Intro and a question

[JeffA]

Short history: Suffered from back spasms for a few years about 20 years ago and then met a friend who had gone to Dr. Sarno. All he had to do was explain the idea to me and it clicked. No real spasms since then and when they happen, I go to the gym and work it off. I've even taught the approach to friends successfully.

About a month ago I was experiencing tightness in the back of my right leg. Tried stretching it out but it wasn't loosening up. I was in the gym lifting weights in a shoulder workout when the pain really got debilitating and then the back of my leg from mid-buttock to heel got numb. Doctor next day told me I have a slipped disk and sent me for PT. After a few weeks the PT wanted me to see an Orthopedist who told me I have drop foot and should have had emergency surgery as soon as it happened. Still wants me to get an MRI and see a spine specialist etc.

I want to take the Dr. Sarno approach and have already gone back to the gym. I'm open to any feedback, but my question is - everyone says to get checked out by a doctor to rule out non-TMS causes and make sure there's nothing really structurally wrong. But any non-TMS doctor will tell me there is something structurally wrong - the herniated disk. So when we say to get it checked out does that mean there's nothing except the herniated disk and if that's all they have to say I can ignore it? I find this problem more challenging because unlike the back spasms, the doctor/ortho can point to something real they claim is the cause. I've since read up more and know the statistics, but still. And relating to my question, when do I know I can ignore the doctors? I should add that I live overseas and unfortunately don't have access to a TMS practitioner.

Thanks - Jeff

 

[Baseball65]

Hi Jeff.
Have you read any of Sarno's work? ' Healing Back Pain' is my fave though there are a couple of other good ones.

In the text he describes the personality and situations that tend to provoke symptoms. His work also describes the pain 'changing' e.g. what happened to you has happened to virtually all of us.

If you peruse the archives on this forum you will find all sorts of other symptoms that had definite surgical diagnoses and were definitely TMS. The MRI has become the tool of choice for noticing things minutiae that probably happened to people all the time before it's advent...they just didn't take them serious and they went away....

My Doctor insisted I get my gall bladder out a FEW YEARS AGO. I had been having the right symptoms and away we go....except I didn't have ten grand lying around. She warned me of all sorts of dire consequences. I was suspicious it was TMS because of the times it would bug me. She doesn't know what that is, so I took my chances and thus far (maybe 5 years?) I have been correct. In fact, I feel better than ever.

I DID deal with the stuff that was causing the stress.

what's been going on in your life while this new thing showed up?

 

[JeffA]

Hi Baseball65,

Thanks for your reply. I did get my hands on Healing Back Pain and am working my way through it now. What's going on in my life, other than life? I am diabetic and my previous blood test from about a year ago wasn't good and I am in the middle of working on getting my numbers down. When I was working out it was probably about a week before I had decided I needed to go get a new blood test (which in the end came out very good). But I suspect that's what may have triggered it. Again, along with possibly just the accumulation of normal daily stress that I don't always handle as well as I could.

 

[Baseball65]

That's a good place to start! Diabetes is real and of the TMS 'sources' that have been outed, Mortality is one of them. Whenever I have a new symptom I generally sit down with a piece of paper and make a list of Financial, Family, Personal relationships, Work and Athletics. It is amazing that when I am 'ok' and 'doing fine' and have a symptom I can usually fill up a whole page of stressors.
The symptom is just serving as a distraction that was chosen by a command decision below our level of awareness...and when we intentionally turn our attention to the uncomfortable stuff, the TMS goes away because it's not serving it's purpose.

On another note, that seemed like them pulling the trigger awfully fast on that diagnosis if you are diabetic. My friends who are diabetics have told me that the coldness/numbness in their extremities was how they found out????

 

[JeffA]

I think they gave that diagnosis because it happened while I was working out and I have no history of coldness/numbness in extremities. I've had diabetes for about 15 years now. Plus there's the muscle weakness/drop foot which isn't a diabetes symptom, AFAIK.

Yeah, I'm going to start jotting down some thoughts, and I already started looking into journalling. It's just weird because I'm not used to it taking a while to see improvement. I'm one of the lucky ones who just heard of Dr. Sarno's approach and was basically healed for the past 20 years or so. Now this.