My family doctor was delighted to see my functions starting to return under TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) treatments, but still very concerned about the prognosis of my conditions. She was finally able to refer me to a rheumatologist, and suggested that what I had was fibromyalgia.
I finally saw a rheumatologist in early 2013. The whole appointment lasted less than half an hour, basically consisted of her asking questions and listening to my description of the pain, reviewing my reports forwarded from my family physician, and then confirming that she agreed with my family doctor I had fibromyalgia. She ordered a few more tests and told me she would see me if needed. (I never saw her again.) According to the protocol that fibromyalgia patients are under the care of family physicians, the rheumatologist released me from her practice with a handout explaining what fibromyalgia is. Inside the 3-page handout, it says there is no cure for fibromyalgia.

Section of the fibromyalgia handout given to me by the rheumatologist.
If you have looked up the definition of fibromyalgia, you would notice that fibromyalgia does not usually indicate joint damage or detectable on MRI. During my conversations with medical doctors among my friends and family, it was suggested to me that “my diagnosis perhaps had missed the mark”. Although I met all the fibromyalgia symptoms (widespread pains, mood issues, digestive issues, sleep issues, memory issues, migrating pains, light and scent sensitivities, worsened pains from exercise or prolonged sitting and flare-ups in cold environment, etc.), my onset appeared to be much more severe than a typical fibromyalgia patient. However, since the doctors I consulted with didn’t have a more appropriate disease label to assign to me, they declared what I had was fibromyalgia. The doctors never ever suggested what they thought the cause of my fibromyalgia was or even tried to investigate the combination of factors that brought on my symptoms. To me it didn’t really matter any more what our conventional health care system called my illness at that point – a disease label without a true understanding and an actual treatment plan had little merit.
Over the next many months, my family doctor referred me to 5 other rheumatologists for a second opinion on the previous diagnosis, and my case was refused every single time without the specialists even meeting me. The logic behind this was – I didn’t meet the screening criteria as a rheumatic patient based on existing evidence and test results, so there was nothing the specialists could do to help me; as the rheumatologists were already super busy with their existing patients, they would rather not waste time to see me who wasn’t a fit for their practice.
My family doctor felt very sorry for my situation. She offered me medication to treat neurological issues and anti-depressants (i.e. Lyrica, Cymbalta), as these drugs may have benefits against fibromyalgia conditions as I was told. I turned them down for they would be damaging to my immune system, and were full of side effects that overlap with my fibromyalgia symptoms. My past experience had taught me that pharmaceutical medicines do more harm to me than good.
I had learned to trust my intuition to filter advice, especially from someone who does not understand my illness. However, the fact that I followed my intuition to turn down medications, combined with a vague diagnosis, came back to bite me as my insurance company refused to honour my short-term disability claim. However, I am confident that not accepting the medication was the right decision for my health.
By then I had also learned a few other things:
- “Fibromyalgia” is a blanket term for a widespread painful condition of unknown cause. The diagnosis of “Fibromyalgia” is based on the absence of matching to other illnesses.
- The medical experts in our conventional health care system do not have a cure for my condition. The medications offered to fibromyalgia patients aren’t designed to treat fibromyalgia.
- As the illness is defined by a set of symptoms, rather than causes, it’s no surprise that there isn’t a cure for fibromyalgia. The method of disease classification prohibits a universal fibromyalgia cure to be developed.
- Wait time for important testings, seeing a specialist and reaching a diagnosis is too long to provide timely help to patients. They could potentially delay treatments by providing patients a false illusion that there will be answers to their health problems.
- Doctors spend too much precious time on determining a disease label rather than providing actual cure and improvements to patients’ health.
My family doctor eventually referred me to a 10-week program to learn how to cope and live with fibromyalgia at the SunnyBrook Hospital’s Chronic pain clinic in Toronto. How sad it is that our health care system just “sentenced” all these people like me to live with pains for life!
On the other hand, I had been using Traditional Chinese Medicine the entire time by the time I was accepted into the pain management program in February 2014. I had recovered to the point I could travel by myself to attend the hospital classes, reversed the joint damages (see image below), and completely eliminated all swellings.
I believed if I could have made this much progress, there is a fibromyalgia cure for me. And I was determined to find my path to defeat this illness.

The MRI results of my right knee, as of May 2013. The report is very blurry, but basically says my knee is normal.
The Cause of Fibromyalgia: TCM Explanation
I vividly remember the first visit to my Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor on July 17, 2012. I was driven there by a friend who then carried half of my weight to help me into the doctor’s home practice.
