Hi, Terry!
I have to admit, it sure does sound like Fibro to me, too! Of course
I can't diagnose anything (as you know), but yes, there are several other things that can cause lesions, especially if they are unimpressive like you mention, to appear on MRIs - headaches being one of them. I don't believe that Fibro
itself will cause brain lesions, though. At least it is not known to. I have
no lesions in my brain (don't know about my spine), but all of my other symptoms mimic MS to a "t" with quite a few extra symptoms thrown on top, and cause me
excrutiating pain sometimes (like these last couple of days. The weather, especially as it turns cold or a weather front comes in, can literally knock me down with pain, headaches, stiffness, etc. etc., even in spite of the meds I take that work wonders for me. I just suffer through those times now as I know they WILL pass.) Without the combo of meds I'm on, I would NEVER be able to walk. That's the truth. I have severe Fibro. And I have to keep my muscles stretched, etc. It's on ongoing battle.
And yes, it's also possible to have both Fibro and MS. And you can have Fibro without the "traditional" sensitive pressure or tender points (Vanderbilt explained all that to me, and I have to say I do agree), as I have specific tender pressure points all over my body in many places - and they also tend to come and go. Some days much worse than others.
Myofascial pain (i.e.
trigger points, which are somewhat different than the pressure or "tender" points of Fibro)..........that's a weird one, isn't it? When they did the EMG test on me to rule out ALS, I would laugh at times, because sometimes when they put the needle in the muscle in one spot, I'd feel the actual pain or the muscle would twitch in another spot! I had my back rubbed just last night on a particularly small painful trigger point, and I could feel it in my ankle!
I suffer from both - lucky me. Well, I guess the statistics are that about 72% with Fibro also have myofascial pain syndrome with it.
Water therapy should help you a lot. The physical therapy I took for a while helped me a lot, also. The thing with Fibro, though, is that you can't do TOO much, either. Watch out for that! If you do too much one day (and you won't even
know you've overdone it), then you'll feel it about two days later! It's a delayed reaction with Fibro. Then you have to rest completely for a couple of days (or more) to recover. There is a fine balance you have to try to keep. And that can really only be learned by trial and error.
Surprisingly, what helped me regain
my balance was Keppra. I was constantly bumping into walls and walking like I was drunk half the time, BUT I wasn't "dizzy". Just off-balance. Since Keppra (which I took first alone, so I know that's what corrected that for me), I haven't had any balance problems. At least none that I'm aware of.
Fibro is no picnic in the park, I can tell ya. And in some cases, even though it doesn't cause ACTUAL physical deterioration, it can cause disability unless you get relief, because the pain and stiffness, etc., can get to where it is so bad that you literally cannot walk or function well at all! Not to mention the balance problems, "Fibro fog", i.e. cognitive problems, etc.
BUT............with hard work, Fibro
can be controlled, unlike MS which has the unfortunate tradition of eventually and continually causing more and more permanent damage.
You're not long-winded. Look at ME!
De
P.S. I don't know much about Lyrica. But if it is a traditional pain medication of some sort, it won't help with Fibro pain. The best combo they have found that works for Fibro and its associated pain, etc. is an AED (for neurological pain) and a low dose anti-depressant - usually a tri-cyclic because of their effective properties for relieving neuro pain. (It has nothing to do with being depressed. The dose taken for pain relief is no where near to being effective for depression anyway.)