Dr. Sarno is King! Back pain, Pelvic pain, Anal pain, Glute pain gone!

A nice September day in 2010: A 35 year old squash playing fit me bounding around life happily...casually discussed some painless and bloodless hemorrhoid development with a very senior surgeon (who happened to be a friend of the family)...ended up getting convinced to undergo a "minor" haemorrhoid surgery...

the rest is painful history (or rather "was" very painful history for over five years till I bumped into the book by the king of all kings, Dr. Sarno!).

Soon after my haemorrhoid surgery in September 2010, I felt almost immediate tightness in the anal region, subsequently leading to a painful anal fissure. I also started noticing great weakness and instability in my legs, and soon enough, tremendous tightness in my (previously athletic) lower back, ultimately leading to spasms and then chronic low back, Sacroiliac joint area pain, Illitotibial area pain, buttocks pain, pain near the piriformis, nerve pain near the obturator nerve zone in the groin...to name some of the pain points!

From 2010 till July 2015, my life was in shambles mentally. Like many others, I embarked on an unsuccessful quest to get to the "bottom(!)" of my troubles. Some of my experiences (just some!) are quickly listed below:

A. Many of the Gastros I saw refused to understand the connect between the anal pain and the back pain, gave me many strong creams to insert, sitz baths etc. (Done - no gain)

B. Many of the Orthos I saw had nothing to say but first wanted to see MRIs before even venturing to say a word of comfort! (Done - no gain)

C. Many of the Surgeons I met wanted to cut me open again to do a lateral internal sphincterectomy! (Thankfully, NOT DONE - considered deeply though!)

D. An Acupuncturist I saw put enough needles all over my body for me to develop throbs and pains in other nerves around the body (especially the ankles)! (Done - no gain but some added pain)

E. Many of the physiotherapists I saw were certainly sincere and well meaning. Sincerely went through rounds and rounds of sessions focused on exercises, TENS machines etc. (Done - surely felt a little better and more confident with increased strength and flexibility - but core issues remained steady)

F. Chiropractors and manipulation in general sounded promising but did not give me any relief. (Done - no gain)

G. Neuro specialists made me undergo nerve conduction tests with unclear diagnosis, put me on strong meds which I quickly gave up as they were making me feel terrible. (Done - no gain)

H. Homeopathy seemed promising and I attempted it sincerely. (Done - no gain)

I. The Indian system of Ayurveda seemed holistic and made sense given its emphasis on natural herbal treatment. (Done - felt good overall but no gain in the key pain issues).

J. Stumbled upon Dr. John Sarno's work online...

the rest is happy recent history!

I immediately connected with what Dr. Sarno was saying and felt immediate relief on the first day of journaling. After sitting on tennis balls and various others cushions (many custom designed by me for me unusual issues!), it took me less than a day to remove them from all my chairs (home, cars, office...and a special travel kit for airplanes). My colleagues and family members were so used to seeing my various butt accessories that they immediately noticed their removal from my life.

I completed two back to back eight hour long drives on poor roads without back or butt support tools. When I felt a twinge of pain, I narrated some childish poems I had written about TMS and Dr. Sarno and immediately felt better. For example,

"oh dr. sarno, you are my sunshine,
you make me pain free, when my back acts up,
you'll never know doc, how much you help me,
when you take my pain away"

(sung in the same way as 'you are my sunshine' - silly but worked for me every single time).

It was astonishing. Not just that, I referred the book almost immediately to two friends who reported similar miraculous improvement in their chronic pain condition.

Miraculous...the joy around my own health has returned in my life and I am looking forward to my forties with great enthusiasm.

And the squash game is better than ever...even at 41!

God bless Dr. Sarno.

 

What a great story. I understood your coping skill to use tennis balls and cushions to ease your pain. I used to carry a small cushion everywhere with me, several years ago now, and just remembering all the kind people accommodating me with soft chairs, and the like, makes me smile.
I sang your song, and I like it.

 

I am speechless. That's because I'm singing.

Absolute gold. Thank you for this. And for a great story overall, I love it.

 

I think I have to put your song on my profile... oh, darn, it's too many characters

 

So happy that I have met folks on this forum who understand the seemingly strange coping strategies we TMS folks must adopt I am a behavioral trainer and sometimes my program participants would ask me if the balls (since I had them covered in nice looking wraps) were some special tools related to behavioral science...come to think of it, they were Glad you enjoyed the song - i still can't really understand how singing silly songs like that actually helps instantaneously?!

 

Oh. That is so sweet of you. I have seen so many of your encouraging comment across the forum. So amazing that you give so much of your time to support so many of us. This is what really is the 'difference that makes the difference.' Much appreciated.