The doctor took my pulse and examined my physical signs and symptoms. Within 10 minutes of seeing me, she gave me the diagnosis of “postpartum wind”, which means I was affected by “wind” during postpartum time. Wind is an ancient way of describing the external conditions that bring on a cold or flu (because back then people didn’t know about viruses), today it can be generalized to infections. Wind is also reflective of the common fibromyalgia symptoms that “like a wind” the pains often migrate in the body from one joint to another, and the pains often worsen when patients are exposed to wind, dampness and cold.
In hindsight, I realized that having a baby during the coldest time of the Canadian winter wasn’t the best timing for this particular illness and icing my knees was absolutely the worst thing I could have done. (See section “Chiropractic Mis-diagnosis” above.)
Even before I started treatments using traditional Chinese medicine, I had heard of “postpartum wind” as it is a very well-known illness in the eastern culture and I knew that in my native country the opinions of the general population towards this illness is “incurable”.
Such fear of the illness isn’t without good reasons. Postpartum women’s bodies are the weakest therefore open up to external invaders. Once the infection takes roots, it can affect very deeply into the joints and organs when the body’s defence system is so vulnerable. That explained why my conditions deteriorated so quickly. It also explained why I felt my life was being threatened – because my organs had been affected by the infection which could take down my entire system very quickly. It’s extremely difficult to get rid of deep chronic infections while having to build up the immune system from such a weakened state.
Notice that, in contrary to conventional western medicine, the classification of illnesses in Chinese medicine is based on the cause of the illness rather than symptoms? You may have a less severe fibromyalgia that didn’t start postpartum, therefore you might be diagnosed by TCM for “arthritis caused by wind and dampness”. Or you may have another form of fibromyalgia (remember fibromyalgia just means pains of unknown cause?) but given a different diagnosis in TCM that I have no knowledge about. It really is case by case looking at the root of the illness. Here I am only talking about the cause of my fibromyalgia.
The process of understanding diagnosis in TCM is also a process of de-indentifying with diseases. (A friend of mine said this recently so I will borrow her word.) Following western conventional medicine, we so easily fall victim in the pursuit of a disease label and letting that label define our existence. I have seen and heard stories of people with chronic mysterious symptoms (often autoimmune illness) never finding a cure, while their diagnosis changes every year as the illness progresses. To truly understand explanations in TCM, we have to accept that no matter what illnesses we have at the moment, what really matters is the kind of imbalance that is happening within our body and how to bring ourselves back into that balance.
There were 2 points my doctor emphasized over and over again, which later on through my own experience of the treatments, I recognized as the guiding principles in my treatment plans.
- There is a Chinese saying that “10,000 illnesses start from a flu (infection)”. A core theory in TCM is that untreated infections can manifest into a variety of chronic and more severe health problems depending on where the infections take over within our body. Later on I learned that this theory was written in a classic TCM textbook Shang Han Lun: On Cold Damage (more details on wikipedia) as early as 200AD, detailing the treatments of a collection of conditions as different stages of flus (infections). It was eye-opening to hear this theory for the first time in 2012 but it completely made sense to me as I truly felt I had a constant flu that my body wasn’t strong enough to defeat. In recent years, I hear more and more naturopathic and holistic doctors recognizing infectious diseases (an example is Epstein-Barr virus) as the culprit of many autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, such as Hashimotos, lupus, MS, rheumatoid arthritic, neurological disorders, cancer, heart diseases and diabetes. My TCM doctor pointed out that for years my flus and infections weren’t properly treated and over time it had damaged my health; as soon as my immune system was down, the infections had the opportunities to invade deeper into my body.
- A good doctor’s first priority is treating the digestive system. This is another core principle of TCM: among the 5 organ systems (heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney), spleen representing the digestive system is the foundation of all others. The reason is fairly obvious that without the nutrition provided by our digestive systems, other organs will not thrive. My TCM doctor pointed out to me that my digestive issues had preceded my current health crisis for a long time, and it needed to be among the first priorities to address. Again the importance of digestive health is something we hear more and more in recent years among the natural health community, specifically that our digestive system represents 70-80% of our immune system and there are all sorts of links between gut health and other illnesses.
Treatments Using Traditional Chinese Medicine
My TCM doctor recognized the danger of my condition but still believed that my illness was curable which provided me so much hope in the darkest time of my life. She told me that some of my symptoms would get worse before getting better during the treatments, but I had to have faith in her approach. Now looking back with all the knowledge I have today, I was extremely lucky to have met her who had a life-time of experience practicing TCM and seeing some of the toughest cases from major hospitals to rural China.
In contrary to western medicine where we go to different specialists for problems in each part of our body, all treatments I received under TCM were provided by one doctor. This is because traditional Chinese medicine treats our bodies as a whole no matter what illness is present. I will summarize my treatments into the following categories.
- Treatment Schedule: I was put on a schedule to see her every other day immediately, including weekends. This schedule over time reduced to 3 times a week, 2 times a week, once a week, then as needed. I followed TCM treatments exclusively for a little over 2 years.
