headaches with neck pain almost to much to tolerate

  who else gets their majority of pain in the neck, base of skull, shoulders and shoulder blades?

I have heat on them constantly and try to take Motrin only once a week if even that, I have really bad gut issues.

I do neck stretches too. nothing seems to help long term.

I am on klonopin with Zoloft for anxiety and am weaning off the Zoloft due to "POOP OUT" and believe that I am having inter dose w/d from the klonopin...been on it for over a year at 1mg.

friend of mine wants me to talk to Dr about switching to Valium and that it might help with the fibro pain too.

anyone have experience with this?

I get a lot of pain in those areas, too. Heat seems to help the most; sorry that is not helping you!    I would guess you have likely already tried warm showers, too?

I bought a 'bed buddy' type of shoulder wrap that I can heat in the microware. It's perfect for the neck/shoulder area! I found it at Dream Products (online or have a paper catalog). I believe it's called a 'total body therapy wrap' there. I've seen them in Miles Kimball catalogs, too ("therapeutic hot/cold wrap"). I think their prices are about the same--around $20.  This has helped me quite a bit.

Maybe you've already tried something like this?  If not, hope this helps a bit.  Feel better!

I've been getting bad neck pain accompanied by head-splitting migraines. I've been considering an alkaline diet for my fibro in general, now I'm even more convinced that it's worth a try. Lately, I've been spending several hours a day lying in a darkened room with an ice pack on my forehead and another under my neck... I don't think I'll try heat packs; I've been getting more and more migraines since the weather became hot around here, so I'm thinking that heat worsens it in my case.

I used to have this problem but took care of it myself. Feel at the base of your skull on each side of your spinal column. You probably will feel at least two knots...or at least very tender areas. Those are trigger points. Push on one as hard as you can stand it and then massage. Move to the second one and do the same thing. Repeat several times and you will feel that the knots are getting smaller. Take a break and repeat this later, too. You have to do this over several daysu til you have smoothed those muscles out and relaxed them.

Also feel around your shoulders and chest wall from the sternum to the shoulder and you probably will find more very tender places...trigger points! Press and massage that too.

It's good to massage your skull because we have muscles there and old possibly be causing you headaches. I also do neck exercises like trying to look over your shoulder as far as possible...for both sides. Before I did all of the above, I had to twist my body in my car seat to look at the "blind side" when changing lanes. Now, since I've loosened all those muscles, I can turn my head only. I smile every time I do that but, then again,I'm easily amused.

Much of our pain is referred pain so you need to know where the trigger points are located. I knew because of my neuromuscular massage therapist and also a great book called The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. I got mine on Amazon but it is sold in book stores, too.

Sherrine

Trigger points are a huge thing when it comes to headaches. If you can't get to them yourself a good chiropractor and a good message therapist that work together will help a lot.