completely freaking out :(

Over the last few years I've had intermittent difficulties with shortness of breath, throat clearing and a feeling of "shakiness" in my chest. The symptoms got more prominent after my boyfriend and I broke up in March and he moved out. I went and got a bunch of lung scans and pulmonary function tests done, which were normal, so my primary care doc told me she thought it might be GERD. Since she told me that, I developed sternum pain when I roll over and cough that was constant. I was really worried this was a "silent" reflux damaging my esophagus, even though I wasn't feeling any acid symptoms, so I finally decided to go to a functional medicine doctor last week since there was a long waitlist to get an endoscopy done. When I went, I had a mild chiropractic adjustment from a naturopathic doctor who believed my sternum pain was being caused by a hiatal hernia and he was trying to "release it" by stretching and pushing down on the area below my ribs for several minutes. I experienced pretty intense pain the entire time. Since that adjustment a week ago, I've had gradually worsening, non-stop acid reflux, chest pain/burning, difficulty swallowing, pain, pressure and feeling of swelling in my abdomen and bloating. I've tried all the anti-acid medications and stomach soothing supplements with no relief except Prilosec which is only helping the burning about 50%. I've never had ANY of these symptoms before except mild ones once a week after a heavy meal.

I'm wondering if I can approach any of this from a TMS perspective or if this doctor damaged something in there and now I need surgery to fix it. This is causing me an intense amount of anxiety because I'm having trouble sleeping at night from the pain and burning and so scared he caused permanent damage and now I'm going to have reflux and pain non-stop until I have surgery done which could be months.

Other things going on for context - my boyfriend and I have been slowly trying to work it out over the last few months, but it's been a slow process because we had a difficult relationship that hurt us both in a lot of ways so this has been pretty stressful. On top of that, I'm moving to Oregon for a job in September and he's staying here in Utah, and I don't know what's going to happen with us and I'm pretty scared. I also have my professional licensing exam in two weeks and I'm really scared these symptoms are going to make me fail my test because I'm in so much pain and obsessing over the symptoms and having trouble sleeping ad studying.

I had all this stuff going on before the adjustment was done, and didn't have any of these symptoms except the breathing stuff and sternum pain, so I'm having a hard time believing any of these stressors are related to my symptoms and not the adjustment. However, I'd really appreciate any feedback if there's any way of approaching this with TMS or if I'm totally screwed.

Thank you

 

Sweetheart, you’re new to TMS and the mind~body connection which means you don’t understand it yet and that is perfectly ok. Healing is nothing more than learning about yourself, and ultimately how this translates into self care and self soothing. Every last one of us begins where you are now, terrified, confused, symptom-focused. It’s a living hell. Most of us also need to tell our story, to be heard and then held safe for a while. This matters and there are many people here who can do that. But all of this comes with time. Right now all you absolutely need to know is that you are fine. You’re scared, not screwed and your mind is just catastrophising.

These are the reasons you are suffering. All this emotional stress and uncertainty are causing your problems. As you learn to calm yourself, these symptoms will melt away. I promise you.

Plum x

 

Hi Plum,

thank you for the kind words and support, it made me tear up actually. I know I shouldn't have, but I went and got a CT scan and h. pylori test - both negative. CT scan just showed inflammation in the abdomen, or gastritis. It's so crazy though that it happened after this doctor did this deep massage/adjustment of sorts, so it's hard to not keep questioning something have happened - but does TMS latch onto things like this?

It's funny, I also notice my gastritis symptoms "moving down" - started in my throat, chest, abdomen but lower abdomen was totally fine... but after seeing the doctor today, I'm having burning pain in my lower abdomen and that's where most of it is. This stuff is nuts...

 

Melissa, you’re welcome my dear, and please don’t feel you shouldn’t go for tests. In truth this is exactly what you should do. It’s important to rule out anything that needs a bit of a medical nudge. Given the tests were negative and scan showed inflammation you can be more confident about this being TMS.

Yes, it does latch onto things like this. It’s very opportunistic. Over time you’ll get better at noticing this tendency and you’ll get better at shrugging it off.

It truly is.