Hi chronic pain sufferes:  Hope all are doing as well as possible.  I don't know hether to start from the top or the bottom.   From the Bottom:   My all the supportive structures in my feet are crushed because my mother thought it as too expensive to buy the corrective shoes.  Alays aching pain unless I wear my Frankenstein shoes.  I used to have hat as simply called sciatic pain.  It has no evolved into something different.  There is burning in my left ankle and have some arthritis there.  The pain previously came don the back of my calves but now there is burning up the length of the space on the front of my tibia and fibula.  The frone of my knee caps are tender and the back of my knees burn like fire.  There is some deep pain up the back of my left leg.  The pain seems to be coming from deep inside the left side of my tail bone and goes up over the top of my

 hip bone and ends with the feeling of knots of muscle and tendons of my groin.  The front of my left thigh also has very painful spots that I can't resist rubbing to ease the pain.

Then there is the strap muscle that goes from the bottom of my spine to the base of my skull.  This muscle is more often than not very stiff and sore.  At the point that the flat muscle comes in contact with the bottom of my rib cage the sore, burning pain swallows at least the bottom half of my rib cage.  Sometimes even my sternum is tender.  On the back side again where the strap muscle attaches or connects with the bottom of my shoulder blade there is a permanent knot of muscle that I cannot relax.  Prior treatments of acupuncture and ablation have helped this area.   The strap muscle continues to travel up to the base of the skull and feels sore and stiff and achey.  I know there is some arthritis there.  From the base of my skull to the top of my head there are occasional fire-hot shooting pains.

Although both arms are affected, it is truly much worse on the left.  My hands get numb, tingling feelings in them.  They are not numb or tingley all at the same time.  Sometimes it's just the left thumb & forefinger or it could be the rest of the left fingers.  My left arm aches and burnsand feels electrical shocks in certain spots especially at the elbows and wrists, and thumb.  My neck muscles in front are also tender and sore.  What is it?  How many different conditions do I have?  What are the most successful treatments?  Acupuncture works for a while,  ablation orks for a while.  The trouble with these procedures is that you can only do a small area at a time.  And there's always a waiting list for the next procedure.

The medications I take are very helpful,  especially the Nortriptyline.  I also take Norco and use fentanyl patches for the pain.  Taking medications for these problems causes shame and feelings of worthlessness because many people, including my family, refuse to believe I have any problems, that I am exagerating and could get up and do whatever I wanted to do if I wasn't just so lazy.  My husband has never treated me this way, just the rest of the family.   Logically I know that I am too old to worry about what they think but it still devastates me.