Hi Writerbug,

Your symptoms are vague and can be indications of a host of ailments. It's my opinion that you need a medical diagnosis, particularly before embarking on self treatment or undertaking exercises. Simple stretches can do more harm than good.

Thanks for your reply--I have seen a number of doctors--no one is quite sure what's going on. They seem to think neuralgia or myofacial pain... I just don't know what to do. I'm in so much pain that it's disabling....

I believe Zingara is right. You didn't say what kind of work or activities you engage in, so it's really hard for anyone to say whether your suspicions are right or wrong. CMP is most often caused by injury due to repetive activity where a soul has continually ignored and pushed thru the pain. It could be caused by injury from and accident or any other number of reasons. But believe me, it's something no one "should want" to have! It's permanant and life changing to say the least!
You need to see a doctor for proper diagnosis. But rest is always the first thing prescribed. You have to give the muscles a chance to heal. Sometimes the doctor will prescribe an anti inflamatory or mild pain killer or both. But rest is always the first on the list followed by physical therapy.
Hope this helps you and I pray that you find that this is just a temporary thing. It's sure not something I wish upon even the worst of my enemies. Well that's not true, sometimes I do wish that people could walk in my shoes for a day so that they could learn how it feels and learn to have compassion for those who are not as able bodied or mentally able as the "norm"! LOL, I call that advocating though!

Oops, sorry I missed one of your posts! Has anyone spoke to you about the possibility of Fibromyalgia? Fibro can cause all of the things you describe. Have you been sick with anything like Pnemonia or a severe flu prior to the onset of the symptoms you describe?
Quite often people and doctors fail to realize that illness is often a predessesor to Fibro although no one seems to understand why. I have a dear friend who had pnemonia and then next thing we knew, ended up with Fibro. My Fibro, they believe, is the result of my not slowing my life down after some injuries and surguries and failing to properly heal. LOL, those are the wages of my sin for not listening to my doc!

for so many of us, fibro comes along with MPS. In fact, I've had two different docs diagnose on, then the other doc disagrees and dx the other.

Read up on the fibro, the boards are loaded with suggestions but just go for one at a time so you can find if it helps or hinders.

"constant, very bad headaches
tightness/soreness/pain in my neck and shoulders, particularly on my left side" are all symptoms of cervical slipped disks as well.

Welcome to the group, Writerbug.
I would start by educating myself on both conditions. I don't know much about neuralgia, but a book that is very informative about myofascial pain and may help you decide if you do have it is Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome a Survival Manual by Devin Starlanyl, M.D. She has both of these diseases. Check out her website www.sover.net/~devstar People with chronic myofascial pain usually have trigger points, which are knots or lumps in the muscles. The knot causes the muscle to tighten or contract.
Have you had a MRI to rule out slipped disc, etc...? How did your pain start? Usually myofascial pain starts after some mechanical failure such as an accident, repetitive motion injury, trauma, illness.
I agree with Zingara. Be very careful about exercise and stretches until you know what you are dealing with.

Hi Writerbug - Besides the other good suggestions already mentioned here, I would suggest that you tell your doctor in no uncertain terms how much pain you're in. It's hard to think or make decisions when you're experiencing serious pain. I went a long time with no pain meds too and finally had to quit working and go on permanent disability. I was close to retirement age anyway but I hated quitting my job and I wonder if someone had given me some relief, I might've been able to hold on longer. Pain isn't good for you. Get someone to understand and start some testing.

Hi Writerbug,

I have the same painful areas. Without treatment and medications, my pain is excruciating. It never stops. Not even at night - it wakes me up constantly. I have discovered through trial and error over the past two years that the pain I experience in my head and neck is referred pain from trigger points in my trapezius muscle. I know this because when my head and neck pain get extremely bad, if I feel around for hard knots in my trapezius just behind the top of my shoulder and put pressure on them, the pain stops! However, as soon as I release the muscle, the pain starts again. I cannot seem to get the points to go away by myself and I seem to aggravate the points more than anything. I am getting some help with this now from a trigger point therapist and I am slowly seeing improvements. My problem is that this is an overuse injury from my office job that never gets a chance to heal because I'm still working and overusing the muscle! Vicious circle. What can I do, I cant just quit working.....I have a lot of financial responsibilities. In reading the response to your post, I realize I share a similarity with others in that this came on right at the tail end of a bad series of strep throat infections I suffered that winter - just like that without any warning at all. Interesting. I didn't realize this was a common characteristic for fibro - I dont think I have fibo because I only have pain in my neck, head and shoulders.

Thanks everyone for the helpful info.

I, too, suffered a bad cold that wouldn't go away in the fall/winter of last year, and then the headaches started soon after that. I've always gotten headaches, but these were way worse and came every day. Then around April I started to get bad pain in my neck and shoulder. I do have trigger points, though they seem to be going away with PT and trigger point injections. I'm getting two MRIs tomorrow, so hopefully that will tell them something...

I really hope this is an isolated condition that will go away with treatment (well, I guess everyone hopes that!).

Myo, have you tried to make your office more ergonomically friendly? That might help with some of the repetitive motion problems.

Jerrlee, If you don't mind me asking, were you able to get medical disability for myofascial pain? I just had to stop working too because of working in this pain for so long was about to do me in. I tried to get approved for medical disability and because nothing showed on tests, even with 2 very respected doctors stating I could not keep working, they practically laughed me out of the building. Thanks, pauli

Oh man Pauli, that really stinks! I had kinda assumed getting medical disability wouldn't be hard, if you had doctors' notes. Now I'm scared! I hope not to need it, but it was a nice safety net to think about.

Writerbug,
MIne was through the state dept. of education. It is 5 times as hard as regular disability. A doctor told me that so remain hopeful.It was because nothing showed up on any tests. Love, pauli