be pain free

I’m going to mark this as done because for the most part my Myofascial Pain Syndrome is gone. Sometimes it will start to hurt when I’m stressing out but I can get it to go away soon after. I’m in control now!

I read the book The Mindbody Prescription by John Sarno, M.D. and my TMJ is completely gone. My Myofascial Pain Syndrome is still fighting me though. I don’t let it take control. As soon as I start feeling some twinges of pain I say these phrases: “There is no need for physical pain!” “No clenching, no tension, no pain!” Then I sit quietly and think about what is stressing me out to cause the pain to come back. I can’t believe it’s that easy but it really works.

So I’m not feeling as good as I was six months ago. I still kept getting the massages but now I’ve moved on to trigger point massage (more like really hard pushing, no rubbing) from a physical therapist. I wish insurance paid for it, I would go more often (it’s $50, the massage was $45). Though, I think the knots are fighting back and that’s part of the reason it hurts more. Also, I’m not as diligent with the tennis ball and I haven’t done yoga in awhile. slaps self I need to get with it.

I’m getting a massage once a week and it seems to be really helping, along with still using the tennis ball. I also started doing some really easy yoga.

I haven’t felt this good in a long time. Hopefully it lasts!

I’ve been suffering from chronic pain in my left side neck/shoulder/back area for over 2 years now. My doctor put me on pain pills, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety & anti-depressent meds. She also had me go to physical therapy and get steroid shots. It made the pain a little less but I was still having problems.

Then just this past October I came across a book that changed everything. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies

I massage my myofascial trigger points (contraction knots in my muscles) 5-6 times a day with a tennis ball against a wall and I am doing SOOOOOO much better. I can’t believe a tennis ball has done what all the other things couldn’t do, get rid of most of my pain. As long as I’m diligent and do it 5-6 times a day I am pain free almost every day. The only pills I’m taking now are the anti-inflammatory & anti-anxiety meds. I’m a little upset with my doctor for either not knowing about this, not believing in it or knowing about it but not telling me to keep me on the meds & steroid shots. Whatever…it doesn’t matter because I’m doing so much better now. According to the book “Results may be long in coming for those who suffer from fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or widespread myofascial pain syndrome, but even they can experience continuing progress and can have genuine hope of significant improvement in their condition.”

I recommend this book to everyone! I found it used at amazon.com.

The book states “There is growing evidence that most of our common aches and pains – and many other puzzling physical complaints – are actually caused by trigger points, or small contraction knots, in the muscles of the body. Pain clinic doctors skilled at detecting and treating trigger points have found that they’re the primary cause of pain roughly 75% of the time and are at least a part of virtually every pain problem”.