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My physiotherapist gave me some of those rubber bands, they are good for strengthening your upper back muscles, I have a problem with my back, the ribs pop out all the time and I have to twist and stretch to put them back in place, that causes alot of inflamation and pain, but tightening them helps to keep them in place, and practicing good posture if you tend to be crunched from the pain, use warm bean bags and muscle relaxers to unwind then do your exercises, gently, cause the meds can give you a false liberty in movement, then you will hurt afterwards. I do understand how you feel though, that pain causes spasms in my diaphram and makes it hard to breath. Start slow. Hope you are well soon.

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I go to physical therapy and one I do is when I'm lying on my back I put my arms and hands up and then slowly let them fall to each side until I can feel alittle bit of stretching. and repeat that 10-20 times however many I can stand.....you will feel it the next day but the more you do it the easier it becomes. Good luck

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One thing that has really helped me alot is extra Magnesium and Calcium. 1000mg of each. I use Cal/Mag from Biometics and then Natural Calm from the Vitamin Shoppe. I was amazed at how much extra Magnesium helped. I had to work up to the full amount slowly over a month.

I would also recommend physical therapy. I am going right now for the same thing. He works with the muscles and does adjustments then I work with a trainer for exercises tailored to my needs. One set of exercises I really like is lying face down on an exercise ball. The ball supports my stomach and hips and in turn my back, which is really helpful because I have chronic lower back pain.. You raise your arms up in 4 different directions. They call them I's, Y's, T's, & W's. So you do one set with raising them straight up, thumbs pointing up. Then raise them up pointing slightly out (like you are in the shape of a Y). Then straight out to the sides, palms down (T's). Then back, palms down (W's). 15 reps in each position. No weights are needed. You will definitely feel it without weights.

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I had that problem. I bought a firmer pillow than I'm used to that did the whole - keep your spine straight - thing. It took a few days of pain to get used too as I adjusted and I haven't had a shoulder spasm since. Sometimes small fixes can help!

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On top of my fibromyalgia, I also have severe scoliosis. My entire back is twisted and shaped like an "S", I also have metal rods attached to my spine from T2-L4. About 6 years ago I had a sudden onset of pain and burning in the area between my shoulder blades on my back, as well as other acute symptoms. At the time I attributed it to long-term affects of having the rods in my back. But from reading everyone's posts, I can see it's probably from my fibromyalgia. There's no permanent fix, but I've found the only way to get any temporary relief is to go to a chiropractor (preferably one who is also an Applied Kinesiologist), to have a tempurpedic bed and a tempurpedic cervical pillow, and to be on Gabapentin. The Gabapentin prescription is the #1 thing to take, I've found, to tone down the burning and help me fall asleep at night and wake up earlier.

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Try the Flector pain patch. It only works where it is applied and does not get into your bloodstream. It is worn 12 hours on and 12 off. I think they work extremely well. Take care.

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