- Custom Prescription Herbs: At every visit, my pulse and overall conditions were re-assessed. Based on the signs of my pulse and current conditions, I would be given a custom prescription of raw herbs to take home at the end of my treatments. The custom prescription typically consisted of 30+ herbs, and I was given just enough to last until the next visit. Readjusting custom prescription herbs every other day allowed us to focus on the biggest problem and priority at any given time as my health situation changed. I won’t be able to tell you the exact herbs that was used. Making custom prescription herbs is a serious art in traditional Chinese medicine. Even if I could understand what was used on me, what would be given to another person with the same illness can still be different.
- Acupuncture: I received acupuncture at every visit. Acupuncture was used not only for pain relief; it was also effective at reducing swelling, opening up the meridian channels, tonifying internal organs and relaxation. The needles were applied on my entire body from head to toe, even in the abdomens. There were usually 20-30 needles on me during each session and the acupuncture points in use were determined by the most painful area of the body and the biggest problem to tackle.
- Cupping: I received cupping at every visit following the acupuncture. Cupping is an ancient therapeutic method applied on the surface of our skins that can stimulate quite deeply into the tissues using negative air pressure. In the old days, the suction was produced by heating the air inside a glass cup and then letting it cool on the skin. In modern days, an air pump is used to create the suction while heat is produced from an infrared lamp which is therapeutic on its own. There is also a distinction of dry cupping vs. wet cupping. Dry cupping will produce a bruise mark of blood under the skin, while wet cupping incorporates puncturing of the skin using tiny needles therefore some of the blood will be suctioned out of the skin in addition to producing a bruise mark. The method using air-pumped suction cups and infrared heat lamp combined with wet cupping was the type of treatment I received. Most people compare cupping to a deep massage. In my experience the effect of cupping is so deep, it is not what a massage can achieve. Cupping was mainly used to remove stagnation and blockage in my body, as well as to reduce pain and swelling.
- Massage and Scraping: I also received massage and scraping therapy (Gua Sha) from time to time that mostly worked along the lymphatic drainage system, and to prevent further muscle atrophy. Scraping therapy can be easily practiced at home using a scraping board.
- General Approach: The following is summarized by me rather than statements from the doctor. I believe the general approach below was what guided my custom prescription herbs and sometimes influenced the use of other therapies such as acupuncture, cupping and scraping.
- In the beginning of the treatments, the 2 highest priorities were: i) reducing pain and swelling so that I could start using my muscles again; and ii) healing my digestive system so that I could take in some nutrients. Some strengthening herbs were also used. Luckily, it was in the middle of hot summer so it wasn’t the flu season.
- As the cold weather approached, I experienced my first season of the horrible fibromyalgia attacks: worsened symptoms and migrating pains on cold and rainy days, and many rounds of very serious flu. Whenever I had a flu, the treatments were always focusing on the flu as the first priority. From fall to winter to spring, more than half of that time I was on flu-fighting herbs. As I healed, each subsequent winter became easier than the previous one.
- After my digestive function and mobility returned, the focus shifted more towards strengthening herbs for my organs and joints. In between flus were times we worked on building up my immune system, so that the next flu would be less severe and easier to fight off.
- Working on the Mind: Chinese medicine does not separate the mind and the body. During the hundred plus acupuncture and cupping sessions I went through, my doctor chatted with me, listened to me, told me stories and encouraged me to think positive thoughts for my healing. Looking back now, she was working on my mind so that I would believe the seemingly impossible. I am glad she did and gave me the confidence to get to where I am today with my health.
There are other common sense and lifestyle tips I won’t write about in detail here, because they have been written quite extensively by others, such as practicing good sleep hygiene, staying active with low-impact exercise (eg. swimming), getting good nutrition (I learned this recipe from my TCM doctor, also in the post I touched on the kind of diet I was on during my worst year), etc. I just want to point out these seemingly basic common sense practices are important parts of healing emphasized by TCM during treatments. Speaking from my own experience, it’s absolutely not easy to stay on track when you have got insomnia, chronic fatigue and digestive issues. My attempts failed all the time. But there is no choice, these are things we must put efforts in and keep on trying.
Happy Ending

Taking my boys to spend a day at the beach in June 2014.
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Living in this modern era, we are extremely lucky to have access to so many tools and wisdom to heal from our health problems. It would be inaccurate to mislead my readers into thinking that all the progress in terms of my health were made solely by Chinese medicine. However, I must give credit to Traditional Chinese Medicine for healing over 70% of my fibromyalgia symptoms and for helping me overcome severe chronic pains and life-threatening health crisis. It was also the first and toughest 70% of the healing. Without TCM, I wouldn’t be in the position to feel that I had the time to explore other options or even feel strong enough to try other methods. What I have learned during this time of pursuing TCM treatments was even greater than what have been accomplished.
