Question
Hi I am 19 years old. I have been having a muscle spasm in my upper left back for months now. My doctor took X-rays and saw nothing wrong with my bones. It feels like a rock is under my skin. It is so painful. For a while I swore it was a bone sticking out. She started giving me trigger point injections and they didn't help. Now she has me on very strong muscle relaxers and they don't help either. The only thing that helped with the pain were hydrocodones from when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I don't want to manage my pain I just want the spasm gone. She has me staring physical therapy. I am a young mother that works and goes to school so I am under a lot of stress so I thought maybe that had something to do with it. I don't start physical therapy for another couple weeks. So I am asking if there are any other kind of treatments that you would consider for me?

Answer
Hello Bree'a,

Sorry to hear about your pain.  I do think there is a lot that you can do about it. And you can probably do it yourself, for free.

Since you didn't mention any particular accident or single trauma event that caused your pain, it would most likely be caused by how you use your body.  As a a "young mother that works and goes to school" I would imagine all the lifting and holding of your child(s) and sitting in front of the computer for hours could be playing a large role in your pain.

Before I tell you and then show you what to do, it's important that you understand a few things. First, it's great that the doctor told you that "there's nothing wrong" because that rules out a lot of possibilities. But rest assured there are a whole lot of things that are "not right." And if we fix all the things that aren't right, your pain will most likely go away.

It also helps to understand that when it comes to chronic structural pain in a body, most of the time, "WHERE it hurts, is not WHY it hurts."
All the muscles in your body are like the rigging (ropes) on a big old sailboat.  Often times it is the bigger stronger muscle groups that get tight and pull on the smaller muscles groups, or muscle attachments where we feel the pain.  Once you understand that other tight muscle groups could be yanking on the muscles and nerves where you feel the pain, you'll know why you have to widen your search for the cause of your pain.

I explain all of this and provide follow along videos (all for free) at my website: http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/
On the menu bar on the left of the page you'll see links for every joint in you body that I've made do-it-yourself pain relief videos for.
I'm not exactly sure where your pain is, but it sounds like your best bet would be the Upper Back Pain page:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/upper-back-pain-relief.html
BUT,but, but from your description (and assuming you're on a computer a lot with the keyboard that is positioned to high and too far away卥eyboards should be low an close, so you're shoulder girdle is completely relaxed).  I think you may also want to try the "neck and shoulder pain" page, especially step 3A:
http://www.do-it-yourself-joint-pain-relief.com/neck-and-shoulder-pain-relief.ht    Step 3A has you release your teres muscles, and your subscapularis muscles.  These just might be VERY important, so don't skip step 3A.
Picture of your subscapularis muscle here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscapularis_muscle
Picture of your trees major and minor here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teres_major_muscle

You can most likely fix this yourself.  Just take your time and follow along with the videos.

I do hope this helps.

Gary