Hey tiggerjayde,

welcome to the (not so) wonderful world of mysterious pain that is mps! It's really weird and really annoying and can be really, really *really* painful. Especially if you're young when pain comes into your life - it can feel like no one understands and like you've had your life taken away and replaced with a nightmare. Necks and jaws can be especially painful - super sharp red hot painful that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

But there is good news.

You will find a way of managing your mps and find do all the things you want to do, just perhaps in a slightly different way. The best thing you can do is learn about mps. What it is, why it's so weird, what works for your particular case.

Ibuprofen cream or voltarol gel rubbed into your neck and shoulders is worth considering for pain relief, direct into the muscles actually works better than taking pills by mouth and you need a much lower dose.

Heat helps relax the tight deep muscles that cause the problems (contracted muscles with trigger points in them), so stick on heat patches, hot water bottles, heat pads, even sitting next to a radiator...all these work, just be careful not to burn yourself with it too hot.

Do your own trigger point massage. This was a game changer for me. I use weleda massage oil mixed with comfrey oil (but them separately and mix together myself). Slather it on your neck, shoulders and upper chest (and back if you can reach / get someone else to do it) and use your fingers to feel the muscles...you'll feel the weird knobbly trigger points under the skin and just press them, really really *really* hard and you'll feel pain ping around in ways that don't make sense to begin with. This is all a massage therapist does and you can do it yourself and save tons of money! You can calm these trigger points right down and over time it really makes a difference. Even just rubbing the oils in helps calm the spasms down. It does make your sheets green though, but I'm beyond caring! There are lots of websites that show where the most common neck and jaw trigger points are, or you can buy books, or try www.painscience.com - that's got a really good guide and lots and lots (and lots) of info about mps), but you can literally just start with oil and your fingers.

Make sure you have a good head and neck stretch routine in place and do it most days. Simple physio works or you can go as far as doing yoga or pilates. It all helps, as long as you do it more days than not. Exercise and moving is really important, as long as you don't overdo it, especially as when pain is really bad it's hard to move at all and you get stiff which causes more problems. You can get specialist pilates (called remedial pilates) where the practitioner sets your routine just for your problems.

Remember you need to really look after your mental health right now. Being in severe pain is very stressful, even traumatic, so do anything and everything you can to look after your mind. It's incredibly powerful, and can get you through this hard patch in ways that will surprise you, but it needs looking after too. Lots of mindfullness meditation, working on being calm, counselling if you need it, creativity, crafting, music, pretty much anything that helps you feel you and happy will do it, but it's something that needs working on more days than not. But it does work. I have a few meditations I do most days, you have to try them out to see what works for you (the wrong one can be deeply annoying, especially when doctors suggest it's the answer to persistent pain...it's not, but it an overall coping technique). I've just started trying a new pain management cd from the local hospital's pain management programme (I broke the previous one and they kindly sent me a new one but it's different and takes some getting used to!).

Do your best not to make your neck worse by lifting and carrying anything too heavy, and be careful with bags pulling on your shoulders. Anything that twists and stresses your neck could overstretch the trigger points which is very painful. It doesn't mean not moving (that would be painful too) but being careful about how your move.

That's a lot of information so I'll leave it there. There are some really good threads in a few other posts (currently right below this one)...books, new info and I'd check out the one about 100% cured. I try and keep them grouped together for newbies.

Try and keep in mind that you will get through this. Pain is a horrific experience but you are stronger than it is, you're still you. You might feel totally disabled and like it will never get better, but you will. There is still so much more in you than this pain. It doesn't define you and it doesn't mean you won't ever feel better. It's so easy to feel battered and squished by the pain but remember you're still in there. There's something called "strength based approach" that focuses on whats good and strong in you rather than the negative things (we all have them) that I think is a good way of looking at living with pain. It can be easy to loose sight of your strengths when you're in pain all the time, but they're still there, they haven't gone anywhere.

**fist bump** in solidarity; pain sucks

Thankyou so much for your advice! I was going for specialised appointments for my different issues, I then found out I had this weird thing that I knew nothing about. Was so intrigued I joined this group and it’s so nice to know that there are people out there that have managed and kept all their pain managed. Thanks so much for your advice

:-)

You will find a way to manage this, it's just so annoying that it's so poorly understood. You end up being your own doctor, but that's actually better because you know yourself better than doctors anyway!!