Hip pain TMS or not?

[Triglyph]

I saw Dr Sarno 20 years ago for neck pain and I healed without surgery. I have been dealing with pains, mostly on, but on and off, as TMS since then. Last year I was in the hospital for covid. After 3 months of bad, long covid, I started to develop hip pain in my right hip. Convinced this was TMS I've dealt with it that way. I did have an ultrasound to rule out a blood clot from the covid. My hip is locked and in extreme pain.
A few weeks ago I finally went to see an orthopedic doctor who says I have severe arthritis, bone on bone, bone spur, etc. I let him set me up for a shot which is next Tuesday. I had several shots in my neck before I saw Dr Sarno, and they did not help, so I was in pre-surgical testing when I learned of TMS. So the question is should I get the shot on Tuesday? Could it destroy my belief in TMS? The pain is so extreme, and nothing will reduce it or take it away. After 11 months, I'm exasperated and exhausted from the constant pain. I'm spending the next couple days researching, rereading books, and posting here to help me determine what to do.
My wife, even though she's watched me for the last 20 years, thinks I should get the shot just to see if it will help the pain. She also wanted me to try some natural product that people claim took their pain away. I said those people still believe in the Great and mighty Oz, and placebos could very possibly work for them. Since I have seen behind the TMS curtain, and I know all of these other treatments are placebos, I said it won't work for me - I know too much. I just want to make sure that my extremely painful and locked hip is indeed TMS before I blow off the shot and anger my wife (though she should know better).
The Facebook groups I have been a part of have too many people that do not believing in TMS and are recommending physical treatments, sometimes crazy ones. So I've turned here to see if I can find some hope and sensibility. I have also searched through healing back pain, the mind body prescription, the divided mind, and the great pain deception books, all of which I have read at least once.
I am definitely leaning towards believing this is not a structural issue, given my history and what really causes pain. Also the doctor Sarno mentioned that TMS is the most painful thing that he knows of in clinical medicine. But. I. just. want. the. pain. to. stop!
I guess I need some encouragement and direction. Sorry for being so verbose... and thanks in advance for your help and love.

 

[Duggit]

I will respond on two levels: first the shot route and then a different approach based on contemporary pain neuroscience.

My wife has arthritis in her left hip and has gone the shot route. Before her first shot (of cortisone), her doctor told us the maximum number of shots allowed is three per year. She also told us the results vary from lasting relief with a single shot to no relief after multiple shots, with variations between those two extremes. My wife had her first shot in late October, and her pain was completely relieved. Her gait was still impaired because the pain had made her pretty immobile for years, but her pain was gone. Then her pain came back after about six weeks with the same intensity as before. She had her second shot last week. It seems to be working--so far. Time will tell.

I don’t know if there is a risk of physical harm in having the shot. My wife’s physician never mentioned any, but I suppose that does not necessarily mean there is not. If there is not, I’m with your wife--why not try it and see what happens. I say this as someone not unfamiliar with TMS. By the time Sarno published Healing Back Pain in 1991, I had been suffering from chronic low back pain for twenty-four years. I saw him plugging his then-new book on a morning TV talk show, so I immediately bought it. I was able to stop my back pain for good by following his prescription to reject the notion that the cause of my pain was structural and to get in touch with when I was repressing anger and why I was angry.

When I retired more than a decade ago, I decided to devote lots of my free time to learning everything I could about chronic pain. In recent years, I have been following contemporary pain neuroscience research that was unavailable when Sarno did his work. Attached below is a link to a talk by neuroscientist Tasha Stanton titled Flippin’ Arthritis: Ensuring People Who Get It [arthritis] Get It [ how to treat it]. Her talk was part of a public education program in the UK about chronic pain called Flippin’ Pain, the basic idea of which is that it is necessary to to “flip” (i.e., change) one's conceptualization of persistent pain as a marker of body tissue damage or disease (what Sarno called “structural” pain) to a biopsychosocial model of pain. Stanton focuses on knee arthritis in the video, but what she says applies equally to hip arthritis. If you choose to watch her presentation, keep in mind that when she talks about inflammation, she is referring to systemic inflammation, not the localized joint inflammation that cortisone shots are aimed at. I had previously learned almost all of what she talked about in the video from her colleagues and mentors, and it enabled me to overcome persistent joint pain in my neck and right knee that physicians had told me, based on x-rays, was arthritis.

Below is a link to the video. When the page comes up, you need to scroll down to where it says "Missed the event? Watch the webinar in full below." The full webinar runs for an hour and thirty-three minutes. Stanton’s talk is in the first fifty-two minutes.

https://www.flippinpain.co.uk/event/flippin-arthritis/ (Flippin’ Arthritis: Ensuring People Who Get It Get It - Flippin' Pain)

 

[Triglyph]

Thank you for taking so much time to answer! I appreciate it!

OK, listening to that talk, all of the various things I've heard over the last 2 years just came together in a moment of clarity (followed by 30 mins of weeping and writing the revelations down). I realized I have a core belief that I'm not safe, which creates PTSD and changes my nervous system to create the lifetime of pains (short version). I am SOOO grateful that you sent that link!!!!