Hi all, I have four small hard lumps which I think is knotted muscle in the top of my legs, Does anyone else have anything

[Furry]

Similar? They are very sore to touch and have sharp shooting pains radiating from them. They are about the size of an acorn, and feel like they have taken root! X x

[hamble99b]

hi furry,

I get knotted muscles in my calves, but I always think it advisable to get new symptoms checked out.

[TheAuthor]

Hi Furry

I sincerely hope that you are feeling as well as you possibly can be today? This may well be Fibro related, and I have pasted you a link below that talks about lumps with Fibro:

chronicfatigue.about.com/b/...

As always however, I always recommend that members should discuss such issues with their GP or Medical Consultant as we are not doctors.

I genuinely hope that you can find some resolution and relief to this issue.

All my hopes and dreams for you

Ken

[Furry in reply to TheAuthor]

Thanks for the info ken. Have a good day. Kath

[Mdaisy]

Hello Furry,

Please do search for 'lumps' in the site as there are many posts about it so you can read the replies to other members experiencing the same problems. You've been given good information so far and once you've seen a Doctor you'll be able to find out if they are the same as other people here. As people have said it is best to get any lump looked at by a health professional as you know.

Here's just one of the posts;

healthunlocked.com/fibroact...

Hope this helps

Best Wishes

Emma

FibroAction Administrator

[Furry in reply to Mdaisy]

Thanks Emma, will see GP x x

[Jjudith]

Oh Oh, the dreaded trigger points. 70% of people with fibro also have myofascial pain syndrome. Your muscle develops a knot, called a trigger point (not to be confused with tender points, quite different) the muscle shortens and the myofascia distorts and causes pain. The pain might be felt quite a way from the trigger point itself. The fact that when you touch the spot the pain shoots along the muscle is a sign that they are in fact trigger points. You might feel that when you press the spot it is horribly painful but also in a funny way pleasureable, like squeezing a boil. I deal with mine by using a book by Clare Davies called Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. It tells you how to find the trigger points, and how to massage them away. I use a tennis ball and also something called a theracane. It is painful but well worth it as you have so much less pain afterwards. You can go to a trigger point massage therapist (a sports masseuse usually does trigger points) or someone who does myofascial release, but then you have to wait for the appointment and it costs, whereas if you do it to yourself you can do it immediately and it is free. Hope this helps. Love and hugs. xxxx

[Jjudith in reply to Jjudith]

ps they can be any size, from the size of a pinhead upwards.

[Furry in reply to Jjudith]

Thanks for the info, really helpful. Take care kath x x

[TheAuthor in reply to Jjudith]

Thanks Jjudith

That is extremely useful information,, I shall give this a try myself.

Take care

Ken

[budgiefriend]

Thanks for that info, Jjudith. I have known for awhile that massage therapy helped me a lot when I was first diagnosed and had access to money for private practitioners. And I had discovered on my own that sometimes I could relieve specific pain by massaging myself. But I hope to get better relief through more specific info and tools. Looking on Amazon, I found quite a lot.

[Jjudith in reply to budgiefriend]

I am amazed that they don't offer trigger point therapy in pain clinics, we are so behind the times in non-medical pain relief, and it is so much better than taking medicines because it doesn't have side effects and it deals with the cause as well. I know it works for me, I hope it works for you.

[sue32]

Could they be your lymph glands?? XX

[Jjudith in reply to sue32]

Enlarged lymph glands don't usually have referred pain when you press them, but if anyone is in doubt they can check with their GP.

