Myofascial Pain Syndrome Support Group
Myofascial Pain Syndrome (or MPS) is a term used to describe one of the conditions characterized by chronic pain. It is associated with and caused by "trigger points" (TrPs), sensitive and painful areas between the muscle and fascia. The symptoms can range from referred pain through myofascial trigger points to specific pains in other areas of the body. It may be related...
Hello Everyone
I'm a 32 years young and I suffer from debilitating pain since the age of 28. In my young and late 20's I was obsessed with lifting weights. A great example is, I would military press 225 pounds on shoulder days as a warm up, and not stretch prior. When I was 26 I joined the fire department, and that's when my pain levels started to progressively get worst. I left after 4 years of service because of on an off intermittening pain in my cervical, and thoracic region. I met my wife at 30 years old, and I recall on our first date telling her about my pain. At the time the pain levels were manageable (no medications were needed), and life was good. My pain started to progressively get worse month after month with extreme discomfort in my vertebrae, specifically in my cervical and thoracic region. I started seeing all different types of doctors and no one had an answer for me. With pain levels completely putting a damper on my life, I was losing hope and depression sunk in quick. I mean I was a very active human being and one day it all came to an end. After seeing over 30 different doctors in a year and a half span, and being tested for every disorder, and autoimmune disease, all blood work, and cancer screenings came back negative. Ok so now I'm back to square one again, I got advice from and orthopedic doctor who in my opinion didn't have the kindest words about my condition, but he did specifiy I should be seen by a University hospital. After finally getting an appointment in Columbia Presbyterian in New York, A very well respected spine surgeon looked at my MRIs, and told me structurally my spinal cord and spinal column are in great shape, and that no surgery was needed. So he referred me to pain management doctor who would administer shots to help suppress my pain. After waiting another 2 months to get an epidural shot, my pain was still there and worse than ever. After telling the doctor in Columbia that the epidural did nothing for me, I had my wife draw out on my back the point of origin of the pain. The areas that were affecting me most, was my scapula, sub scapula, infraspinatus, levator, and my upper and lower trapezoid, all on the left side of my body. On my next appointment to Columbia hospital I was given 12 TPI injection in those regions (which hurt like hell) in one sitting. Again my pain levels are absolutely debilitating and even worse than last time. After giving it some thought, my wife decided to start researching what causes all these pains around these muscles I have. And we learned about MPS. I am 1,000,000% sure this is what I have. Myofacial massages to the affected area help so much. And when my muscle spasms start happening it restricts proper oxygen and blood flow to the targeted muscles, which causes inflammation to start building up, which travels to my vertebral column, and presses on my nerves, causing me all types of issues. I am currently a nursing student, and life is very difficult trying to be focus and being in pain all the time. I had plenty of doctors tell me the pain is all in my head, and that nothing is wrong with me. Living life on pain killers is horrific, and I have no quality-of-life. The pain has taken over and I am extremely scared of what's to come. I beg anyone with any type of advice or any type of insight about MPS to help guide me in the right direction because I am losing this battle severely, and doctors don’t have the answers for me. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sounds like you're on it. You've got really good information about what's *not* going on, and you've got some good treatment options in place now. there's no magic cure, but a bit of daily management will slowly make a difference.
I've been through a bit of a battle with mps. I had a rough case after a car accident in 2002 and then it got worse. Work injury then worked too much and didn't listen to my doctor begging me to go off sick and now I'm paying the price. It's stabilised again, but my capacity to do stuff is teeny tiny.
Resting is more important to mps than you'd think. You may still be doing too much and that may be contributing to your high pain levels. It took 5 years of rest for me to really see a difference. The problem with the pain killers is they kind of mask the pains (I know they don't really, but bear with me) just enough that you stay active and that keeps the trigger points active and the pain high. There are some things you can do with pills, like muscle relaxants are better than opioids, that sort of thing, but you have to be careful not to over-stress the mps. And heat. mps responds well to direct heat, just be careful not to burn the skin.
Paul Ingraham's website continues to have the best information on this sort of thing I've found... www.painscience.com and there's some great stuff about rest. There are some great posts on this site about good resources (there's 4 we keep bumping up).
For me, doing the the massage makes such a difference, but I use a good massage oil (weleda massage balm with arnica) mixed with lots of comfrey oil. because comfrey oil works to calm the trigger points and relax the spasms (again, see painscience.com for the research on this).
Finding the right exercise regime is important. Stretching is the most effective, like yoga or pilates, but even bog-standard physio stretches do the trick. Just start very low and build up rather than starting at max reps. Your fascia is tight and restricted and needs to stay warm and as relaxed and supple as you can get it. simple walking for 30 mins a day is way more effective than you'd think for general health and wellbeing.
Being in pain is very very stressful and traumatic. Anyone that says otherwise is an idiot, quite frankly. Do anything you can to calm your stress; anything and everything you can think of. Including having counselling and finding a daily meditation to help slow your brain waves down (which is what calms the body when you meditate). There are some excellent things by Peter Levine on this sort of thing. Also John Sarno on the impact of stress. You're brain is very powerful when it comes to pain management, with the help of targetted pain manipulation meditations, but it's nigh on impossible to do when you're tense and in high pain. You have to start with short daily soothing meditations, learn to connect with your body and accept feeling the horrid sensations and then focusing on the bits that don't hurt.
MPS isn't progressive. this is the good news. but it is reactive to what you're doing (Ingraham calls it 'from the frying pan into the fire') so you have to learn to move without over stressing your fascia. Sometimes it's worth it, but most times it's not. And avoiding further injury is a big one...lifting, bending, etc. Part of my extra pain was caused by a new work induced injury followed by extreme over working and now I'm disabled and in the process of retiring. I've tamed the beast but haven't management to get rid of it so have to respect it and try my best not to piss it off!!! Sometimes I'm successful sometimes not.
Pain management programmes can be informative. Not all the info will work for you, but they have a lot to offer, including being around other pain patients (as much for seeing what they're doing that's not helpful, tbh).
that'll do for now. information overload is a real thing. I know it can feel like things will just get worse and worse, but you can get better from this and have a joyful functional life. Please take a few minutes to read the '100% better' post, detailing how one of our group found complete recovery. It is inspirational and informative.
I’m envious of people who get all better from Sarno alone. I definitely know for me it all came down to understanding the mindbody connection, but I had to access those hidden emotions through bodywork (JFB-MFR), too
See my post that I just posted as a new member. Or see my website for all the things I tried and what worked for me and what didn’t (under the Treatments tab). Or see my memoir, The Invisible Key: Unlocking the Mystery of My Chronic Pain.
https://healingfromchronicpain.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Key-Unlocking-Mystery-Chronic/dp/1734518901/
I hope you’re doing better!
Take care,
Maria