Near the end of my little-over-2-year exclusive treatments using Chinese medicine, the improvements started to plateau. As you may know TCM therapies can make very slow progress and still be very expensive. I will assure you that I live in a real world and I also need to take care of my finances.
There are other options out there that work faster or cheaper for smaller health issues, or sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break to practice more self care – I knew I had homework to do on my own. I was faced with yet another crisis of insomnia after I defeated severe pain conditions. It wasn’t easy to overcome anxiety and insomnia, and here are the 5 things that helped me the most.
We also live in a world with more toxin exposure than hundreds to thousands of years ago. My body gave me signs that I had a toxin overload, and my intuition told me I needed to do more than just herbal detox, whether it’s Chinese herbs or those herbal detox kits you buy from natural health store or a detox therapy at your naturopathic clinic. This topic deserves a separate post on its own about the most effective detox I ever did – it gave me amazing results and got rid of many of my stubborn and mysterious symptoms, and lingering fibromyalgia pain. I believe when our body is no longer over-burdened by toxins, we have the natural ability to heal.
On one hand, we work on detox, on the other hand, we must eliminate as much exposure to toxins as possible. All the recipes on my blog use clean ingredients with a focus on nourishment and healing. While many of us try to pay attention to what we eat, we often overlook what we put on our skin – conventional personal care products often contain chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and heavy metals. Our skin is our largest organ. After a long journey of healing myself internally, I am making clean personal care a priority. You can find in my safer skincare group on Facebook my favourite clean products for the whole family.
Today I am completely pain free. I no longer meet the criteria for fibromyalgia in any way. I can eat, sleep, run and do everything with my kids. I am trying to build my blog into a real business after the illness ended my IT career – when one door closes another door opens. I still have minor health issues, but I have a “toolbox” full of “tools” including TCM to help me, and I continue to learn everyday.
I remember so deeply when I first went to see my doctor of Chinese medicine, she told me: “When your postpartum wind is cured, your health will be better than before. What happened to you isn’t a completely bad thing, after this you will learn how to look after yourself and your family in the future.” As I am writing this story 5 and half years later, I know she was right.
Dear Yang,
your story reminds me of mine in some ways, as my pain started with my pregnancy. It’s only now after 3 years of pain that someone had pointed out to me that the areas where my chronic pain is located seem to be the ones that are typical for fybromalgia. I have been getting accupuncture and tradional chinese medicine for 6 months already which have improved my symptoms a lot. I would now still like to get an official diagnosis from a reumatologist and already got the appointments and checks lined up. What do you think? Would it better to pause the herbs for the tests to work as inflammation has already gone down a lot? Thanks so much!
Great Post! Keep write like that informative post. Thank u for sharing this post with us.
Dear Yang;
My heart goes out to you for publishing your story and all the chronic pain you went through. Your story brought me to tears because I experience all the suffering you’ve gone through. I’ve had fibromyalgia for 10plus years(as you know it takes a long time to get it diagnosed). I also developed A-FIB(arterial fibrillation of the heart, my migraine headaches came back, severe Eye pain, cognitive issues, sleep deprivation, deep depression and etc. etc. etc.! I have been going to TCM but after all the testing, questioning,pressing and touching of my skin I just couldn’t take any more touching of my skin so I stopped going to acupuncture. Which was the biggest mistake. Had I kept going I probably would be living my life free of pain. There were times when I couldn’t even touch my own skin or comb my hair because of the pain in my head and arms.
I am a intuitive medium and knew I was making the incorrect choice but the pain and touching of my body was too much that I didn’t care and just wanted to be left alone to lay down on my electric blanket (turned up as high as it would). That what is the only way I could get any relief… .heat and laying still!
Between my daughter’s persistence and my own intuition and of course the increased pain(by now there were days upon days that I was bedridden), I finally decided to go back to acupuncture(TCM) after 2 1/2 years.
I’ve now been going for 1 month and already taking a liquid herb for my heart, lungs, blood chi, and digestive system. My hair started “Thinning” several months ago and now I can actually “See and feel my scalp”. I have to wear a hat when I go out in the sun for very long because I can feel the sun burning my scalp.
I’ve been taking the liquid herb for a little over a week and two days ago when I was combing my hair there wasn’t any hair in my comb. I kept combing to see how much would come out in my comb, but I couldn’t get any hair to pull away from my scalp!
This is only the first of many “ surprises“ to come. There is much work to be done but I am confident that I will also have a “Happy Ending” .
I wish Western schooling would teach about “The Body Mind Spirit” collectively”. If we knew how to nourish and care for our bodies maybe we wouldn’t have so much pain. In the meantime TCM can help and teach us how to care for ourselves.
