Carrigon:
I certainly empathize with you. Have you ever heard of trigger points and referred pain? From my reading, trigger points occur in muscles that are severely overworked -- i.e. -- bad chemistry and weak. A number of us have discussed trigger points/trigger point therapy in this post:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?12813-What-Triggers-Your-Trigger-Point-Pain
and here's a pretty good interactive webpage that allows you to select a muscle group and see what is it's trigger point pain referral pattern:
http://www.myofascialtherapy.org/symptom-checker/
When muscle can clamp down with trigger points causing some shortening and contraction, and because the surrounding muscles to do the same, and it goes on and on -- and then they all have pain referral patterns and they can just get totally miserable.
I had/have luck with a physical therapist who is a member of American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists who also does dry needling. These physical therapists are very hands-on -- and apply osteopathic and a range of hands-on techniques. If you have the insurance, or the money -- it'd be worth a try. Just tell the therapist to start slow and easy because the manipulations can take a toll -- but I certainly find it worth it. The dry needling can be momentarily painful -- and then, for me, but about a day and a half the area is sore -- and then the muscle is much much happier -- and the referral pain areas and diminished drastically.
There are other disciplines that are hands-on and do dry needling also, and you might check them out also.
I certainly have not found anything curative about this -- but through dry needling and some of the other techniques they use -- I found relief. I'm one of those overdo and crash type people -- and I've never learned any other way -- so the trigger points and misery can come back, and commonly do. But over time I've found some significant relief depending on how much I overdo it -- and nothing else ever has produced relief and I've tried tens of tens of different techniques, drugs, supplements, etc.
I've also found some significant relief for the long-term by the practitioner identifying what muscles I am no longer using -- especially the core muscles along the spine under the stomach -- and muscles shoulder/neck/shoulder blade area. It's amazing how many muscles but I just absolutely stopped using -- and couldn't even engage -- until it was pointed out to me and I started engaging them.
I hope this helps someone. It's not a panacea for me -- not by any means -- but it has helped, sometimes dramatically.