I wouldn't call fibro a walk in the park or anything...it's pretty serious.

I think the real question will be how do you start sorting out the source of the spasms. Did he test oyu for the tenderpoints? Did you have them? I have TOS and do not have the tenderpoints. Like TOS, I think fibro is a diagnosis of exclusion. so I would hope your doctor has some reasons for having dx'ed you with that without diagnostic testing.

As Diane always used to say...muscle spasms happen as a result of nerve aggravation...the muscle locks up to protect the nerve which is feeling attacked or aggravated in some way. One way or another you'll have to locate and alleviate some of that aggravation to reduce the muscle spasms adn thereby reduce the pain and symptoms you are experiencing.

I did have pulse abnormalities in the provacative arm positions before surgery. Post surgery my pulses are normal but I still have symptoms. pulse abnormality only shows arterial involvement in your TOS. You can have neuro entrapment and symptoms without pulse loss, even though they frequently appear together.

I hope you have read some of Tam's posts re: lyrica. A lot of people on this board have had good pain relief but lots of bad side effects. You won't know for sure until you try it how it will affect you, but be on the lookout. I haven't been on it myself.

Anti depressents are also often used for pain, so if you are really uncomfortable with lyrica after you read more about it here, maybe talk to your doc about one of them. I take effexor, but there are a host of others out there like cymbalta, lexapro, wellbutrin, etc etc.

there are probably many problems that can cause the symptoms you are experiencing...tos and fibro are pretty difficult to dx absolutely, but are two reasonable possibilities. Your description of treatment doesn't seem so terribly different from something you might do for TOS. Just don't let the PT make you do anything that hurts (especially strenghthening exercises), and give it a few weeks. Also, make sure you get a PT who is used to dealing with people in pain. If you are not making progress, you can start to talk to the doctor about other options.



johanna