Thank you Yang for sharing your story. I know many people will benefit from it. I’m so glad you have your life back to spend now and the future with your beloved family. I will pray that one day you will be able to bring your Mother over.
Rose
Thanks for your encouragement. I have had fibro for 14yrs. Now back to bedridden state. No choice but to start tcm again. I tell myself i must persist
Thank you so much for sharing your story, Yang. I was diagnosed with fibro about 7 years ago, but I was in denial. My symptoms would range from mild to tolerable to disruptive. My rheumatologist had me try several prescription medications, but I didn’t tolerate them well. She also had me g to PT, which helped a little – for a short time. Over the past 5 months or so (winter), my symptoms got worse, & I found an integrative medicine doctor & center near me. Dr. David Edelberg, who has worked with many fibro patients, wrote a very informative & helpful book called, “Healing Fibromyalgia.” After I read the book, I went to see him. He did ordered blood tests, prescribed some supplements,,put me on an elimination diet, & had me start working with the acupuncturist at the center – this was 3 weeks ago. I’m also taking TCM herbs, & I have already had significant improvements with my symptoms. I’m in the early stage of treatment, & I know it will take a long tine to improve my health, but the degree of relief I already feel gives me hope & motivation to make the dietary & other changes that have been reconnected.
Your story and your results are also very encouraging, motivating, & helpful! You are a warrior!
In his book, Dr. Edelberg does a great job explaining fibro – history, causes, symptoms, emotions, testing, doctor’s resistance, medications, treatments, etc… He does have a detailed plan in his book that gives the reader things he/she can do (dietary changes. meditation, supplements, etc) & guidance on how to work with medical doctors and incorporate alternative medicine/therapies, such as TCM, to create a treatment plan. He truly knows “the stories,” frustrations, & pain of fibro patients & recognizes the need to individualize treatments & address root causes. All of his information & recommendations are based on his experience of working with over a thousand fibro patients, most of whom he has seen at his center, Whole Health Chicago, which he established in the early 90’s.
I’m sure there are many other wonderful resources & information available. Dr. EDELBERG’s book just happens to be the first one I found & read, because his center is local to me. In short, it’s been extremely helpful! Thank you, again, for sharing your story, Yang. What you’ve overcome & accomplished is truly amazing, & your story confirms, that I’m on the right path! I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog posts/articles & learning from your wisdom, insights, & experiences. I wish you & your family many blessings & continued success with your health.
What symptoms do you still have ?
Thank you for inspiring story. Could you please name few of the most used chinese medicine herbs You used? I did today the first liver cleanse. And i really hope it is a great start to regain my health. The only thing i just read that a lot of doctors, especially https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVGQLxCjudM Dr. Klaper and other Drs., also Mayo clinic! said that its a myth about this liver cleanse. It kinda devastates my hopes..
HI,
Interesting & good for you. I am not as bad as you were, but getting worse, but I’m wondering how I could possibly do without my many many painkillers-which are obviously making my whole system toxic & have been for many years?
Thanks
Thank you for helping me feel more hopeful as I continue to come to terms with my fibro diagnosis. Acupuncture has done wonders but I’m now motivated to try more TCM therapies. Your description of the crazy-making process of navigating the health care system (esp. referrals!) was so familiar; I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone in this frustrating journey. Thank you for openly sharing about this process in such detail! Many thanks.
Thank you, Camilla! You are not alone and I am glad you find comfort and courage to keep fighting for your health. <3
Dear Yang,
What was the name of your doctor? In the future I want to study with a good TCM doctor as an apprentice.
Sincerely,
HH
Hi, I’m really glad to have found a story like this online since everyone else is always going on about fibromyalgia being incurable. How could it be incurable when it isn’t even a scientific disease label but instead a set of mysterious symptoms? I believe in the power of TCM but the diet is the most powerful aspect of conditioning, balancing, and healing the body. I believe through the right food choices, you can fully eliminate all fibromyalgia symptoms and be in better health than you have been than in childhood at home. I’d like to bring you some of my suggestions if you could contact me by instagram: @alkalinehealing
Hello I have read this article and feel it fits so many of my symptoms. I have not had an official diagnosis but feel this is possible. What foods would you recommend to help with pain?
Thank you so much for sharing you story! Much appreciated. My mom is diabetic and she was diagnosed with osteo-rthritis a few years ago. But no only is she continuously suffering from joint pains but today when I gave her a shoulder massage I realized there is muscle inflammation all over her body! It’s like one long twisted, inflamed muscle from the back of her neck all the way to her lower abdonmen. She’s suffering with horrible pain everyday and the doctors have not been able to give a conclusive diagnosis. They only give more and more pain medications. I was hoping to understand if you have the same kind of pain/ inflammation when you were diagnosed with fibromyalgia? I can’t seem to find this as a symptom anywhere but I don’t know what else it could be. Thank you .
