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"Pain buttons" in Fibromyalgia

Tuesday 11 June 2013

 

From About.com's Adrienne Dellwo:

 

Foot pain"Pain Buttons" in Fibromyalgia

By Brian Nearing
Published 9:11 pm, Friday, June 7, 2013

Do you have spots on your body that, when pushed, send pain shooting away from the area?

A reader called Tired in Texas left a Readers Respond comment about that, and I figured a lot of people would benefit from the answer. He wrote:

"Do any of you experience this? I can push certain spots in my feet and it is like a "pain button" that shoots electric shocks blasting out of my shoulder tip or the top of my skull. Does anyone have this besides me??? I appreciate your response and pray we all can find PEACE OF BODY AND MIND!" ~Tired in Texas

A couple of things come to mind (although if you haven't mentioned this to a doctor, you should!)

  1. It could be a nerve issue, in which case you may be able to get help from a neurologist (if whoever treats your fibromyalgia can do anything.)
  2. It could be a really common overlapping condition in us, called myofascial pain syndrome (MPS.)

In MPS, soft-tissue injuries don't heal properly, and that leaves you with trigger points - hard little nuggets of tissue that can cause referred pain in seemingly unrelated parts of the body. (These are not the same as fibromyalgia tender points!) I have MPS, which was diagnosed alongside fibromyalgia, but probably came on far earlier and may be a big part of what lead to the fibro. I've got a spot in my left thigh that, when pushed, sends out an awful ache and sometimes an electric jolt all up and down my leg, right into the arch of my foot.

I have other trigger points that give me headaches; cause nerve jolts, tingling, and numbness in my hands; cause abdominal pain that mimics appendicitis; etc. They're awful things.

A trigger point feels like a hard lump usually about the size of a pencil eraser. Messing with them HURTS! The pain can be at that point or radiating to somewhere else, or both. Exercising a muscle with a latent (inactive) trigger point can activate the point and cause intense pain that's not consistent with normal muscle overuse.

Learn more, including how MPS is treated:

Do you suspect you have some trigger points? Have you been diagnosed with MPS? What has helped? Leave your comments here!

Learn more or join the conversation!

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Photo © Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images

 

The above originally appeared here.

 


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