Help with diagnosis

Hi, everyone! To me, it seems clear that I have TMS, but I also have a skeptical mind. I'm curious what others in this forum think about my case, especially those who have had bursitis. I'll try to give the short version here. In Sept. '23 my mom died suddenly and the few hours leading up to that were additionally traumatic. Three weeks later, a few hours after a long run and sorting through some boxes of her things in my garage (extra stressful for me as an organized person), I got pain in both inner knees. The right was back to normal after a few days, but the left has not been normal since. I was later diagnosed with pes anserine bursitis. My main symptom is pain in my hamstring and tendons. Cortisone shots haven't worked, or any of the other things I've tried. My doctor also said my right bursa was a little too full, and it does hurt occasionally, but never anything like the left. My MRI shows no tendinopathy and a healthy knee.

Then last July, I got a second issue during a very stressful time at work. I woke up one morning and had horrible hip pain on my right side (groin and piriformis area). I was later diagnosed with hip impingement, no evidence of labral tear. Many people have hip impingement and labral tears and no pain. I've been very active since my mid '20s (I'm about to turn 40) and never had any issues with my hip until now, despite the fact that I would have had the impingement since adolescence at the latest. This has now turned into chronic pain.

Nothing has worked for me: PT (numerous providers), chiropractic, dry needling, acupuncture, steroid injections, foam rolling, total break from running for three months. Nearly all exercise causes pain eventually. Not exercising, or staying well below my abilities, causes additional stress. A few weeks ago, I heard about TMS on the hip impingement sub reddit, not a fun place to spend time. As I began researching, it felt undeniable that this could be my problem. However, I still have doubts. Any suggestions on how to get rid of these doubts? Does this sound like TMS? Thanks!

 

I am a runner and have quite the history with hip impingement (i.e. FAI) and had surgery to repair a labral tear in 2018. It was all TMS. Feel free to find my threads on this and read as a success story.

 

You've done everything you can to try to deal with this through the normal healthcare channels, which is what Dr. Sarno always advised to rule out things like cancer etc. You've even gone through alternative medicine. Whenever people get to this point it's TMS.

The doctors can't explain your pain except to grasp at some basic structural issues that usually never cause anyone pain. The doctors found more structural abnormality in your right leg, which doesn't hurt than in your left knee which still hurts. The doctor is just guessing. This is a big tell that it's TMS.

The pain presented in both your knees and then one knee got better, but the other didn't and then you developed hip pain. This is a big tell for TMS. That being the pain moving around to different locations or appearing and disappearing at random.

Do what Dr. Sarno advises. Stop any sort of treatment or accommodation of these pains and resume your normal life. This might seem scary, but it shouldn't be, because none of those thing is actually helping you, they are just reinforcing the pain.

Go through the affirmations on this page whenever you have doubts. It's important to affirm these things consciously.

The thing that is helpful to understand is that you don't have to solve all of the problems that are causing you stress to get rid of your pain, you just need to consciously affirm that those emotions that you repress on a daily basis to get through life are what is causing your pain and eventually your subconscious will get the message and stop causing the pain.

 

This is a huge clue it is TMS. And your other clue of pain moving around is another trademark of TMS. Time to start the SEP program and start journaling!

 

I have funny hips that like jokes. FAI and labral tears in both but symptoms in only one. I felt the labral tear in the other when it happened during a run but it only hurt then and for a bit after and went away, while the other has lingered. Tell me you're TMS without telling me, hips.

Go with TMS and good luck.