Difficult day

Today after work I went to see my (regular) doctor. As per everyone's advice here, I went to see my doctor back in January to rule out anything physical. By that time I had been having severe foot pain which prevented me from walking for six months. She had me go for a bone scan and an EMG, both of which were clean. The neurologist told me my nerves were normal and healthy, and there were no small breaks in my bones.

So when I sat down for my follow-up exam today with Dr. Ro (I'll call her), I said to her, "Look, can I be honest? I've been having this thing looked at for six months. No one's found anything. I believe it's psychogenic, that my mind is causing this pain." She looked at me with astonishment. She said, "That's amazing. No one has ever said that to me before." She SEEMED supportive. At first. But then she said she thought it was something called Sympathetic Nerve Dystrophy, and she wanted me to see a specialist and also try a creme called capsaicin. However, she was also supportive when I said I wanted to see a doctor who specializes in treating psychogenic disorders, and she wrote me a referral for Dr. Rashbaum (I have an appt. to see him 3/25).

I have not even Googled Sympathetic Nerve Dystrophy--it sounds too scary, and I don't want to see the symptoms and have my brain start giving them to me! I feel like this is a major bump in the road for me, I have to get past it and continue treating the pain as TMS. But I'm feeling really really low right now.

 

I googled it for you Gail. I'm not going to give you any of the details except to tell you that the description I read sounded exactly like TMS and it's of "unknown origin". I think maybe your doctor had to repair her own bruised ego when she realized you had correctly diagnosed yourself. Maybe she had to give you essentially the same diagnosis to verify her own worth to herself (and justify charging you for services you had essentially performed yourself).

 

There is an amazing tool I use in doing handwriting analysis and I just used it with your original message above (even though it's typewritten). Your subconscious mind is focussed, believe it or not, on Dr. Rashbaum (from the way that you wrote your message above to all of us in the forum). I have not googled this person or heard of the name related to TMS, but do go.

Your subconscious mind wants you to go to see this doctor too (not just your conscious mind). It's the right thing for you to do while you're also checking into the physical causes.

Hope this helps. Your own higher self is getting through - that is why you're diagnosing what is psychogenic and you're the only one who has ever said that to the Dr.

 

Thank you, both of you. It was a difficult night but I started reminding myself of all the other "diseases" I've had over the years that turned out to be nothing (TMS) and kept reminding myself today that this is just more of the same. I'm feeling better now.