Thanks Stiffnecked, That's the way I'm taking the valium too, although my doc said that taking a 1/2 tablet more often would not lead to addiction problems, and might help relax the tight shoulder/neck muscles more. The neurologist just Rx'd a muscle relaxant, so that's another tool in my back pocket. I just kind of alternate between the two and doing relaxation exercises. It's hard to do them though with that darn ringing...very distracting. Is your tinnitus very loud? With background noise on, mine sounds like a little ringing in the right ear and a soft two toned tone in the left ear. When background sound is off, it sounds more like a roar. A masker helps at nite, but it gets tiring listening to that too after awhile, and sometimes it can actually amplify the ringing in the right ear. Actually I can deal with the back and neck pain a lot better than the ringing.
This started after doing a weight lifting type of physical therapy which was helping immensely. I had a horrible headache and my upper back wouldn't stop spasming (still have a bit after 2 epidurals). So it's pretty disappointing that after a year of maintenance weight training, this started up now. Also had a bad case of bronchitis in Nov/Dec which could've led to some additional neck and back strain. How the heck do you cope with the ringing? I can distract myself for awhile, but it's so loud it's hard to ignore. It seemed to get worse after starting Celexa for the anxiety a couple of weeks ago, so I've reduced the dose to see what happens. The Celexa does help with that, so I don't want to totally stop it. Have my last epidural next week, so hopefully things will settle down more.
Suz