Yes, it’s part of my symptoms too. I also had severe swelling around many of my joints. Hang in there and I hope your mother finds relief soon.
Thank you so much for this! I am going through the EXACT same health issues that you went through. 2019 has been the worst year of m life and the worst year for my health. Western medicine has also failed me and I have never been in a darker place in my 31 years. I am also Canadian and with free healthcare it makes the process so so terribly long and frustrating that I don’t wish this on anyone. Thank you again. This gives me hope!
Hayley, I am wishing you well! Sincerely.
Incredible Story! Thank you so much for sharing.
Hello glad to hear your feeling better…… Now to be realistic there is NO cure for fibromyalgia… You are born with the disease and it is NOT caused by childbirth…. Feeling better does not mean a cure it just means your managing your pain through lifestyle changes……….. But I agree Western medicine is not the answer All the best
Hello and thank you for making this weblog, I am an iranian lady of 38 years old, I belive I got fibromalygia via a virus which was not an exact flue virus but it was very simillar to it, and had an attack over the night for 2 times over a months before the painful and strange body pain stays in me up to now,I also got floating eyes since , I also had MRI down here which was showing 2 mild disc in my neck and 2 mild one on my back, I first though that the cause of disease can be the discs but when I attended to cairopracters here who were educated in USA , I had the same ice experience that Yang had and it made me feel worst, I then showed my MRI to many other doctors and surgeons who belived that the discs are not the cause of the problem, my knees were also really painful.I remember I used to go to Gym everyday over the cold winter and comming back home walking while having damp body after excersing and one of those night when my husband also had this viral infection I got the attack, but he did not get the fibromalaygia and I got it, I went through so many doctors and they were all saying that the problem is only from your nerve system and the cause is stress and they put me on Citalopram tablets of 20mg , and gave me Lyrica capsules, but only one of the said the name of fibromalaygia, the term they use when they do not find any strange result in your blood tests and MRI and they find no cause for the pains you have and he said there is no cure for it, I explained all these to say that we also have trained people in chineese acupunturing in Iran who are educated in China and work here, and I went to one of the famus one of them too for only acupunturing and no cupping or natural medicine as he was not doing those but I did not feel a releif with it, I also got worse and have a blocked ears and throat now too, bad digestive system and stiff and painful hand fingers, I know a friend here who is also suffering from this chronic disease for many years now and she has tried all these acupuncuring, massages, cupping, herbal medicine anything you can think of as she is in a much sever pain than I am and she is very wealthy that means she could afford going to dubai and other countries for her treatment, but still she was not successful in getting a cure, I belive that It comes in cold weather and via and viral infection and points joints specially hips and neck but I am still wondering how come this can damage the nerve system,muscles and oints!!! My friend has tried so many treatments of such TCM and still did not ger cured, Has anyone tried TCM afrer reasing Yang’s weblog yet? Maybe the TCM which Yang has tried has such an ability and not all of them? Can Yang kindly share the address for her TCM please? As I went through the comments and noticed many people have asked for it but there is no reply about it from Yang!!! I am also a British Citizen who can travel to canada for their treatment easilly, I appreciate that so much, Look forward to hear from you
My doctor has retired now, she no longer takes patients. Could you check with the Chinese community in your area to find a practitioner? This is a fairly well understood illness in Chinese Medicine, thus many properly trained practitioners should be able to help you. If you are willing to travel to another country for TCM, you should consider going to Hong Kong or China, instead of Canada. You will find way more excellent doctors there and have access to everything you need that TCM can offer. Canada isn’t the first place you should be considering visiting for TCM treatment.
Another thing is what you have is a chronic systemic condition, you will most likely need prescribed herbs to go along with acupuncture in your treatment plan. You should find someone that can offer multiple therapies, not just acupuncture. You will also need to make necessary life-style changes, because treatments can only go so far, self-care makes the fundamental differences. TCM and any medicine for cure will not work after 1 acupuncture session. It’s a long process and you need to stick it out.
Thank you so much for this post. It has seriously given me hope on curing my fibromyalgia. I got diagnosed almost half a year ago, with fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety disorder and a gut bacteria, due to my overlaping conditions my doctor didn’t know which one to tackle first, so he has excluded the gut bacteria problem I have, woth reading your story I am certain I need to start healing thay in order to start feeling better. I was referred to a psychiatrist and still am goung but seeing little results in my therapy and prescription medicines so I decided to go to another and the same thing, which led me back to the old. In the end, when things were so bad that I tried to end my life. The pain was and still is unbearable but I continued to find ways to help cure it, and now I find your page and it makes sense to me. My father always believes that natural ways are more effective at dealing with ilnnesses, but sadly I didn’t pay attention to him. I had been considering trying chinese medicine , but here in Panama there are very few that places that do that and is quite costly, but after reading your story I definitely am willing to spwnd some money on sometime very necessary which is my health.i know this is a long comment but I want to thank you for this post, it has given me hope❤
Thank you Rachel for visiting the blog and leaving your comment. I think your story will help others too!
