Hello. My name is Virginia and this is my fibro story. Maybe I can help someone else by sharing this information. This is not Rocket Science! It is just a great technique that is helping my fibromyalgia condition.

I am 43 years of age. I have been very active and fit all my life. A year and half ago, I started to have persistent low back pain.  Three months later my neck froze up and I was completely crippled for two weeks, with the resulting inability to turn my head.  Slowly, I developed sciatica symptoms in both legs.  There were no bulging discs or nerve compressions showing on MRI.

Then mysteriously, my neck pain sent numbness down my arms, to my hands. I could not sleep. I could not sit for long. Walking worsened my leg pain. My neck was constantly stiff and my arms became numb at night.

Months of therapies and specialists came next. MRIs and scans revealed joint damage but nothing serious. Basically, I spent thousand of dollars, saw chiropractors, osteopaths and tried everything. I was told that I would have to live with chronic widespread pain.

I was sent home with pain and no hope. Depression was my companion. I gave up on life for a while, and it was really only because of my family that I did not end it all.  I decided I could not do that to them.

I kept pursuing therapies, treatment and herbal treatment, but to no avail.  Slowly my condition was worsening.  Walking was becoming more painful.  I was taking many different drugs to cope with my condition - Panadol, Amitriptylene, Vioxx, but the toll was starting to show.  I was becoming thinner and my digestive system was hardly coping.

Then through my pursuit for release, I came upon an internet website for chronic pain sufferers and read someone’s story in which they had very similar symptoms. That very helpful and caring person completely cured himself in six months of intense, self therapy using Mr. Clair Davies’ book called; “The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook”.

I immediately ordered the book through Amazon.com. I could not find it in New Zealand. It arrived in my letter box in one week. This was middle of August 2003.

Now, nearly two months later, I have lessened my pain by about sixty percent.  I have almost done with drugs. I am eating, sleeping, sitting, driving and living again !!

I do very slow jogging in the morning and many exercises, stretching and the trigger point therapy. And I can truthfully say that I am slowly recovering. I am still plagued with depression, anxiety and some pain. However, I am so grateful for life, that I would love to share this wonderful therapy with anyone who is experiencing the agony I went through. I am at the stage that I am pushing myself too much now. Some days I am still very sore, but it is still one hundred percent better then what I used to be.

A word about Trigger Points

Trigger points, according to Mr Clair Davies, are “highly irritable, localised spots of exquisite tenderness in a nodule formation, in a palpable taut band of muscle tissue".  If not “released,” they install themselves in the muscles, creating pain, soreness, and choking normal circulation.  They result in abnormal sensations such as numbness, tingling, burning. By impairing circulation, they can produce swelling of limbs.

Movement requires some muscles to contract or to lengthen. Trigger points make a muscle reluctant to do either. Stretching, or contracting, irritates trigger points making you less and less inclined to move. If your neck hurts, you will stop turning your head.  If your back hurts, you stop trying to lean over. This is called 'splinting' or 'guarding' - a natural protective response that keeps the muscle from suffering further abuse.

Splinting calls other muscles into action to take up the burden. Very soon they also develop trigger points and entire limbs or one side of the body can become involved.  The muscles stiffen and your range of motion becomes progressively limited. Your reluctance to move, turns into an inability to move... I was slowly coming to this point.

The therapy needs to be followed with the book. It is a self treatment therapy.
I have a tennis ball and self massage all my trigger points, eight times a day.

The massage can be quite painful, as you are massaging your very sore spots. But this is the only way, by deep, hard massage the “knots” are broken down and circulation is restored. Couple this with stretching, specifically postural stretching.  I had an osteopath give me specific stretching to re-establish balance. This is not an over-night treatment. I have been doing this without stopping for two months and I have still quite a way to go.  Exercises and my active life are triggering new pain or irritating old spots.  However, I do not need a doctor or therapy to do this. I can do it by myself at anytime.  I do it on the floor, at the office against the wall, sitting on a chair - basically anywhere.

I know it is going to take a while. I am not pain-free yet, but I feel that I am starting to live again.  It may be a long battle, but at least I have found something that is really helping my condition.

I am not a doctor but I will be happy to help anyone if you have some questions, as I have been lucky enough to find out about this therapy and to be able to put it into successful practice.

This is my story - so far. Maybe I can help you, by sharing this information. As I said at the beginning of my story, this is not Rocket science.  It is just a great technique that is helping my condition.

Sincerely

Virginia
Rodney Fibromyalgia Support Group
For Pain Management website   Click here
You may email   Virginia
Please exercise sensitivity and treat Virginia as you wish to be treated yourself - thank you, Ed

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