mapping the pain

I've had back pain on and off for years. It usually centers around my left shoulder blade. Sometimes it works its way down along the left side of my spine. Other times it creeps up my neck. On really bad days it crawls up into my skull and gives me a killer headache. Normally this nonsense lasts for about two or three days. I plaster myself with sticky pas (medicated pain patches) and take a lot of naproxen, and the pain goes away. Unfortunately, a side effect of growing older seems to be that the life expectancy of my back/shoulder pain has increased from a few days to several weeks. Needless to say, this ridiculousness is growing nigh intolerable.



I'm really not a big fan of going to see doctors, and I've been trying to deal with this via stretching and relaxation, pas, and naproxen. However, at this point it seems I'm going to have to give in and see a doctor. Not at all looking forward to that, but it would be nice to not ache all the time. I'll keep you posted.