In some cases of fibromyalgia, the pain is so severe that people have to seek out alternative treatments in order to reduce or stop the pain that they are dealing with. One treatment that has been getting a lot of attention lately is trigger point injections. What is this treatment? What can it do to help reduce or eliminate all of the different health issues that happen with fibromyalgia? Let’s take a look here.
What Are Trigger Point Injections?
Trigger point injections, in short, are treatments that are injected into the areas in your muscles that cause you to feel the most pain and pressure from your fibromyalgia (or other health issues that are related to muscle pain and stiffness).
These injections actually play a significant role in helping a lot of people, because what they do is that they are put into those areas of the body and, as the injection goes into it, it allows the muscle to become loose and more flexible, thus reducing the amount of pain that you are feeling and giving you a larger range of motion as well. The medications used in the injection are either corticoids or anesthetics, both of which allow the body to relax.
There are two major types of trigger point injections that you may consider if you are trying to reduce the pain and stiffness that comes with fibromyalgia. One of the types of injections is directed right into the trigger points, allowing the medication to get in there and deal with it immediately. Of course, this can be really difficult, because it’s not necessarily easy to find where the trigger point is located.
It takes a bit of searching and massage in order to find the spots, but the time they take can end up making the treatment more effective than if they just arbitrarily injected the medicine into your body. The other type of trigger injection uses imaging in order to try and help the doctor find the trigger areas.
This type is definitely more accurate because the imaging shows the doctor exactly where the problem is, thus allowing them to put the medicine right into the affected area. While both methods work, the imaging has been shown to be more effective in the long run.
How Do Trigger Point Injections Affect Those With Fibromyalgia Symptoms?
Okay, so now that we have a better understanding of how trigger points work, it’s time for us to take a look at exactly what these treatments can do for those who are fending off fibromyalgia symptoms on a regular basis. As we mentioned in the introduction, these types of treatments have been a lot more popular in recent years, and doctors are starting to become more comfortable with suggesting trigger point injections as part of an overall treatment plan for their fibromyalgia patients.
First off, one of the immediate things that we notice is that the pain that fibromyalgia patients feel is greatly reduced. Stress, anxiety, and pain make our muscles tense up, and in fibromyalgia patients, it’s that much worse. So, with the use of trigger point injections, patients find that these symptoms are greatly reduced.
Finally, a way to allow their muscles to relax; and that’s something that doesn’t happen very often with those who are fending off fibromyalgia problems. The great part, as well, is that it’s immediate. Other forms of treatment may take awhile to set in, but with a trigger point injection, you start to feel at least some of the relief right away.
Trigger point injections can also play another important role in helping fibromyalgia patients, many of them dealing with the secondary issues that come with fibromyalgia. As you likely know, fatigue is a huge part of dealing with fibromyalgia, and there are lots of different ways that doctors will recommend to help reduce the fatigue. But trigger point injections can actually play a huge role in helping the fatigue to go away. Why? Mainly, because you aren’t feeling as much pain as you did. Carrying pain all of the time can make it hard for you to sleep, thus making you feel more tired. By dealing with the pain in such a quick manner, you can get back to a regular sleeping schedule, and you can feel a lot less fatigue than you would have otherwise. Stiffness and inflexibility are also positively affected by trigger point injections.
Last but not least, it’s important for us to note that, unlike other forms of therapy and treatment, trigger point injections actually pose one of the lowest threats of “lost time.” What do we mean by this? Some treatment, including surgery and physical therapy, can cause your body to feel sore for a couple days (but then, in the long run, allow for long-term recovery). Trigger point treatment doesn’t have that issue.
The amount of recovery time that a person with fibromyalgia has to deal with is a lot less than it would be for other types of treatments. Because of that, doctors are really starting to feel a lot more comfortable allowing trigger point injections as part of treatment. Put that together with the fact that you can get it done in a few minutes at your specialist’s office, and you’ve got a pretty quick and effective way to deal with that pain for the long term.
Trigger point injections can actually play a huge role in helping to reduce your pain and suffering that you are dealing with. What we’ve discussed here is just the beginning of how it can help you to cope with your current symptoms. If you are interested in the possible effects that this can have on your fibromyalgia and you want to learn more about it, you can discuss it with your specialist. They will be able to give you a better idea as to whether or not it’s the right way for you to go with your treatment plan.
Further reading:
Trigger Point Injection: http://www.medicinenet.com/trigger_point_injection/article.htm
Trigger Point Injection for Pain Management:
http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/guide/trigger-point-injection
Trigger Point Injection Therapy: http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_injections.html
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