If a contest were held to fritter away at one missed diagnosis after another, myofascial pain diagnosis and treatment is right up there. With a hunch back, or kyphosis, being a hallmark of the CF stereotype, so much back pain has to do with the battle up close to the spine, presumably inflaming the nerves around and passing through openings in the vertebrae. When the nerves are pinched or impinged by the restrictive opening through the bone, it becomes its own source of pain. Your lungs are right against your shoulders and neck, we get nailed from the inside as much as postural stress.
I thoroughly embrace the method used to depolarize trigger points with the injections you describe. There is legitimate biochemistry going on behind it all. One point of departure was my doctor using a rounded tool about the diameter of a dime to press on the trigger point after the injection had taken hold. It works, and depending on how fragile you are, it hurts for a second or it is intolerable and can’t be part of the therapy.
Please don’t take offense at the obvious, referred pain from pancreatitis, gallbladder attacks, and bile duct obstructions all have intra-scapular spots where the back hurts like you’ve been panning gold with a wash tub. So much of our back pain, and so far every CFer has or has had it, can thank embryology.
The reason a person’s left shoulder and arm might hurt, signaling a potential heart attack, has to do with embryonic development. Embryology studies the time when embryo cells begin to migrate into areas that will be the urogenital organs, digestive organs, lungs and heart all forming more or less from the spine forward. The heart forms from the spine which forms the left shoulder and arm. One of two places will show referred pain with angina, the left shoulder and arm, or sometimes the middle of the back as was the case with my mother’s heart attack.
As you might suspect, the upper region of the gut including the liver and biliary system, pancreas and the stomach originate in the region that eventually becomes the upper back. Some years back I was having a celiac block performed when I got this powerful nerve shock up my back, right to that intra-scapular spot. That isn’t proof of the idea, scientists made these discoveries some time ago.
Having areas that will spasm, like between and about the shoulder blades, depolarized is a good idea along with other areas of myofascial pain you have. It was some of the best money I have spent for the results. There are a wide number of trigger points associated with the gut that show as myofascial pain. Any of these points will benefit from depolarizing, but they most likely will return. High fevers or repeated fevers along with CFRD cause neuropathy or sometimes fibromyalgia. Lyrica, an NSAID type drug has proven effective if this is beyond myofascial pain.
The same places your doctor injects saline and numbing agent are the trigger points used by an acupuncturist. I tried several, including one in Taiwan for six months, and though I couldn’t get lasting relief, I firmly believe in it. Just keep in mind, they are performing neurological adjustments, they don’t cure cancer.
LL
The pain went away pretty quickly. Yay.