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...
I'm sure those of us with MPS know what trigger points are but for those that don't they are basically muscle knots that are very tender to touch and when pressure is applied they cause pain in distant locations (referred pain).
My question is this, do any of you have trigger points that cause pain in unusual areas?
All the trigger points diagrams I have seen suggest that the pain has quite well established referral patterns (i.e. neck trigger points causing shoulder pain or shoulder trigger causing arm pain, etc.).
I have some usual ones that I have not seen mentioned before- a really tender trigger point just above my knee on the back of my leg that causes a sharp shooting pain in my ribs/flanks. Or one on my outer hips (glutes?) that causes pain in my lower leg.
Anyone else got any weird trigger points?
My question is this, do any of you have trigger points that cause pain in unusual areas?
All the trigger points diagrams I have seen suggest that the pain has quite well established referral patterns (i.e. neck trigger points causing shoulder pain or shoulder trigger causing arm pain, etc.).
I have some usual ones that I have not seen mentioned before- a really tender trigger point just above my knee on the back of my leg that causes a sharp shooting pain in my ribs/flanks. Or one on my outer hips (glutes?) that causes pain in my lower leg.
Anyone else got any weird trigger points?
I find the diagrams incredibly useful for explanatory purposes when discussing it with doctors, therapists and friends/family but fairly useless when working on my own trigger points and surrounding spasms (although it's good reference to go back to every now and then to make sure you're in the right place - it gets confusing when you have, for example, pain in the lower back that can have both referred pain and active trigger points present at the same time).
If you feel pain and / or weird sensations when pressing a trigger point then trust it's referred from the trigger point.
Remember, also, that TPs are sociable little critters and love to come out to party - there are always way more that pop up when you start working on them than you would believe!! My theory / understanding is that any muscle compromised by an active trigger point or two will also have many latent (quiet, that don't contract and don't refer pain) trigger points too. You'll end up working on both eventually, the only question is how soon.
The majority of my muscles are tender to gentle/moderate pressure but if I massage around I frequently come across quite large ropey areas that seem to have the 'trigger points' at their center - these are the very painful bits that also refer pain!
I have a lot of surgical scars too and I'm sure things are made worse by the abundance of ropey scar tissue.....
Even though I have read up about MPS/CMP I still find it hard to get understand/accept that pressing the muscles at the back of my leg can cause sharp pains all the way up around my ribs or how if I apply pressure to the inside of my knee it makes my foot tingle/buzz.
And then of course there is the poppin, clunking, snapping and clicking of the muscles/tendons/joints which is so loud as to be quite embarrassing at times!
sigh
And yes, I have sore tender muscles all over too, as well as the thin ropey strands with the weird lumps in too. It's interesting, weird and kinda gross all at once. Gradually over time the soreness has settled down, though, especially with lots of massage - it feels as though the overall pain levels, the sensitivity level begins to dial down, bit by bit over time with regular treatment. If I think back 2 years ago I was so hypersensitive I could barely tolerate a light touch to rub in the massage balm / comfrey combo; it doesn't take 2 years to make progress, I've had many small injuries in that time, sigh...
Your scar tissue absolutely will be connected to muscle soreness, spasms and trigger points. Just keep working on them and you'll see progress even if the scars never settle down completely.
When I was first told I had mps I thought ''myo-what???'' It still kinda blows my mind at how it works inside the tissues, how the referred pain happens - I still get surprised by pains that turn out to be referred from some far off places and tp's in the body, or when something relaxes and I realise what I thought was normal was actually pretty bad spasms, pains and referred weirdness (I have loads of areas with a 'dulled' sensation, where I have less sensation, very weird).
I would have gone to the emergency room except that I was way out in the woods. Then I looked in my Clair Davies book and found it was from a trigger point way up on my abdominal muscles near my breastbone. I massaged it and the symptom went away.
Phew.