Skin Pain?

Hey there...as some of you know from my previous posts, I'm on the verge of being diagnosed with Fibro (or CFS...or both) but my Dr. is 90% sure I have fibro - trigger points sent me through the roof.

In any case, I have a question for you long-timers....or short timers for that matter.  Do you ever get what feels like skin pain? i have a feeling its nerve pain, but (even though I get burning) this isn't a burning feeling.  It feels like bruising.  If I rub my hand over my chest, or neck, arms, stomach, etc. somtimes (not always) my skin will feel soooo sore.  Is this a symptom that any of you have?  I know I wrote a post about this (times 200) happening when I used a ****su massage chair...but this is from nothing....just wake up this way sometimes.

I'd  appreciate any answers you may have...thanks in advance :)

Thanks Chutz :) I have had this for a really long time, although it was VERY sporadic - actually had this symptom before the rest of the back/shoulder/neck/arm etc. pain spread...but lately its just been much more frequent.  I like you're story about knocking folks out over it! After the massager I had my dad look at it and the minute he even brushed my back I jumped and slapped him! Haha - he said he didn't even think he touched me but yet it was that bad.  I'm getting a ton of bruising lately too so when I wake up with this feeling I can never tell if theres an actual bruise or its just the skin thing.

Usually it's a really wide space, but like today it's just around my shoulder blade (I'm having trouble wearing clothes honestly, but I cant really come to work without any so it's grin and bear it time), and so I was sure this one was a bruise, but nothing.  So weird these new things that have come about in the last 3-6 months.

But you're right - sometimes you just have to laugh - it could ALWAYS be worse and I'm still lucky to be able to do what I can and that this isn't damaging too much - just causing the pain.  The pain doc I saw Friday who told me "there's nothing he could do for me" told me to just keep working and do whatever I could for as long as I can (which I plan to do because I busted my booty to finish grad school and I want to do something good with it!) but he said its the best thing for a lot of his patients, because although things like sitting all day or answering phones or staring at a computer can cause pain for a lot of it (the sitting is not so great for me), it keeps our mind off of the pain a lot more than his patients who can't work anymore.

I love your rambling and your positive responses :) Thanks again!

I've had it too.  Not as wide spread but I'll get it on my arms, chest, back, legs- knees especially.  I typically get it around my joints.  It has not been told to me by a doctor if this is a symptom of fibro, but I do know what you mean.  Its uncomfortable and not a lot can be done (that I know of) to relieve it.  Since I've had fibro since I was about 15 I just deal with it and push through the pain.  You can try to baby the little ones, but the whole back I don't know.

Thank you all for the great responses. I actually was diagnosed with Fibro as well as CFIDS so I guess this will all just take some getting used to. It really is odd because sometimes it's all over one place, and sometimes (like yesterday) it's more localized to one area like my shoulder blade. I can never remember if I've actually run into something when it's more localized (as I'm bruising like crazy lately so my doctor is keeping an eye on that). For me it seems to happen in my sleep and I wake up with all of this skin pain (as well as the other pain). My muscle relaxers/low dose valium and pain meds really help the widespread fibro pain, but don't do much for this skin pain (especially if it's say, on my back and I'm sitting against a chair all day). I'm glad I finally have an answer to this though...it really always bothered me way before everything else started getting worse!

Thanks again for everyones responses....and Lost - it is definitely like banging your head against a wall. It's hard because I don't want people treating me like they'll break me either. I just told my boyfriend last night - just hug me...touch me whatever and I'll tell you if it hurts...but he thinks I won't neccessarily tell him. I said TRUST me...I will tell you, haha. I just don't want people (especially my boyfriend) pulling away from me right now while I'm going through this either....