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...
So, I am now almost to a full year of doing nothing (literally) but trying to get better. I stopped work the first week in January and since then have made it my job to get better. I recently made some changes in my treatment plan and have had the best week and a half that I have had in over a year. Not only have a been in less pain the last week and a half but I also can feel my knots (mostly in my traps, shoulders and neck area) getting smaller and breaking up. Areas that felt like concrete before are now squishy. ( i never thought I would be so happy to the squishy!)
I think that I have found the key to me making a full recovery. I fell like I am so so close. Of course I will always have to work on maintaining this progress but I feel like I am getting my life back. :)
My current treatment plan:
I am taking Savella - which is a fibromyalgia medicine. Please note that I DO NOT have fibromyalgia. I met someone who does have fibromyalgia who started taking Savella and it changed her life. We had a lot of similar treatments and after doing some research, decided it was worth a try. Savella works similar to Cymbalta (which I took and liked but had to stop bc of constipation). Besides nausea and some headaches when I first started taking Savella, I have no side effects.
Massage - I am very fortunate to have found a great massage therapist at a fair price. I get massage 2 times a week for 2 -3 hours a time. More than anything, I think that this is what has made the biggest difference. If you are looking for a massage therapist, I would check out the American Massage Therapy Website at http://www.amtamassage.org/findamassage/index.html to search your location.
Acupuncture/Gua Sha - I have only gotten 2 needle treatments and 2 Gua Sha treatments so far. I am still trying to determine how effective these treatments have been. I know that they haven't hurt me, but I am not sure yet how much they are contributing to my feeling better.
I also have been very smart about not over doing it. I have really been listening to my body and resting when I need to. I have been taking frequent short walks, staying warm - lots of hot tubs and hot showers, working on my posture and working on my breathing.
I think that I have found the key to me making a full recovery. I fell like I am so so close. Of course I will always have to work on maintaining this progress but I feel like I am getting my life back. :)
My current treatment plan:
I am taking Savella - which is a fibromyalgia medicine. Please note that I DO NOT have fibromyalgia. I met someone who does have fibromyalgia who started taking Savella and it changed her life. We had a lot of similar treatments and after doing some research, decided it was worth a try. Savella works similar to Cymbalta (which I took and liked but had to stop bc of constipation). Besides nausea and some headaches when I first started taking Savella, I have no side effects.
Massage - I am very fortunate to have found a great massage therapist at a fair price. I get massage 2 times a week for 2 -3 hours a time. More than anything, I think that this is what has made the biggest difference. If you are looking for a massage therapist, I would check out the American Massage Therapy Website at http://www.amtamassage.org/findamassage/index.html to search your location.
Acupuncture/Gua Sha - I have only gotten 2 needle treatments and 2 Gua Sha treatments so far. I am still trying to determine how effective these treatments have been. I know that they haven't hurt me, but I am not sure yet how much they are contributing to my feeling better.
I also have been very smart about not over doing it. I have really been listening to my body and resting when I need to. I have been taking frequent short walks, staying warm - lots of hot tubs and hot showers, working on my posture and working on my breathing.
But I am having some success with myofascial release therapy. I am going to describe that in a thread soon.
So what about the dry needling? Do you judge it to have been a necessary step, or if you had to do it again, you would skip it?
I also have to get Trigger Point Injections in order to get my knots to release. I received 40 on my right side a week ago and another 40 on my left. It is painful but completly worth it. My massage therapist says it is nearly miraculous the difference in my muscles.
But, I am so pleased for you. It sounds like you have found a treatment plan that really works and it's beginning to pay off big time. That's brilliant. And well done for really committing to getting better. It's not an easy road to stay on all the time.
I've often thought about massage but at the moment I'm still too hypersensitive to tolerate it. Maybe in the future, who knows. Maybe if someone had really healing hands I'd let them have a go on my shoulders. Until then I'll stick with the cranio, keep the massage on the back burner for a bit.
It's really nice to read a success story. I'm at the beginning of my recovery period and reading how well it's going is reassuring and gives me hope.
Please keep us all updated on your continued success!!
Im going to see if we have any massage schools here in our area.
((((((((((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))))))))))
My p.m. offers to sedate me when i have a bunch of TP injections. It makes the experience much eaiser to handle.
chimerical, I have been thinking about the best way to answer your question about dry needling being a necessary step. I talked to my husband about it who is (almost) a doctor and has done ridiculous amount of research on myofascial pain syndrome and this is what we came up with... We think that dry needling is effective in treating trigger points but maybe not for everyone. It is best for people who have tight muscles and knots from something like whiplash because the needles can get in there and really loosen up the muscles and release the knots. I think that the reason that stopped working for me is because since I have MPS, there is another underlying reason why my muscles want to tighten.
It is very difficult to give a confident answer about if I would skip the needling if I had to do it over because there is no doubt that I did improve during January-August when I was getting intense dry needling but maybe I would have made that improvement anyway since I was not working and resting during that time too.... If I had to answer, I would say yes, dry needling was a necessary step for me but I would 1) not get it as often (2-3x a week I was doing and maybe would go once a week instead) and 2) work in a skilled massage therapist 1 or 2 days a week.
Another reason I think the dry needling wasnt working anymore because it was causing me pain which was not helping to try and break the "pain cycle" that I have going on with my muscles. Pain causes tenseness which I think is counterproductive.
One thing that I really like about dry needling though is that it makes sense to me how it works. The needle is actually put into the knots and breaks it up, releasing the toxins and bringing blood to the area to help heal, ect.
When you talk about massage, does this involve trigger point release at all or is it more like "massage in general" if that makes any sense?
I have heard the onion analogy about working through the different layers of muscle tightness and I really believe it now. Areas of my back that were like cement early on, have loosened up and have revealed bands and trigger points along the way, allowing us to work on those and get even deeper.
I like the onion analogy. I've often thought that my muscle tightness seems to be 'too far down' to be reached. And now the 'top layer' is finally beginning to relax again I can feel the difference between the layers! As this relaxing continues I'm hoping I will begin to tolerate massage therapy.
I really hope that you will soon be able to tolerate massage therapy. Again, above all else, I think this has made the biggest difference for me. I really hope what my husband has learned will help his patients in the future. He is going to be a surgeon but hopefully along the way will at least be able to diagnose someone and offer advice on treatment options.
Another note about massage, there are some handheld self massagers that I really like. Vibration feel really good on my muscles and helps to loosen them up.