Do you get your flu shot every year ?
No, I don’t.
Thank you for sharing your story with us Yang. Chinese Medicine has over centuries, solved many diseases or even helped manage them, in a way that modern medicines haven’t been able to. Food items like caffeine, alcohol and processed food trigger symptoms. Although red meat is also not good for the disease, i have not yet seen a patient who has any problem with it. I think it depends more on the style of cooking.
Absolutely! Thanks for leaving the comment. I agree with what you said about caffeine, alcohol and processed food – I avoid all 3. But my body does fine with red meat. I actually love and need red meats for the energy. Of course, not everyone is the same.
Could you elaborate on you comment about how fibro drugs damage the immune system? I’d like to learn more about this.
I left a comment below that’s related to the same question you have, you can read it by scrolling down on this page. There is a ton of info on the internet regarding side effects and how certain drugs work and what chemical compounds are used in the drug, that you can search and read up on. I am not a doctor, it’s not my position to advise you not to use any drugs. I can only share my personal experience and my take on the issues. I have felt that in my experience, the side effects are not worth it for me to only treat the symptoms when I could be spending my time and energy to improve my health.
Can you share more about your detox? Many thanks!!
You are welcome! See previous comment, you can subscribe to the blog and get all the updates. There is a subscribe box above the comment section. I share everything I learned and found valuable in my healing journey. It’s a lot to fit into a comment.
Can you share more about your detox? Maybe you already did and I missed it! Thanks!!!
I recommend you subscribe to my blog newsletter. I haven’t had the time yet, but I will be writing about my detox in details in the future, possibly more than 1 post on the detox to share all I have learned. When I write about the detox, I will share in my newsletters.
Hi how do the pharmacy drugs ruin the body
As for fibromyalgia, there is no pharmaceutical drugs that can cure it, what is recommended for the conditions usually work to suppress the pain signals of our nerve system, not to strengthen or balance our health and immune system to deal with the root cause.
Cynthia, there are tons of info on the internet you can read up on regarding the drugs you are taking or considering. You should do some research and read up on the risks. You can go on any drug website to read the list of side effects and warnings and see for yourself if you are willing to take all the side effects for no real gain in terms of actual cure.
Another thing is to listen to how your body responds to pharmaseutical drugs. I was not concerned for a bit and used quite a few what my doctors asked me to take in my younger days, and they caused me some permanent damage, and I may be one of the more sensitive people out there to pharmaceutical drugs.
Maybe some people take them, because they just want to mask the symptoms of the day but not looking for a cure. And that’s ok – it’s their choices if they feel reducing symptoms right now improves the quality of their lives. More often than not, I see people develop other health problems while suppressing the original ones.
Our body has a natural defence mechanism to show symptoms and pains for a reason, so that we know something is wrong and we should fix it. Masking symptoms won’t make your problems go away, but it will most likely manifest into bigger health problems down the road. Many drugs that suppress symptoms also suppress our liver or nerve systems or alter how our immune system would work naturally.
Thank you so much for your inspiring story! I’m trying to battle my way back after a nasty viral infection. I was wondering if you also had thrush or any evidence of Candida overgrowth? That’s some thing I’m dealing with right now and it is awful. What was your diet like as you made your recovery? Thanks so much again!
Yes, I did have either Candida or other bacteria/fungal overgrowth, and various signs of infections within the body. You can look up how tongue diagnosis works in TCM – digestive issues can be linked to so many other imbalance and that’s where the TCM doctor’s specialties come in. You can read this post: https://yangsnourishingkitchen.com/chinese-herbal-healing-oxtail-soup/, I mentioned a bit of my diet in my worst year.
I have a ton of recipes on this blog (https://yangsnourishingkitchen.com/recipes/), all together they are very representative of the kind of diet I follow in general. I don’t exclude any food groups, but I don’t eat processed foods, excess sugar, ice cold food/drinks, excess raw vegetables (especially some are less nutritious raw), I eat only a little dairy mostly fermented and lots of boiled/steamed/roasted vegetables, soups, porridge, and bone broth. I eat a variety of grains and beans but not the biggest percentage of my plate. I use only whole foods supplements and make my own fermented foods. You can read about my food philosophy here: https://yangsnourishingkitchen.com/about-me/
Look up TCM food therapy theories, there are foods that cause imbalance of cold, heat, dampness, etc. to give you some pointer for what to avoid or reduce for your specific imbalance.
