When I had nerve pain it was pretty consistent and wouldn't go away. It stayed in one spot, so it was predictable. But I'm getting muscle spasms and the pain's accompanying them. It goes away if I don't have the spasms and it's just like a normal muscle spasm--starts out where you know you're getting one and builds in a wave. That's when the pain really starts. It's also a bone-deep pain sometimes where it feels like the muscles want to rip away from the bone.

I had been on neurontin before but it didn't help and by then I was up to almost 900 mg a day. The max I've ever been on neurontin was 2400 mg a day. That was back in 2003. My neuro and I discontinued the neurontin as it wasn't helping with any of my symptoms--not decreasing anything at all even slightly. The neuro definitely feels that the pain's related to spasticity rather than nerve pain.

So I didn't really answer your question. My guess would be that no, you really can't always tell if it's nerve or spasticity pain. I suppose you have to rule out one or the other by trying different drugs.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

(Love your tag line, Brain!)