Day 12... some progress, some not

[etrue]

It's Day 12 for me, after starting to follow the TMS Structured Educational Program.
I have to say, I have noticed some improvement which is very encouraging. However, the improvement is only partial. (Still, better than nothing).

Essentially, my pain is in my right index finger; it has been plaguing me for almost 1 year. It came about during our very busy season at my work, which involved excessive amounts of mouse scrolling at my desk job.

Well, after journaling and reading all of the TMS articles thus far, I believe I am suffering from TMS, and here is the status of my pain:

My pain was (at its worst) causing me to feel pain and hurting my finger/hand ALL the time, even after I had cut down or even ceased using my hand for typing, playing guitar, everyday activities. I would feel a constant weakened sensation in my hand (even when I would be doing nearly nothing with my hand), and that sensation would be even more painful whenever I attempted to actually use it for the aforementioned tasks).

Currently, the pain has noticeably lessened by roughly 40-50% when I am doing nearly nothing with my hand. However, I still feel noticeable pain/weakness in my index finger when typing, using the mouse, as well as bending my finger/pressing it at certain specific places (compare to my left hand, which has NO such issues, and my right index finger never had these issues prior to my initial flareup last year).

Essentially, in a nutshell, the pain/weakness/discomfort is still there when I use my hand to do tasks, but has eased up when I do nearly nothing with the hand (which in and of itself still caused me pain about a month ago, prior to me starting this program).

I am hopeful that I am on a path to recovery, but the fact that specific actions (typing/mousing/guitar) still cause me pain, as well as bending/pressing my finger in a specific way, is still stressful and disconcerting, and my fear (which I'm obviously trying to conquer) is that these specific actions will always cause me some sort of pain in the future (while they never used to whatsoever).

I realize I must give the program more time (and I will). I also have a 1st time appointment with Dr. Schechter this week.

-etrue

 

[Forest]

Having a 40-50% reduction 12 days into the program is outstanding! You are making terrific progress. The reason typing and playing guitar still cause you pain is due to conditioning. Overtime though, as your believe in TMS grows, the less this conditioning will be a factor. I went down a similar path as yourself. When I was active I would still have pain in my hands, but the pain leveled out and then gradually reduced. Now I can type and use the mouse all day without any pain.

We all have this urge to recover yesterday, but it is important to understand the amount of pressure this thinking puts on ourselves. By taking things one day at a time you will be able to approach your recovery with less stress and anxiety. You are on the right path. Keep it up!

 

[etrue]

Hi Forest,

Thanks for the reply and encouraging words. My question for you is:

I can understand and wrap my head around the idea of conditioning being a factor in my finger still hurting for those tasks.

The thing that make me go "hmmm" and still question things to a degree (if my symptoms are really 100% TMS related, or if there is actually a physical factor involved), is that I still have noticeable pain when I just press on my finger in a specific way, or bend it forward/backward/sideways in a specific way. This isn't when I'm doing a task; this is just when I take my hand away from any "actual" activity, and try to manually press/move it in a way to see if pain is present. I should add, that the pain I'm talking about also occurs if I accidentally bump my finger into something. This type of pain I never, ever had prior to the initial flareup when this all started last year.

My understanding of TMS is aligned with the "conditioning" factors you mentioned, that makes sense to me and it seems logical that certain conditioned activities might still be causing pain. What puzzles me is why the pain from bending it a certain way would still be occurring.

Any thoughts on this? Would you still say that this is conditioning? Or possibly that the pain from bending it a certain way is coming from how the tissues in my hand are being affected from oxygen deprivation/tension related to TMS?

Thanks,
-etrue