Day 8 Day 8

Everyday I'm waking up with varying amounts of lower backpain and sciatica. Some days I wake up with little pain, just stiffness, but later in the day the pain always gradually increases. I try to hold off on taking my tylenol, and or turmeric until a few hours into my day when the pain increases. Very hot showers focused on my lower back in the morning also seems to help temporarily.

I got a new matress topper and I feel like it is helping a little bit with the morning soreness. But I inevitably start hurting as the day goes on. I'm still icing then heating several times a day. I'm not sure if it's helping or not, but it's just me trying to avoid the pain and taking more pills. Rubbing Arnica cream on my lower back as well. Again, not sure of its doing anything or not?. I'm still noticing a correlation between stressful daily events and slightly increasing pain. Also still trying to think psychological and not structural when I get spasms. Sneezing still scares the hell out of me.

 

I have hot showers in the evening and it often removes pain. The other day I journaled about things that I do to reinforce the physical diagnosis and it was on the list alongside avoiding certain activities, worrying about the future etc. The thing is I need to have a shower every day and see it part of my self care routine but it does kind of undermine the program if I'm doing it to manage pain. You mentioned stress and pain. That sounds like something you would benefit from exploring rather than how to reduce your pain levels. Like, why are they stressful? What feelings accompany the events? Are there any historical patterns? I'm not really qualified to advise on this but I noticed you posted a while ago and when I was beginning the SEP it felt good to get a response from other people on the forum. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the bump, @Teatimetraveller!

@Matt4123, you might want to pay more attention to your inner dialogue, and consider how much of it is negative. Mind you, our brains are wired to be negative, and to be constantly fearful and watching for danger, but this primitive behavior doesn't serve us well in the modern world (I just posted about this in more detail on another recent thread).

What you want to do is to start changing that inner dialogue.

For example, it's okay to use your acetaminophen and turmeric as temporary tools while you change your brain and teach it to avoid using physical symptoms to keep you in fear. You just need to change your outlook and your expectations regarding their use. Thinking of them as temporary is positive - and thinking of them as tools is also positive. Give yourself a break.

Then, instead of using the hot shower as a stopgap (negative!) until you can take your pain substances later in the day, you can reward yourself with a comforting hot shower as a positive and self-caring way to start your day.

Rather than typing a bunch of stuff again, here are a couple of my recent responses which you might find helpful:
TMS revocery Day 8 CPPS | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/running-tms-getting-worse.26080/#post-134972 (Running - TMS getting worse)

Good luck,

~Jan