My name's Andrew and I have TMS.
I recently started at my dream company, and 2 months in I had real bad wrist pain. A new mousing device took care of that beautifully. I'd had very slight pain in my fingers, only on the middle joints, and after the wrist pain left that started to ramp up quick. Since the latter had affected my ability to do my job, I was motivated to get this figured out and got to a doctor. He said that since it correlated 100% with typing that that must be the problem and I should type less. I gave up my passions, computer games and forecasting (which takes a lot of programming) and wondered how to reduce typing at work. I tried drinking lots of water, using different Accessibility things like Sticky Keys, and working smarter not harder. That didn't work so I started to get worried and see more doctors, my 1st PT ever, a hand surgeon and a chiropractor. I got nothing from the first two and back pain from the chiro. I shouldn't say that, the surgeon took X-rays and that and his physical exam showed no structural damage and no risk of it. I didn't believe him, but I liked being diagnosed with Repetitive Strain Injury.
I tried homeopathic remedies, Speech Recognition and an aggressive exercise regimen. The surgeon's OT gave me exercises and stretches. I'd been taking breaks big time, religiously and incorporated those. I was getting down about not getting to do forecasting, and I felt I had to give up biking, using the rowing machine and playing the drums because they involve gripping and wrist extension.
The back pain got worse, the upper extremity pain had long ago migrated to wherever it wanted. I saw a new PT with new stretches that increased my RoM but had noeffect on the pain. After months of being at work, demoralized by inability to do what I wanted on the computer and thinking I was permanently unable to, I almost did workers' comp. At the eleventh hour I found out about TMS. I was hihgly skeptical. But when an EMG turned up textbook (the pain gal said my curves were "beautiful") I looked at my history and realized why so much of it was unexplained: there was no medical expln for sudden knee pain and a small bruise there when nothing had touched my knee, or for my 3rd & 4th fingers to be hypersensitive when they're innervated by different nerves! Or for that to jump from my right to the left when I wasn't typing or working, just Stressed!
I've typed more today than in the last two weeks together and I've had no pain. I say "I don't believe that pain" and like magic it passes! Looking forward to my life of TMS, journaling and facing that stuff in a healthier way than choking my muscles unconsciously.
I recently started at my dream company, and 2 months in I had real bad wrist pain. A new mousing device took care of that beautifully. I'd had very slight pain in my fingers, only on the middle joints, and after the wrist pain left that started to ramp up quick. Since the latter had affected my ability to do my job, I was motivated to get this figured out and got to a doctor. He said that since it correlated 100% with typing that that must be the problem and I should type less. I gave up my passions, computer games and forecasting (which takes a lot of programming) and wondered how to reduce typing at work. I tried drinking lots of water, using different Accessibility things like Sticky Keys, and working smarter not harder. That didn't work so I started to get worried and see more doctors, my 1st PT ever, a hand surgeon and a chiropractor. I got nothing from the first two and back pain from the chiro. I shouldn't say that, the surgeon took X-rays and that and his physical exam showed no structural damage and no risk of it. I didn't believe him, but I liked being diagnosed with Repetitive Strain Injury.
I tried homeopathic remedies, Speech Recognition and an aggressive exercise regimen. The surgeon's OT gave me exercises and stretches. I'd been taking breaks big time, religiously and incorporated those. I was getting down about not getting to do forecasting, and I felt I had to give up biking, using the rowing machine and playing the drums because they involve gripping and wrist extension.
The back pain got worse, the upper extremity pain had long ago migrated to wherever it wanted. I saw a new PT with new stretches that increased my RoM but had noeffect on the pain. After months of being at work, demoralized by inability to do what I wanted on the computer and thinking I was permanently unable to, I almost did workers' comp. At the eleventh hour I found out about TMS. I was hihgly skeptical. But when an EMG turned up textbook (the pain gal said my curves were "beautiful") I looked at my history and realized why so much of it was unexplained: there was no medical expln for sudden knee pain and a small bruise there when nothing had touched my knee, or for my 3rd & 4th fingers to be hypersensitive when they're innervated by different nerves! Or for that to jump from my right to the left when I wasn't typing or working, just Stressed!
I've typed more today than in the last two weeks together and I've had no pain. I say "I don't believe that pain" and like magic it passes! Looking forward to my life of TMS, journaling and facing that stuff in a healthier way than choking my muscles unconsciously.
