Herniated Disc Symptoms Dont Quite Match, Do I Have TMS

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the TMS wiki and forum and the TMS world in general. I was given Dr Sarno's book from a friend with very similar symptoms and found relief in just two weeks after two years of agony. I procrastinated on reading his book and continued with the conventional medicine routes for a month or so more. I now picked up Dr Sarno's book and have finished it in just two days! I am a slow reader so that should begin to show how much I latched on to this idea. I fully believe what he is saying and have been researching my brains out.

I believe there may be something similar on here about this, but I have not found quite the answer to what I was wondering. So in advance I apologize if this is a repeat post, and please feel free to redirect me if this has been answered previously on the forum.

Anyway, my story, I have been dealing with varying levels of pain for 9 months now. I was working ski patrol in Utah last year and in February I began to feel soreness in my lower back (very common in this profession). I disregarded it at first and continued on with life. Two physical therapists over several months, massage, chiro, acupuncture, meditation, yoga, cortisone, two mri's showing fairly large protrusion at L4/S1 and now scheduled for microdiscetomy.

As I had mentioned, I have now read Dr Sarno's book "Healing Back Pain", and feel that this is the method I want to pursue and forgo the knife! He mentions the "classic" symptoms of TMS involving pain upon pressure on the lower back, buttocks, and down the leg. My main concern is that I have the pain sometimes in my lower back, but primarily along the side of my left leg and left calf. I have slight numbness along my left calf as well. What I DO NOT have is any pain produced upon pressure anywhere in the areas mentioned in the book. I want to fully commit that this is TMS, but I am having trouble given I do not match the suggested "classic" symptoms.

I am so sorry for the length of this post, but this consumes my entire life as I am sure it has yours as well. Thank you all so much for being a part of this community, and I plan to be highly involved in any way possible in this community. I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions on this matter.

 

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the forum!!

Watching success stories -videos on youtube or the forum or -reading success stories was instrumental in my first week of recovery.

I started with a herniated disk and sciatic pain - my foot was numb and I had pain all the way down my leg. Could hardly walk.

I went to see a Craniosacral therapist who put my disks back in place. I recommend one that is trained in somatic emotional release. That combined with journaling, reading all 3 books, working the SEP, and reaching out on the forum is what helped me.

Now i am skipping and jumping down the street - foot and legs back to normal --I do have a little bit of back pain still but it comes and goes and I am always aware of what is happening emotionally.

Don't worry about "no pain upon pressure" Not everyone has the exact same symptoms. !!!

Miss Lucy

 

What you are talking about is "palpation of the tender spots". It's an indicator of TMS but not universal for all TMS'ers. Don't get hung-up on that one dx tool. Keep reading and doing, should be a killer ski year.

Just doing a quick "search" here found numerous citations for the same question you have about the "tender points", here's just one of many you will find:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/6-tender-points.6293/

G'luck!
tt

 

Hi, EAsprts. The others have given you excellent advice, and I add to suggest you begin the Structured Educational Program, free in the subforum of this web site. It will help you to discover the emotional causes of your pain. The program's journaling helped to heel me, as it has many others. Keep positive and remind yourself that you are going to heal, to ski again, and that THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

 

I always wondered the same thing. It is my belief that TMS goes much farther beyond Dr. Sarno's findings. I never had any pain on palpation in those areas. At one point it was one thing holding me back. Don't over analyze everything you read in his books, I did and it slightly hindered my recovery. good luck

 

Your tricky brain will do its very best to make your symptoms just slightly different from everyone else's symptoms. Just to keep you worried and distracted. Let go of the minute details, and concentrate on the big picture. You'll get there.

 

Thanks Walt, Tom, Lucy, rsoup, and Jan for your quick replies to my post. I have to say, the quick responses alone have given me a great boost of confidence in this method. Not that it should have any bearing on the efficacy of his research, but a book published 25 years ago does play with your mind a bit.

What are the other two books you are referring to Lucy? There are more than 3 books out there on this now, so I'm curious which ones you are talking about.

I'm about to make a day one post on here as well as I have begun the SEP and am excited for my future! I'm stoked to stay involved on this forum, no one should have to experience what we have gone through before finding out about TMS!

-Eric

 

Isn't that the truth, Eric! Some of us waited 60 or more years (I think Walt was 80 when he discovered Dr. Sarno!)

Wouldn't it be nice if we could teach children about the mind-body connection? It would change the world.

I believe that Lucy is referring to (1) The Mind Body Prescription, Dr. Sarno's book in which he goes beyond back pain to embrace a whole world of pain and non-pain symptoms and syndromes which he came to believe are also TMS, and (2) The Divided Mind, his last book, in which he reviews his theory in four chapters, and turns the book over to five MDs and a psychologist for six chapters on various mind-body subjects. TDM was actually the only Sarno book I read, but I have read many others on the far-reaching topic of how our minds influence our bodies - both negatively and positively. (My profile includes a list of my favorite resources if you're interested).

Keep reading the posts on our various sub-forums for all kinds of great recommendations. As we say often, everyone is different, and everyone will achieve recovery in their own way and in their own time.

It's nice to have you on board!

~Jan