0 - 10 months

To begin with, due partly to a slumped forward posture, I had developed pain at C5 in my neck. This was made worse by swimming or cycling. Also, when sleeping on my side I had pain in the top of the trapezius on both shoulders, at the base of the neck. Pains in my arms were mild tendinitis in the forearms, and wrists from keyboard and mouse usage.

10 - 14 months

I then began to get pain in the thenar eminance and near the little finger on the palmar side of the hand. This was on both sides, but much worse on the right. Basically this was caused by holding on to a mouse with thumb and little finger and making fine mouse movements. I began to get a feeling of weakness in my hands, especially my forefingers (worse on right hand). When swimming I found it difficult to hold my fingers together (loss of co-ordination/proprioception). I also started getting sharp pains in the top of the forearm, from holding my hands above the keyboard (TPs).

14 - 18 months

Due to the spreading nature of Trigger Points (TPs) (the pain in one muscle causes muscle spasm in associated muscles), I ended up with TPs in all the palmar interossei, several muscles in the thenar eminance, and other muscles in the hand (9 TPs in all for each hand see included diagram). 2 TPs in each forearm, and 1 TP in each shoulder (trapezius). 6 months later again, due to misguided attempts to correct my poor posture (the physio I was seeing tried to get me to hold my shoulders back by constantly pulling back with the muscles of my upper back), I ended up with further TPs in my upper back, 2 on each side in where the Trapezius meets the back of the shoulder.

I also began to suffer from mild Raynaud's phenomenon and swelling of the hands, and also neuropathic pain (though I did not know what it was at the time).

18 - 26 months

Having been in a state of chronic pain for a considerable time I began to get further problems. To me the pain was no longer the 'fresh, clean, isolated' pain one gets with a recent wound, but had become a 'dull, stale, old' pain that seemed to permeate my body. Often one can ignore an ache or pain, if one knows that it is benign and is going to go away (eg. the lingering ache from a stubbed toe), however with the chronic pain it seems to become difficult to 'rise above' the pain after a while.

Despite beginning my 'recovery programme' at home in my parent's care some symptoms still continued to worsen for the first 6 months, with my condition often swaying wildly from good to bad. From one week to the next it was impossible to tell whether I was getting better or worse.

During this time I gained the extra symptoms of depression, irritable bowel, sleeping problems, headaches, fatigue, over-sensitivity to external stimuli, etc. Note that these symptoms had been present to one degree or another for some time already. However by this time they had become more consistently present and more noticeable.