Two things helped dramatically with the pain:
1. No alcohol.
2. Weekly deep tissue massage.

The massage hurts like hell but if I skip more than a week, I pay for it. It also took me a couple of tries to find a good therapist. The first two caused more harm than good.

If you have good insurance, find a Chiropractor that has a massage therapist and you can get both and adjustment and a massage for 1 copay.

Joe

The way I got my muscle and tendon pain under control was Flexeril (a muscle relaxer) that I take every night, combined with hands on physical therapy to eliminate trigger points, light stretching and light strengthening. It was a long, slow process.

For break pain, I take Vicodin (hydrocodone). At my worst, maybe 3 a day, 3 days a week. Now I take 1 or 2 a month and Ibuprofen usually helps if I need the rest of the time.

I believe I have nerve pain in my legs and feet. It's kind of a burning in my muscle. I haven't found anything that helps. Neurontin is supposed to be good for nerve pain, but it made me way too tired and weak before I could get up to a good dose.

I took Ultracet and that helped with the pain. I stopped and switched to Vicodin because it has a bad reaction with Flexeril (the 2 together can cause seizures).

Additionally, if I overuse a muscle, through exercise or anything else, I stretch it well and try to put heat on it. This reduces the pain for the next day.