[budgiefriend]

When I had money for private complementary medical care, I found that Thai massage, although incredibly painful, really gave me results. The same for the Chinese acupuncture I got from a very skillful Chinese doctor (I know that not all Chinese acupuncturists do a great job, but then again, I've had one provided by the NHS who was horrible.) Now that I must depend only on what I can get through the NHS, I have been badly let down by being told that CBT, pain meds, antidepressants, and graded exercise therapy, are what I need. As I believe I have CFS and am severely affected by it, bed bound most of the time, I am not going to subject myself to graded exercise therapy which experts in ME have warned against for CFS/ME sufferers, and which has no proven success rate in most cases, from the statistics I've read. I'm at the point now where my doctor will not even consider that I may have CFS/ME. It's as if those things don't exist. It's really frustrating, isn't it? So many of us suffering, and so few really clued-in doctors and so few effective therapies offered by the NHS. I feel sad that we are left with pain meds when there are other ways, if only they would spend the money where it will do the most good. How badly we need more education for professionals and the general public!

[TheAuthor in reply to budgiefriend]

Hi budgiefriend

I sincerely hope that you are as pain free as possible today? I agree with you that more resources should be spent on research and treatments for us! I went private for acupuncture and massage, but alas it made me feel worse. However, I did take one good thing away from the experience and that is the Chiropractor told me I had a slight mis-allignment of the spine.

I have read posts from other members who said both acupuncture and massage suited them really well.

Take care

Ken

[budgiefriend in reply to TheAuthor]

Hi, Ken,

I hope you will also have as little pain today as possible. I appreciate your faithful and kind attention to the posts here. Although I don't write often, I read most of them nearly every day. All of you volunteers and moderators are so good. It's a blessing to have you!

I'm sorry that massage and acupuncture made you feel worse. I was fortunate within a few months after my diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, to find an excellent Chinese doctor who had been brought here by a British therapist to work with her in her private practice. I think she had studied with him in China. Anyway, he was very highly skilled and educated. I believe he had taught in a Chinese university. Some are not so good, and with there not being any way to know exactly what a person's qualifications are in some of the alternative therapy places, it can be tricky to know. But I saw him twice a week for several months and he did both acupuncture and Thai massage which is a very deep and aggressive form. I would not necessarily recommend it to others, but it worked for me. I am able to tolerate quite a lot if I think it's going to do some good, and I had confidence in him. In the beginning I was literally screaming in pain as he worked on my muscles, but I grew gradually more fit and regained most of my functionality. I was better for a few years, until a fall and broken arm triggered the Fibro again.

I know that most of us would cringe at the idea of being touched by anybody when we are in pain. However, I think most massage therapists probably see enough Fibromyalgia patients to know how to do the right kind of gentle massage.

I had 8 sessions with a NHS acupuncturist at the local surgery and she was absolutely rubbish. This did not help me at all. A good acupuncturist will not hurt you when they put the needles in. It does hurt a little bit if they do the Chinese way where they tap the needle and make it vibrate before leaving it in for awhile. Later, the pain clinic at my local hospital sent me to the hospital acupuncturist (NHS) and he was also highly qualified and a consultant in the clinic. He might have helped more if I could have gone more frequently over the course of several months.

A practitioner of these therapies can be good, bad, or indifferent, just like we are seeing with our GPs and consultants. Too bad, but that's human imperfection, I guess. I sure wish I could afford it privately now. There is acupuncture available on the NHS, but what I found was that you only get a few sessions and they are spaced out every two weeks. For acupuncture to work, it seems to me you really need a highly trained and sensitive person and treatments probably at least twice a week for a period of several months. I honestly think that if the NHS spent the money on massage therapists, it would be better allocated, as a massage can really make a difference on a one off basis, or at least that has been my experience with a gentle massage. I have heard some people say that hydrotherapy helped them, too.

I am going to try one of these trigger point therapy books that jJudith recommended. I have a big, rather heavy massage machine which is a Scholl brand, that I bought in 2002. It does help at times when I feel spasms or hard knots in my muscles. Again, I would not recommend it to everyone, but it has helped me get to sleep sometimes, although I tended to overdo it and wake up feeling like I'd been ambushed by an angry boxer the night before. If I am more careful, it does quite a good job, but doesn't really last too long. I think to get the most from massage, you need to be relaxed and have someone else do it while you are allowing your muscles to be as receptive as possible.