Hi All,
I am 34 years old and have been dealing with persistent chronic pain of all sorts for about 15 years now. I used to be very active but for a long time now have felt like I have the body of someone twice my age. I just keep collecting pains and injuries that never really heal. It feels like my body is falling apart. I can get around fine and seem to do okay with walking, easy hikes, and very slow/short bike rides. Anything more than that though results in more pain and injuries.
I just recently found out about Dr Sarno and TMS and have read both Healing Back Pain and The Mindbody Prescription and am most of the way through The Divided Mind. Just yesterday I started following the recovery program outlined in The Divided Mind. Unfortunately I have some doubts and I know that is the detrimental to full recovery from TMS.
In reading Sarno’s books I do see myself in a lot of what he writes. In talking about TMS with my wife she is convinced that it is what is going on with me. PPD/TMS makes a lot of sense to me and I am absolutely confident that I have it and that it correctly explains many, but perhaps not all, of my symptoms. I have lots of aches and pains in joints and muscles but I also experience a lot of inflammation.
My list of symptoms is very long. In short though, I have chronic pain and burning in my knees; chronic pain and swelling (?) in my shoulders; chronic pain, tingling and occasional burning in my hands, forearms and wrists. I also have very frequent (about 20x/day) muscle twitches in my legs, shoulders and arms. These muscles, especially my quads and hamstrings, will also get extremely sore and tight and will feel like they are strained for no apparent reason. Those are just the highlights. All of these symptoms increase with activity and oddly alcohol can bring on the burning in the knees. In classic TMS fashion many of my symptoms can be attributed to decade old injuries and some have seemingly come out of nowhere.
I have seen all sorts of doctors, PTs, chiropractors, and alternative medical practitioners. I have stuck with their treatments for extended periods of time, all to no avail. All tests for degenerative diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, gout, etc) have come back negative. An MRI of my left knee (the worse one) showed a normal joint with evidence of ITband syndrome. While I do experience some ITband syndrome pain it is not at all the most significant pain I experience in my knees. An x-ray of my right shoulder has shown prominent calcifications over the humeral head that are indicative of calcific tendonitis and bursitis, but I am told that many people have this and are asymptomatic.
At the beginning I was treated, unsuccessfully, for patella-femoral syndrome and carpal tunnel by doctors and PTs. One doctor told me that none of my symptoms were connected and that there wasn’t much I could do other than take as many NSAIDs as my stomach could handle and get back to exercising. Another told me that hypermobility was causing my pain and there wasn’t much I could do about it but be very careful about how I choose to be active. This made some sense to me but I still don’t fully buy it. My shoulders and knees are pretty flexible but I don’t score anything on the Beighton scale plus there are countless folks that are much more flexible than I am that are symptom free. A naturopath thought that I had heavy metal poisoning. Another thought I was deficient in vitamin C and magnesium. A chiropractor told me I was bordering on having scoliosis. Most recently I was exploring food allergies as a possibility. I essentially went Paleo for about a month and a half and felt a little bit better but not drastically so. The end of this Paleo stint was when I discovered Dr. Sarno and TMS/PPD.
So, I think TMS/PPD could explain a lot of what I have going on and why my injuries “never seem to heal.” All my inflammation makes me wonder though. This all has been a long, depressing, and draining journey and I gave up on ever getting better for quite a while. Discovering TMS/PPD has given me some renewed hope. Really though I feel like I am desperately in need of some guidance and an accurate diagnosis. I would love to find a practitioner that is pretty well versed in my potential issues, especially TMS/PPD. Anyway, if you made it to the bottom of this thanks for taking the time to read it all! It was pretty exciting to find this community!
-Jason
I am 34 years old and have been dealing with persistent chronic pain of all sorts for about 15 years now. I used to be very active but for a long time now have felt like I have the body of someone twice my age. I just keep collecting pains and injuries that never really heal. It feels like my body is falling apart. I can get around fine and seem to do okay with walking, easy hikes, and very slow/short bike rides. Anything more than that though results in more pain and injuries.
I just recently found out about Dr Sarno and TMS and have read both Healing Back Pain and The Mindbody Prescription and am most of the way through The Divided Mind. Just yesterday I started following the recovery program outlined in The Divided Mind. Unfortunately I have some doubts and I know that is the detrimental to full recovery from TMS.
In reading Sarno’s books I do see myself in a lot of what he writes. In talking about TMS with my wife she is convinced that it is what is going on with me. PPD/TMS makes a lot of sense to me and I am absolutely confident that I have it and that it correctly explains many, but perhaps not all, of my symptoms. I have lots of aches and pains in joints and muscles but I also experience a lot of inflammation.
My list of symptoms is very long. In short though, I have chronic pain and burning in my knees; chronic pain and swelling (?) in my shoulders; chronic pain, tingling and occasional burning in my hands, forearms and wrists. I also have very frequent (about 20x/day) muscle twitches in my legs, shoulders and arms. These muscles, especially my quads and hamstrings, will also get extremely sore and tight and will feel like they are strained for no apparent reason. Those are just the highlights. All of these symptoms increase with activity and oddly alcohol can bring on the burning in the knees. In classic TMS fashion many of my symptoms can be attributed to decade old injuries and some have seemingly come out of nowhere.
I have seen all sorts of doctors, PTs, chiropractors, and alternative medical practitioners. I have stuck with their treatments for extended periods of time, all to no avail. All tests for degenerative diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, gout, etc) have come back negative. An MRI of my left knee (the worse one) showed a normal joint with evidence of ITband syndrome. While I do experience some ITband syndrome pain it is not at all the most significant pain I experience in my knees. An x-ray of my right shoulder has shown prominent calcifications over the humeral head that are indicative of calcific tendonitis and bursitis, but I am told that many people have this and are asymptomatic.
At the beginning I was treated, unsuccessfully, for patella-femoral syndrome and carpal tunnel by doctors and PTs. One doctor told me that none of my symptoms were connected and that there wasn’t much I could do other than take as many NSAIDs as my stomach could handle and get back to exercising. Another told me that hypermobility was causing my pain and there wasn’t much I could do about it but be very careful about how I choose to be active. This made some sense to me but I still don’t fully buy it. My shoulders and knees are pretty flexible but I don’t score anything on the Beighton scale plus there are countless folks that are much more flexible than I am that are symptom free. A naturopath thought that I had heavy metal poisoning. Another thought I was deficient in vitamin C and magnesium. A chiropractor told me I was bordering on having scoliosis. Most recently I was exploring food allergies as a possibility. I essentially went Paleo for about a month and a half and felt a little bit better but not drastically so. The end of this Paleo stint was when I discovered Dr. Sarno and TMS/PPD.
So, I think TMS/PPD could explain a lot of what I have going on and why my injuries “never seem to heal.” All my inflammation makes me wonder though. This all has been a long, depressing, and draining journey and I gave up on ever getting better for quite a while. Discovering TMS/PPD has given me some renewed hope. Really though I feel like I am desperately in need of some guidance and an accurate diagnosis. I would love to find a practitioner that is pretty well versed in my potential issues, especially TMS/PPD. Anyway, if you made it to the bottom of this thanks for taking the time to read it all! It was pretty exciting to find this community!
-Jason
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