Fibromyalgia Support Group
You're not alone in your pain. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can be difficult to diagnose and manage. If you're trying to cope with pain throughout your body, sleep problems, general fatigue, or other common fibromyalgia symptoms, you're in the right place. The community is here for you to talk about therapies and share your challenges.
my chest, shoulder,upper back(around my shoulder blade)pain...atleast for the past couple days. For a few days before that, it was exactly the same, but on my left side. Before that it was on the right side just like it is now but lasted 2 weeks or so. Like FM does, it goes back and forth from shoulder to shoulder. I have been alternating my heating pad with ice packs,taking cyclobenzeprine,percocet, 4 ibuprofen(all at the same time) at about 6 hour intervals. Been taking lots of hot showers. My daughter, who also has FM, has been having this same stuff. I have had FM for about 11 years, or so. I do occasionally get shoulder pain, but usually kicks out in a week or so. This is very intense pain! I find, when I move, it is worse...typical of FM flares...atleast with mine. Even swallowing hurts...like in the middle of my chest and thru to my shoulder blade, right next to my spine. My daughter has tried massage, also, which has not helped. So, we were wondering if anyone else has been having this, orif anyone knows if its a virus or something(if anyone has heard of something like this going around) Or if others have been dealing with this and what you did to help with the pain and possibly kick this flare out. I used to be here alot, but haven't been on here in awhile, so haven't been following the discussions, lately. Sorry. If anyone has any ideas, we sure would appreciate it.
My Rhummie Doc, explained it this way and it seemed to make sence...
Fibro is caused by my body producing too much Lactic Acid this causes widespread chronic pain. Which can move around the body depending where the acid is. It can also enter the blood stream thats why at times yo hurt even to be touched. It also causes the burning sensation that often accompanies this. Most people have the trigger points, but its usually one or two that causes the most discomfort which tends to re-occure. Stress is the biggest trigger.
To know how it works, has really helped me to accept and cope.
I'm not going crazy after all.
AND I do understand your pain !!
Take care Big hug
One thing about myofascial pain that people don't realize [and doctors NEVER mention] is that it's the pain that moves from place to place on any given day unlike the tender points that remain constant. If your pain is some place besides those tender points, you should immediately ask yourself if it's not myofascial pain and start looking for the offending trigger point. There's no reason fibro should cause your feet, toes, achilles tendon, thigh, etc., etc. to hurt whereas myofascial pain causes pain just about everywhere.
Here's a great article on myofascial pain in the the upper body that has diagrams of trigger points and referred pain locations:
http://round-earth.com/ShoulderPainIntro.html
When you find a trigger point, massage it as much as you can stand. You'll probably find that you didn't even know you had a pain there as it's often not painful until touched--then it just about kills you!! If you don't have something to massage yourself with, you can use a tennis ball in a sock.
Another wonder myofascial pain resource is the book featured at triggerpointbook.com. This book has made my life bearable as I've gone from being in one degree of pain almost 24/7 to being pretty much pain-free 85% of the time in spite of having myofascial pain for almost 40 years now.
Hugs
Have you Tried Physical Therapy ? I didn't know OR understand about Myofascial Pain, or Treatments til I came here...
The Weather was Beautiful for you today tho huh ?? around 60 ?
BTW, I can totally relate to how you feel about being surrounded by trees coming from ND. I grew up in Southern Idaho where you could see for miles and moved to western Washington. The first time we went hiking, we got lost after stepping off the trail as the trees and undergrowth was so thick, you became disoriented if you turned around. Never been back to the mountains of Washington as I'm afraid I'll never find my way out.