Originally Posted by Aunt Bean

My pain is PD. I am fine all day unless my L-dopa level gets too low (from neglect or being too busy in the garden) then, the neck pain will start creeping in til I take a dose of fava plant tincture (that I make) . Then in minutes I am pain free again. First waking up in the morning is my pain time. I stretch and massage neck and shoulders in particular, but all over for 10 to 20 minutes before I am released from it's clutches. Then the channels are open it seems and my eyes start to water finally and I am free for usually the rest of the day. Seems like the stiffness causes pain because the muscles shorten and we have to stretch them out to their limit before they will relax. Hope this makes sense. It takes discipline to do all this stretching and the knowledge that it will be over soon is the only thing that gets me to the release point some days when it is so bad. We have to overcome and really work to keep the monkey off our backs. A cute trained pet monkey would be ok, but not this big one that clutches onto your shoulders and pulls you down/ and weighs you down/ and slows you down ...giving you pain and the feeling that you can't even think about getting out of bed. We have to fight that big , ugly monster off! Keep the faith....fight the good fight. We can overcome! So far I am winning