Thank you for all of the great information and education on fighting Fibromyalgia. As I’m struggling to find relief you have given me hope that this can be cured. Hearing the word incurable can make a person feel hopeless but thanks to you I’m ready to fight.
Hello Yang
I came across your blog as I was looking for chinese soup for post menstrual healing for my tween child. I took a keen interest on your blog as I began to read about your journey in finding a cure for fibromyalgia through TCM.
I am very interested if you could share with me the contact of your TCM doctor. You see, my Mom is still suffering from fibromyalgia and has been for at least 10 years. She also went through a lot of specialists and took short term disability before eventually quitting her full time job. Coincidentally, My Mom lives in your neighbourhood. I’m from Richmond Hill Ontario but used to live in Markham.
I’d be more than appreciative if you can pm me your TCM doctor’s contact.
Hi yang ;
Very inspiring story , it is almost 3 now and i cant sleep due to my pain can u plz give me the name of u chinse medicine dr , i live in toronto and i need it dispertly thank u
Wonderful post, Yang. How grateful I am that you are well, and that you are sharing what helped you in your journey so others may benefit too. Much love!!
Megan, how kind of you! Thank you for reading and for being a friend! ❤️
When I was reading your story, somehow I can totally understand!!
After giving birth to my second boy (my first was only 15 months and he went to daycare), so he brought germs home and I was sick with cold and had fever twice during the confinement period. My poor second boy was also sick and hospitalise when he was just 15 days old, was given antibiotic drip incase of bacterial meningitis. I am still worry it may affect him in later life having antibiotic in such young age. So stressed and sick that time. Lack of sleep and clingy toddler. I was lucky my parents came to help me for 2 months after giving birth. Later, I developed eczema on my hand and scalp, also when I stopped breastfeeding at 10 months old, I had urticaria down my belly and leg just after shower at night. I can’t wear tight pants and sometimes it itched so much I woke up at night. I was so confused and sad because I was a healthy girl before. I had urticaria for almost a year.
Then I consulted myself to TCM because the western doctor only gave me steroid to stop the itching, but I know deep inside it won’t cure me and the side effect scared me. My urticaria has gone after 3-4 months TCM treatment but I still have eczema. TCM is very expensive in western world, so I just take chinese herbal cream whenever I have itchy scalp now. I think women body need some time to recover after giving birth, in my case I think my body was drained off as when I was pregnant with the second child, I also breastfed my first. My TCM doctor told me to stop having more children or at least not in close age gap because it does take lots from our body. So happy you finally can find your healthy life back!!
Hi Mei! I am so grateful for you to share your stories. Everything you said are so true and real in the lives of us women and mothers. Stories like this need to be shared, so that more people can have access to information and find help.
Thanks for sharing your story! Happy you are over it, for me it is been 7 years now and I still can’t find the right medicine for my fibro 🙂 Hope I’ll share a story like this some day too!
Hi Fatih, I certainly hope that you will find the right help for yourself too! I can understand how difficult the path is, there are countless things I tried along the way and countless times I doubted if a particular medicine or method would work for me. Much of the answers lie within ourselves to connect with our unique situations and needs in an intuitive way. All the best to you!
Way to go, Yang, on sharing your full story! I’m sure many, many people can (unfortunately) emphasize with your early struggles trying to get answers and help from conventional medicine, however in the end your story is such a positive one – that there is hope, and people CAN find healing with the right practitioner(s) and approach (and, of course, patience and a positive mindset!) We’ve obviously talked a lot about your experiences already, but your full story filled in a lot of details I wasn’t aware of and I’m now even more amazed and impressed by how far you’ve come! Kudos again for sharing. <3 <3
Kristy, thank you! You were spot on at capturing my messages. We have to believe that we can find our path to healing and find those people/methods that can help us along the way. Our bodies are so powerful as long as we put them in alignment, and there is definitely hope! But we have to believe in the hope for it to come true. During all those therapy sessions, my doctor told me countless stories of people healing from even worse conditions I was in – it was those stories that kept me going. Now it’s my turn to pass on that hope to the next person. ❤️ Lots of love to you and thank you for being a great friend!
A BIG HUMONGOUS THANK YOU for sharing your story and journey to wholeness!
I’m a student of TCM, my own fight against ‘Fibromyalgia’ led me to learn and educate myself on how to heal myself and upon graduation I hope to help others regain their health and wellbeing.
Thank you again!
Terry
Thank you Terry for your kind words! It’s awesome that you are now learning TCM. The world needs more people like you who can help others. TCM is a serious art for the intuitive minds. It takes a lot of practice and experience to become good at it. After this chapter of my life (raising kids and sharing traditional wisdoms on nourishing foods – TCM is very big on food cure), I have a dream to study the medicine side of TCM as well! All the best to you in your study. ❤️