Finally ready to post- opinions please!

I have been reading around these forums for quite some time, trying to decide if my rsi is tms. Firstly, I completely fit the tms mold and have had some experienced I know we're tms. The most prevalent was when I read a story about somebody with hand pain and then I somehow got he same pains that lasted for a few weeks and left. The problem I'm having is with my forearms.

A few years ago, I was working at a job where I had to use voice dictation to dictate calls. After several months my voice began to feel weak and tired. While I tried to figure out the problem of that, I decided I would try to type and keep up with the fast pace of these calls. After a while of intense typing I developed pain that came and went on the top of my wrists and hands. I kept typing and the real pain started to set in in both of my forearms.

I felt hopeless. The pain lasted for around a month, went away for a few weeks, then came back worse than ever after I helped a friend move and carried a lot of heavy things. Sometimes ice helped and sometimes heat did. It has now been 2 years and while the pain is better, I can't seem to get completely over it. I used to constantly worry about my arms, sometimes to the point of tears, and was scared to do everything. I then found a success story from TMS and slowly learned not to worry so much about them. The pain is better than it was and I like to think it was from my change in mindset, but I am also working at a job that I don't have to type now. The pain in both comes and goes, which leaves me with a couple questions.

1. It feels like my arms feel hot to touch often and I am worried they are inflamed, my left arm usually hotter than the right. I have read that inflammation is not considered tms. Sometimes I don't have pain along with this heat. The pain in each arm is a different pain from the other. Is it possible this is tms?

2. I've also read a little about micro tears and how they can be seen with muscles from rsi. Is this just a theory?

3. Can intense typing really cause chronic injury? Sarno says MOST cases of rsi can be healed.

I've really had a rough last couple weeks trying to read all that I can. I know TMS is real, but have a few things about my arms that keep me from fully committing. Any help would be awesome. Thanks

 

I forgot to add I have seen one doctor about a year ago. He just did a physical exam and strength test and said he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He just thought typing aggravated my arms and tendons and said I could try things different ways that didn't hurt.

When I told him my arms felt hard (I think swelling) and hot to touch, he said them being hard is somewhat normal but the heat isn't. The swelling has gone down but the heat is still there, which is why I'm at this point. I elected not to go to PT and just wait it out for a while.

 

Hi Trevor. Have you explored the level of stress you felt at the time of onset of your symptoms, or your feelings about your job in general. I had a relapse once where I was under enormous stress from a client who was seated opposite me at work. Her physical presence would make my stomach churn every morning, and her relentless pressure daily wore me down. My pain (very hot/prickly arm and shoulder pain), was my body's reaction to this stress. Once I confronted her and set some boundaries my pain settled.

 

The key is you were examed by a doc and NOTHING structural was found! Modern medicine is great at finding things wrong and doling out the NOCEBOS. Keep reading the good books until the TMS PENICILLIN KNOWLEDGE sinks into your sub-c. You aren't sounding 100% FULLY committed to TMS yet. Maybe you still need it as a PROTECTOR from your emotional issues (see the Holmes-Rahe list).

G'luck!
tt

 

Hi, Trevor. I agree with Tennis Tom that you may need to boost your belief in TMS. You need to believe in it 100 percent. That may not be easy, but you can do it. Typing should not give you any pain. You may have conditioned yourself to expect it when you type. Be sure to take frequent breaks when at the computer. Get up and stretch. And get away from the computer when you can. I need breaks from it or it would drive me nuts. We live with too much technology. Do some physical exercise and relax as much and as often as you can.

 

Aaron Iba's success story is good as is Forrests!

 

TMS acceptance is an intellectual process (for me) not a faith process.

 

Thanks for your replies everyone. There are just a few things holding me back from completely accepting. I definitely had stress during the time it happened.

 

Colly, were your arms and shoulders hot to the touch or just felt like they were burning?

 

I agree with Riv on this also.

 

The Patriots on the other hand...
I am doing OK at not letting my fall last Friday turn into another round of fear. I just can't.
That's pretty much how I view chronic pain at this point: "I just can't. I can't let it happen."
I had a few days earlier in the month when I had no neck irritation at all. So I know it's possible. I still consider myself a "success story" even though I am not miraculously cured.

 

Hey Trevor - the answer is - it's completely irrelevant.

As long as you continue to search for the perfect match in symptoms to YOUR symptoms, you will never recover. And it's pointless. That's because your tricky brain knows how to deal with this - it will be sure to produce symptoms that are just slightly and perfectly different from anyone else's symptoms. This keeps you worried, it keeps you on edge and looking for danger, always operating at a shallow level of fear and anxiety. That's where you brain wants you to be, otherwise you might get eaten by a sabre tooth tiger.

I'm serious - that is exactly how primitive your brain is.

To move ahead, you want to stop asking these detailed, and, frankly, obsessive questions, and instead, go deep, and start thinking psychological instead of physical!

~Jan

 

Yep Trevor - Jan sums it up perfectly. Sit with your thoughts and explore.

Claire Weekes' "Hope and help for your nerves" book will be a huge help to you right now. And as Irish suggested - watch Forest's youtube on his pain and recovery. It was his youtube that started me on my journey of recovery.