I know what you mean. But remember that everyone here does understand. That's what's so great about having a place to go to vent and just hear someone say "I totally get what you're saying!" :o) We all get it. So, don't feel completely alone- you're not. I have the same problem areas. The only thing that gave me some relief in the past 18 years was Savella. But that quit working so I'm kinda stuck. I truly hope you find something that works for you. Do you see a pain specialist or rheumatologist at all?

~Lis~

I get the same thing too-I'm your age as well. After reading a book about Myofascial pain i'm pretty sure that's what's causing my neck, back, shoulder pain. Do u have knots as well in those areas? And are those areas raised. I'm going to start going to a PT soon-they do trigger point shots/and massage release. I hope this helps and u feel better soon!

Awwww...honey, I am so sorry you feel so awful :( I am there with you. You are not alone. My doctor told me some comforting words once as I sat in her office crying my eyes out in pain, they didn't help my pain, but helped me in an odd sort of way... fibro takes it's course sometimes and then the worse is over, we learn to live with it, it doesn't go away, but we somehow learn to adapt to it - eventually we WILL find a good combination of therapies that will help too. That somehow offered me a little hope that things will get better. There are some sufferers here that have gotten better.

I did not see a muscle relaxer in your list of medications? Often times when we have pain where you do, it's stress related too. I hope you feel better soon!!!

Love and hugs,
Eva

Yes, I see a rheumatologist and he recommended I go to pain management. I've gone through that before, had trigger point shots but they lasted about a day. Maybe this new pain mangement center has some other options for me. I've also tried tramadol, but it doesn't do anything, so I don't take it. The only thing that really helps is percocet, but the doctors won't give it to me. They think I'm too young and that I'll abuse it. I dont' want to be on it, but if it takes the pain away then I think I should be able to have it.

Your not alone. I rarely have localized pain is pretty much throughout my body. Massage therapy if you can might help to relax those muscles your having problems with. It does sound like it might be tension related and maybe a muscle relaxer would be helpful. Gentle stretching excercises might be helpful to just take it slow.

I hope you will get some help when you go to the new pain management. Maybe if you let them know that the percoset helped you they might give you a reduced script for a few pills to get you through those rougher days. I have heard some people say that their doctors will give them 7-14 pill scripts.

Hope you find the right combination of things to help you manage your pain issues.

take care gentle hugs

Thanks everyone, its nice to hear from people who understand. Hugs 2 you all!

don't forget to get a sleep study. if we can get good sleep our pain decreases and the stiffness, too. I have a sunbeam heating pad shaped for my shoulders and i use it a lot in bed. it's electric and very soothing. I also watch my diet and eat very healthy food. My sleep Dr. prescribes xyrem for me, two doses a night, and this gives me the restorative stage 4 sleep that most of us fms don't get. wishing you good luck with pain management. I do take oxycontin, low dose, a few times a day. makes all the difference. no quality of life with pain.

i'm the same age as you 27 and i have a hard time getting anything strong enough for pain as well. mention the percocet to your PM doc. do vicoden help at all? they are happier to perscribe that then percoset unfortunatly.

one thing that helps me with back and neck pain is activon, its a roll on topical pain relife gel type deal thats alot like icey hot if you have every used that. it loosens up the knot balls and helps the muscles realax. if you have joint pain its good for that too. i just found that stuff and its been a godsend.

i sure hope you feel better and you find a doc to help you.

Lidocaine patches are my best friends - especially on my shoulders and back. They take away a surprising amount of pain and have no side effects because very little is absorbed into your system.

I take Savella, Mobic, and also Vicodin for breakthrough pain. The combination of Savella and Mobic is often enough, and I have the Vicodin when it's not.

I find I take a lot less of my breakthrough meds since I started using the Lidocaine patches. They come 30 to a box, and you can cut them to fit smaller areas, or use the whole thing as I often do at the base of my neck and across my shoulders.

I am older than you but had same thing when I was your age. I have run out of relief and have been crying all week. I don't what to do because I don't think their is much more for the doctor to give me. I have trigger point therapy. knots. Muscle relaxants but I become tolerant to everything. I need to go to pain clinic but am afraid I won't get relief. I am scared of going. I feel like right now my body is being ripped apart. I can't eat much and am so sick to my stomach. Have been vomiting some I think from sucking in so much air because of pain. I almost hope I would vomit for awhile and have to go to the ER. Then I probably would get some pain relieve for my stomach. To think this and share it seems so said but I am at my end right now.

Bless your heart. I'm so very sorry. I'm right there with you. My body feels like it at war and the fibro is winning. I am older than you. I am 38 but I can no longer recall I time when I have had no pain. Hope things get better for you.

Your described pain is familiar to me too. I find that myofacial pain release therapy with massage helps. Some insurance companies cover myofacial pain therapy. Some people can do this therapy on their own bodies. I agree with someone's post about the pain sounding like tension/stress. Women seem to carry their stress on their shoulders, and it just radiates from there in all directions.
Since the myofacial pain will always come back unless stress is controlled, I used to take Flexeril, (non-narcotic muscle relaxer) which helped me for a few years. That stopped working when I had a serious injury; and then I went on a stronger muscle relaxer. Heat helps too. I'm sorry that you're so young to be dealing with this.

I keep seeing more and more youg suffers in this group. The doctors try to put fibro in this stone cast mold, saying it is only a disease for middle aged women, and most docs know very little about it and offer very little care. I am 23, and a guy, so we are breaking the mold and perhaps now that this disese/illness is becoming more prevalant we will soon have better treatmenty options. The docs really do have a multitide of options to treat us, but some of them are so uneducated about fibro they may not have even heard of some things we suggest. Do your research, if you find a treatment that you think may help, tell ur doc, and show him facts from a medical or at least very cretiable source. You are not alone in this, we are here for you in any way we can be. I see you are using OTC meds with no relief, time to move to something stronger, and perhaps a mustle relaxer like the others posted. Good luck!

My pain started out in my neck and right shoulder years ago. My computer was set up so I always had to keep my head turned to the right. That was the beginning for me.

When I was working there were days that my neck and shoulders just felt like they were on fire. They were so stiff, I couldn't find a chiropractor to adjust me. Trigger point injections helped, and muscle relaxers helped, but made functioning almost impossible.
I used to feel like I was being tortured.

I so get what you are saying. I totally understand how much pain you are in.

It sounds like your neck, shoulder and arm pain are probably the result of active myofascial trigger points.

If you aren't familiar with myofascial pain, it's where the muscles get knots in them that refer pain elsewhere. The knots are called trigger points and have to be broken up in order for the pain to subside. I've found doing trigger point massage on myself a very effective way to keep my pain under control. I use an electric massager and the book featured at triggerpointbook.com.

Here's an article with trigger point and refer pain diagrams dealing with head and neck pain. There's a link to an article showing the trigger points for shoulder and arm pain at the top of the page:

http://round-earth.com/HeadPainIntro.html

Another great site that has extensive trigger point and referred pain diagrams is triggerpoints.net.