Trigger point therapy - I need hope and advice!

[gcoe]

Fibromyalgia is a blanket term for a syndrome of symptoms. There is much variation so some patients have more of the fatigue and often depression while others at the other end of the spectrum have more muscle pain and may not have much fatigue or depression. In the end it is not a very well understood problem.

It is great that you got such good results from your focal trigger point treatment. I would normally caution people not to be quite so vigorous in treating the trigger points – more for the risk of causing injury. However this did work with you and as you are young and healthy maybe that is ok.

I think that you need to take a long term view of managing this. In the long term treating trigger point symptomatically might not be so effective . You are likely to find that you have a propensity to having future problems but by keeping fit and strong, maintaining good posture and managing stress it is possible you may keep the symptoms permanently at bay.
It is good that you have addressed posture and stress issues - sensible things to do.

Other long term keeping fit seems to be one of the most important components of managing fibromyalgia. Keeping a high level of aerobic fitness (heart beat raising exercise) appears to be very effective. Aerobic fitness may have a beneficial effect on modulating pain. With Fibromyalgia you have an altered pain perception with your nervous system being sensitised to pain signals. Also keeping strong with weights at the gym may really help. In the long run these might be more important

One warning – if you detrain and let your fitness go the symptoms may return.

Personally I think it is good to understand why you might have developed trigger points. Trigger points don’t just happen in a vacuum. One theory goes that fibromyalgia is partly due to muscle imbalance problems. So the symptom of muscle pain is due to muscles not working optimally. Promoting muscle balance so that weak muscles are kept strong and shortened muscles don’t get shorter but are kept flexible may be really helpful. A good consultation on your muscle balance may be warranted.

[MonarchX]

Thanks for the advice. I was spending my time with PC too much as a teen and I was tall skinny-fat (high body fat %, little muscle, many trigger points). At 18 I had change of personality and went to the gym 3-4 times per week. I ended up getting pretty darn fit but, but weight lifting was just...OMFG..super-painful, but I did it because I thought I had weak muscles and strengthening them will solve the pain. Some physician told me to contract and relax muscle that hurts all day...it made things so much worse. I had a lot of bad advice and gym that actually made things worse. I just worked 1 week on neck trigger points which are amazingly painful, but they are nearly deactivated and my headache/TMJ is gone!

So, I kind of quit gym 1 month ago because it made pain worse, it was sore longer, I couldn't do therapy like that. I go once a week to maintain. What works is to deactivate trigger point and then strengthen it. So, since I made it a habit to lift weights and do cardio I think I can keep trigger points from coming back. I also spend all day focusing on keeping shoulders relaxed and be stress-free. It needs to be like this for several months until its a habit. But dang I am happy I found a solution that works.

Also, my physician gave me Darvocet...which is worthless for this. I want to take some opiates to use infrequently and do this therapy without being in super-pain. I don't intend to get addicted, but I want oxy or hydrocodone. Is there one that helps with this type of pain specifically? I know ibuprofen removes soreness from therapy, but not radiating pain from trigger points.