Trigger fingers not getting better..please help. Many symptoms..

Hi,

I posted here a while ago about these problems, I had the covid vaccine in 2021 unfortunately got pericarditis, luckily it was mild and went away quickly with no lasting problems but I was in and out of different hospitals because of the pain for months.

It traumatized me, I already have a benign heart arrhythmia so having pericarditis just made my heart anxiety even worse. I was angry at my parents for listening to them to get it, I had a gut feeling I would get a bad side effect, I was angry at my doctor and cardiologist for not believing me until they saw proof and trying to force the second dose and booster shots on me.

Not long after my heart pain went away (I had pain for weeks even when the cardiologists said my heart was back to normal so maybe TMS) I developed muscle spasms all over my body, they have now gotten a lot better. I then started getting sleep paralysis and woke up with trigger finger on my left ring finger. I now have it on both hands, my pinkies and middle fingers sometimes.

It has nearly been 2 years and they just don’t seem to be getting better, I keep convincing myself that they were probably another scary side effect from the vaccine and maybe not tms at all but blood results are normal and I can’t see or feel any physical lumps or anything else under my palms.

I’m now debating if acupuncture will help, I keep going down the wrong rabbit holes and it’s ruining my life, I haven’t met anyone who’s had trigger fingers on both hands as long as me and has cured them.

Can someone please help, I need to know if this is TMS and if it can be cured. I’m 20 and this is ruining my life, I’m becoming more depressed each day..

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

 

Hi @Nightfallibra
I just checked back on the first thread you started. people offered wonderful suggestions.
Have you taken any of those suggestions to heart?
1) read a book by Dr. Sarno?
2) have an understanding of how pain and symptoms are created in the body: (scroll down this page to what is pain) https://ppdassociation.org/videos (Educational Videos — Psychophysiologic Disorders Association)
3) worked through one of the free programs on this website:Alan Gordon’s Pain Reprocessing or the SEP: Structured Educational Program -meaning that you recognize that you must do the inner work to heal- that tms is a physical manifestation of a mental and emotional need, the pain is there to get your attention but at the same time it distracts us from the true problem, which is our mind and not, say, a finger or any other symptom.

Other options: consulting a tms informed medical doctor - in person if you can. You can search for a medical doctor here: https://ppdassociation.org/directory (Directory — Psychophysiologic Disorders Association)
This also has lists of coaches and psychologists who can assist you if needed

The biggest parts are that you have to begin to take control of your own healing. You need to decide which path you want to start taking to heal yourself. That means realizing you have the means within you to do this, but you need to do the work.

That you recognize there is a mind body connection and that your emotions such as anger and anxiety play a part in symptoms is a huge step in the right direction. Now you can begin to open and perhaps see that anxiety can create or worsen ANY health related problem. Many of us here have real diagnoses attributed to our symptoms. Sorting through the doubt and our self-limiting beliefs is part of healing.

 

Hi, I’ve had many similar symptoms and this morning was listening to Alan G and alon Z on their podcast which I found so helpful. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped to think about what compassion to myself might look like. I’m so driven and throw myself into things. I’m trying to watch my pain now, almost to say “hello, you’re back but I know you aren’t real” and it’s honestly amazing how it reduces, as I’m not despairing about the pain or angry with either it or myself. I hope this helps you even a tiny bit as we all need hope! Acupuncture didn’t help me, but I hear it does help some

 

I have also experienced trigger finger after periods of stress/anxiety, i had it in both my index fingers, however it never got to the stage where it would lock in position as i did have a lump of the bottom of my right index finger but not on my left. I did used to massage it from time to time and this eventually eliminated the clicking.

I do still have a lump but it has gone down a lot and its been 18 months for me since it started but i have focussed a lot of my stress/anxiety and i am on antidepressants which seems to have helped drastically with a lot of the problems i was having which lends itself to TMS being the main issue.

 

Thank you so much for this answer. Its very reassuring knowing someone has the same as what I have. How are your trigger fingers now?

 

I still have problems with my hands, can’t currently do a fist but I am working on stretching and hopefully in time it’ll go away.

 

So your trigger fingers are still there? I hope your hands get better , I have noticed its worse in the morning or after long periods of not being active which is strange

 

They don’t trigger at all, but at the same time I can’t get any of my fingers down enough to do a fist for it to lock up.

My left hand has no lump but my right hand definitely has one that’s been there a few years.

Prior to this I was getting tight forearms and shoulders and I think this may have caused it as I was playing a lot of games with my hands gripping a lot.

 

If they don’t trigger anymore thats great, that means that what you have is definitely tms, i was speaking to a tms coach via email a while ago and they said if you have one symptom (like trigger finger) once you stop becoming scared of it and it goes away, your body will create another symptom to distract you, this sounds like what’s happening to you.

At first I was worried that I might have an autoimmune problem, but blood tests are ok. I mainly get triggering in my both index fingers mainly the left, which is the worst, pinkies and sometimes middle fingers. I just don’t know why it won’t get better now as I’ve stopped being fearful of it..this is whats causing me to doubt its tms.