I'm so happy for you, Dave. I swear sometimes the challenge of finding an understanding doctor is almost worse than dealing with the pain. And it's probably good that he's working up through the meds. I'd be a little worried if you walked in and he automatically gave you the heavy duty stuff.

I wish I knew someone around here that did trigger point injections. I've often wondered if that would help. I even read some research on botox injections to end severe muscle spasms. I had one doc that gave me injections of saline with a little lidocaine in the back of my neck. Most doctors assume pain in that spot means migraine, but he knew what he was doing. He also did stretch and spray, which was really helpful. But he refused to give any kind of pain meds. Not that I asked or anything. Heck, I don't even like opiates because I have a weird reaction to them. Even in the hospital, I refused morphine and said I was allergic because codeine makes me feel so awful - sweaty, shaky, paranoid, weird.

Massage is also really helpful for me. I used to have a wonderful MT who did really deep work on my trigger points. She joked with me about how I grimace and reminding me to breathe. It is really painful, but that's what I need to force those knots to release. Then after the session, I get that weird floaty feeling. The MT explained it's because the massage gets your muscles to release all the toxins that were stuck while it was in spasm. She always made me sit down and drink a glass of water before she'd let me get up to walk around. Too bad she moved away. I haven't found anyone who comes close to her skill and I refuse to pay $80 hr for a nice rub down. I need serious work, ya know?