c90danwaiel
Peer Supporter
Hello! I’m a 26 year-old male, who was diagnosed with chronic prostatitis, then chronic pelvic floor pain, and most recently, an entrapped nerve. (Before that, I was given a few other random diagnoses by a quack urologist, who’s on probation with the medical board, but that’s another story . . .).
I literally just bought Dr. Sarno’s book The Divided Mind last night, and I’m about a third the way through. I’m still a bit skeptical, but it is making a lot of sense in many parts.
My symptoms are a near constant burning or cool sensation in the genitals, rectal area, and perineum, and a tender spot in my urethra (only present sometimes, when I apply pressure from the outside). The pain first started as an acute pain in my urethra, and then has slowly shifted into that group of symptoms. My pain has now been going on for about four months now, and it’s really taken its toll. Like a lot of you, I’ve gone through many treatments for my pain. For me, it’s been multiple courses of antibiotics, a few months of physical therapy from a pelvic floor specialist (including internal massage), antidepressants, muscle relaxers, have seen been seeing a chiropractor.
Surprisingly, some of the treatments did work. However, I’ve noticed they worked best when I was really optimistic about them and truly believed they would work. My first course of antibiotics worked great – until I noticed a brief relapse of pain was convinced the bacteria had become ‘resistant’. Later, I was told that prostate test was actually contaminated and they hadn’t found any bacteria. My pain came back full-blast.
With physical therapy, my PT suggested my hips were misaligned, matching a lot of what I’d previously read on the internet. Was convinced that was at the root of my problem. After just two days of realignment exercises, I had nearly two weeks with 90% symptom reduction. Then I went camping, and carried a very heavy load in my backpack. Noticed the pain return a bit, and I was sure I’d sure I’d messed things up for good and started freaking out. Got everything realignedat the PT a few days later and sure enough, the pain was still there, just like I’d expected.
Looking back, I’m wondering if those were placebos. My pain has changed with my stress and expectations, and whenever I’ve been intently focused on something else, the pain seems to largely subside. My default state has been me seeing this as a major crisis that I’m working through. I wake up each morning thinking about this, and I’ve fallen asleep reading about possible treatments at night.
I was been diagnosed with OCD as a teenager and have a habit towards ‘catastrophizing’ about things. I do have an odd history of psychosomatic problems in my past, particularly as a kid. I had issues with skin hypersensitivity: clothes rubbing against sensitive parts of my body, which occupied my thoughts for the entire day. It really bothered me for weeks and it felt like something was really wrong. I actually had hypersensitivity at the tip of my penis for a few months at 13, and ended up having surgery to remove a very small skin tag (which itself wasn’t that sensitive and in retrospective, probably wasn’t the issue). It did seem to take care of the problem though, since I was assured by the urologist I saw that that was the root of the problem.
Last year, I had what I thought was an ulcer for a few months, even though I tested negative for the ulcer bacteria. The pain ended up disappearing after I switched to a less stressful position at work.
So back to now: I have an appointment to see a sports medicine doctor next week to investigate what my physical therapist thinks is an entrapped nerve – which one, she’s not sure. (And neither was my chiropractor). My symptoms don’t really match the innervation pattern of any particular nerve.
In my attempt to collect information for my appointment with the sports medicine doctor, I’m coming up short at consistent things that trigger my symptoms. My triggers all seem to have matched what I thought was the underlying cause of my pain at the time.
Sitting made my pain worse when I thought it was prostatitis. When I thought my pain had something to do with my hip flexor, I was able to sit down for nearly 36 hrs. over three days for a work trip, with no worsening of symptoms. In fact, it felt better then then it had for weeks (largely, because I think I was focused on work).
Sorry for such a long introduction. Just trying to convince myself this really could be caused by my brain and not some entrapped peripheral nerve somewhere in my pelvis. Hope to finish "The Divided Mind" this weekend, and will do some reading on the forum. Also going to try my best to focus on other things than my pain, and see how that helps.
I literally just bought Dr. Sarno’s book The Divided Mind last night, and I’m about a third the way through. I’m still a bit skeptical, but it is making a lot of sense in many parts.
My symptoms are a near constant burning or cool sensation in the genitals, rectal area, and perineum, and a tender spot in my urethra (only present sometimes, when I apply pressure from the outside). The pain first started as an acute pain in my urethra, and then has slowly shifted into that group of symptoms. My pain has now been going on for about four months now, and it’s really taken its toll. Like a lot of you, I’ve gone through many treatments for my pain. For me, it’s been multiple courses of antibiotics, a few months of physical therapy from a pelvic floor specialist (including internal massage), antidepressants, muscle relaxers, have seen been seeing a chiropractor.
Surprisingly, some of the treatments did work. However, I’ve noticed they worked best when I was really optimistic about them and truly believed they would work. My first course of antibiotics worked great – until I noticed a brief relapse of pain was convinced the bacteria had become ‘resistant’. Later, I was told that prostate test was actually contaminated and they hadn’t found any bacteria. My pain came back full-blast.
With physical therapy, my PT suggested my hips were misaligned, matching a lot of what I’d previously read on the internet. Was convinced that was at the root of my problem. After just two days of realignment exercises, I had nearly two weeks with 90% symptom reduction. Then I went camping, and carried a very heavy load in my backpack. Noticed the pain return a bit, and I was sure I’d sure I’d messed things up for good and started freaking out. Got everything realignedat the PT a few days later and sure enough, the pain was still there, just like I’d expected.
Looking back, I’m wondering if those were placebos. My pain has changed with my stress and expectations, and whenever I’ve been intently focused on something else, the pain seems to largely subside. My default state has been me seeing this as a major crisis that I’m working through. I wake up each morning thinking about this, and I’ve fallen asleep reading about possible treatments at night.
I was been diagnosed with OCD as a teenager and have a habit towards ‘catastrophizing’ about things. I do have an odd history of psychosomatic problems in my past, particularly as a kid. I had issues with skin hypersensitivity: clothes rubbing against sensitive parts of my body, which occupied my thoughts for the entire day. It really bothered me for weeks and it felt like something was really wrong. I actually had hypersensitivity at the tip of my penis for a few months at 13, and ended up having surgery to remove a very small skin tag (which itself wasn’t that sensitive and in retrospective, probably wasn’t the issue). It did seem to take care of the problem though, since I was assured by the urologist I saw that that was the root of the problem.
Last year, I had what I thought was an ulcer for a few months, even though I tested negative for the ulcer bacteria. The pain ended up disappearing after I switched to a less stressful position at work.
So back to now: I have an appointment to see a sports medicine doctor next week to investigate what my physical therapist thinks is an entrapped nerve – which one, she’s not sure. (And neither was my chiropractor). My symptoms don’t really match the innervation pattern of any particular nerve.
In my attempt to collect information for my appointment with the sports medicine doctor, I’m coming up short at consistent things that trigger my symptoms. My triggers all seem to have matched what I thought was the underlying cause of my pain at the time.
Sitting made my pain worse when I thought it was prostatitis. When I thought my pain had something to do with my hip flexor, I was able to sit down for nearly 36 hrs. over three days for a work trip, with no worsening of symptoms. In fact, it felt better then then it had for weeks (largely, because I think I was focused on work).
Sorry for such a long introduction. Just trying to convince myself this really could be caused by my brain and not some entrapped peripheral nerve somewhere in my pelvis. Hope to finish "The Divided Mind" this weekend, and will do some reading on the forum. Also going to try my best to focus on other things than my pain, and see how that helps.