 

Thank you for your post. I have experienced much of what you wrote about, though I'm female. I'm certain your post will spare people from trying all the pointless other treatments. I was talking yesterday to my GP about this rectal cramping and pain and low back stiffness. She said that she is getting more and more cases, both male and female, about pelvic floor pain. It makes sense to me. It's our "grounding" point. I know I spent the last year and a half feeling "ungrounded" after a long-term job went away. And, viola!, I begin having pelvic floor problems. Dr. Sarno is a lifeline. And, I tell myself, even out loud, "I accept 100% that this pain is TMS." It's working.

 

Thank you, hb! I love hearing that.

Right now, this is how I am trying to spread the word. And the thing is, every time I read and respond to a post here, I gain new insight into this process that we call TMS, although I think most of us agree by now that it goes WAY beyond Dr. Sarno's original theory of muscle tension. TMS is still a useful way to refer to it.

Anyway, I have this idea in the back of my head that I would eventually like to approach my HMO in Seattle and see if the mind-body approach to healing can be incorporated into what they have already started, which is a fledgling "alternative medicine" department. In Seattle, we already have a powerful proponent of mind-body medicine, Dr. David Hanscom, a back surgeon from Swedish Hospital, who runs his Back In Control program there, with the goal of steering patients away from surgery. If anyone reading this doesn't know about Dr. Hanscom, his blogs are reposted here (with his permission) on the Mindbody Blogs subforum and they are well worth reading.

The problem is, I think that my "in" towards this goal will be to visit my own doctor - except that I haven't seen my doctor since 2011 when I discovered Dr. Sarno - and then she retired. I've been assigned a new doc, but I have no reason to go see him (and probably want to choose a woman anyway). They give me a free physical every three years, so I might as well go do that and then try to talk to the doc about TMS. I'd like to think that whoever I see will look at my history of issues "Before Sarno" and perhaps be interested.

Thank you again for your kinds words, hb!

~Jan

 

Well done!

 

hbaruas,

I've had this traumatic surgery myself although the pain subsided within 1-2 months after the surgery; my pain started years later in the same area. I had the surgery after I had my son I recovered well from it; 6 years later after I delivered my daughter, the pain started in the rectal area. I still can't believe it.. 2 years and suffering!

 

Hbarias

thsts a great story can I pm you please

 

Years after having healed my back from reading Sarno's books.... I also had a battle with hemorrhoids...
Tried everything.... One day after one of my appointments with a nutritionist, who was not helping at all,
I remembered how Sarno said TMS thrives on tendons, ligaments, and muscles. Through all the pain I had never considered
that this could be TMS. I got home and researched muscles in the "anal zone". Sure enough ! The Levator muscle
is the primary muscle "down there". That was it ! After months of pain and some intimating and embarrassing doctor visits
and went to work on my TMS strategy and was symptom free almost immediately.

 

Hi Don Roc! I am going through the hemorrhoid thing right now so any info you can give me that helped you get pain free would be awesome!

 

Don roc what was ur strategy ?

 

Hi Thelauriebelle & Jimmy
I found "Alum" to work really well.... You can google various ways to use it. Putting a concentrate of Alum in a sitz bath is effective.
Witchhazel is also good.
However....... As effective as these treatments were (after a few weeks) when the pain continued to the point of going to a doctor and a nutritionist...
I started to suspect my brain was using this opportunity to create some TMS . The visits to the doctor and nutritionist were fruitless to say the least.
I remembered Sarno teaching that TMS likes tendons, muscles, and ligaments.... Did a little research and learned about the "Levator" muscle located in the
area......and sure enough, once I made the association, I was pain free in a matter of days. ..... I also learned to stay away from long term use of advil & ipuprofen. Ironically I was taking this these medications for a few days for back pain. I got constipated from them (says right on the bottle) which caused hemmoorids...
Nothing like back pain and hemmoroids at the same time (the dynamic dual!) So.... What I have experienced with TMS is, if something is going on for more then a week or two....your in TMS mode, and need to take the basic TMS approach outlined in Sarno's teachings, Hope that helps. Thanks to all of you who have the courage to reach out.

 

Thanks DONROC. I am not new to this as I cured my Interstitial Cystitis and IBS and BFS, but now I got a hemorrhoid about 2 weeks ago when I was under some major stress and usually they go away after a couple of days. Now my anxiety brain is telling me something is really wrong this time and I've already looked up rectal cancer. Anxiety is in overdrive!!

 

Fear can thrash you around pretty good. Don't let it get the best of you (google can be dangerous sometimes, as it goes into extreme detail about things and can lure you into focusing on the physical body. I highly recommend reading The Great Pain Deception by Steve Ozanich. Look more into what's going on in your life (where is the real "Pain In The Ass" coming from ? "Pain is feedback regarding our deepest most unmet needs." I know your condition can feel scary (been there many times) Trust you intuition not your fear. The body will follow your train of thought going forward with wellness or illness.

"Mind is the creator of the body.
All bodily states are curable and changeable.
The consciousness of anything being chronic is a delusion"

Yogananda/ The Science Of Healing