i recently saw my neuro for spasms in my shoulder blades or at least what felt like one anyway he said my pain was more like fibro pain and that muscle relaxors wouldnt really help and he suggested massage therapy.

said my muscles felt ropey??? whatever it is it hurts. how many others have been told this and if so exactly HOW do they treat fibro.....other then massage?

ropey- that was a term they used for my tight muscles too.
I have a chronic repetitive motion/injury strain/thoracic outlet syndrome type of thing.
There's also a Chronic myofascial pain that kind of overlaps with some symptoms of FMS.

Here's the link to our Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Forum
Fibromyalgia syndrome is a widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue disorder which generally occurs in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons – the soft fibrous tissues in the body. This forum is for fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFS/CFIDS).
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum12.html
Useful Sites: Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread304.html

i've had a FM dx since the 80's. i've had con't and generalized muscle pain with spasms for many yrs. there are meds that can help. i swear by my wkly deep tissue massage. heat also works for me.

you might consider seeing a rheumatologist. they can offer you a lot of care.

I too have MS and Fibro in fact the spasms are so bad at times I can't tell why I am in pain... the doc has described mine as knotty!

knotty would do to decribe how i feel. oddly enough i too was dxed with thoracic outlet syndrome as well while they were going through the diagnotics of finding the ms. i saw a rheumy in the beginning and he mentioned possible lupus as well as ms

i KNOW what works best for me and that would be the deep massages to work out some of theses knots. i have an rx from my pcp and 2 neuros and yet insurance says they wont pay? oh yes, i can and will appeal however in the meantime i am in PAIN and not soma,vicotin or flexarell gives me any relief.

where to go from here

Wish I could give you some great advice however nothing is working for me either.

If it is small sore knots it could be trigger points , that is something you can 'test' on yourself.

here's some info links -
Triggerpoints and referred pain and stretching:

this one has a nice chart for upper body-
http://www.pressurepointer.com/pain_reference_chart.htm
http://www.triggerpointbook.com/index.html
http://triggerpoints.net/_sgg/m1m1_1.htm
http://altmedicine.about.com/library...ressure+points
http://www.drlowe.com./triggerpoint.htm
http://www.bodymindresources.com/car...horaciclab.htm

trigger points are different from the tender points of FMS.
http://www.sover.net/~devstar/define.htm

Just found your question (haven't been around much due to the PAIN), but yes, I've been diagnosed with both MS -- now secondary progressive -- and fibro. I belive from all I've read that I probably have Central Pain Syndrome also. As far as the fibro goes, I've had it for around 14 years and it's a literal "pain in the butt". Tried alot of different narcotics, injections, etc., but nothing helped the pain, just ended up feeling like a zombie all the time. I just take two Aleve every morning to take the edge off.

Now they have Lyrica for fibro, but my pcp wouldn't give it to me. He said it has some "nasty" side effects. Think swelling of the extremities is one of them and I all ready have lymphedema from immobility. Guess we're just lucky having two major problems -- NOT!!!!!

Take care....