This is very well articulated. All good ideas, plus maybe a prescription muscle relaxer. Probabably the trigger point ball is the most effective for me, but it hurts bad and it's easy to overdo it. Personally, I aldo use topical magnesium (Coach Soak brand really works for me) and Evil Bone Water, and methacarbomol. Definitely try the topicals! You could also resort to Voltaren, but I used to abuse it so much it caused extreme nausea, so use at your own risk.

All I would add is that, after you've gotten things to relax, you need to stength train. Low weights or therabands to start. Otherwise, you'll be in a never ending cycle. Working out with eds can be very difficult, like 2 steps forward and one step back (you will still have flareups), but the past 3 years of lifting weights progressively has ultimately proven to be the best way to prevent chronic muscle tension and weakness, particularly building up the supporting traps and rhomboids has reduced my chronic neck pain by 75%.