During the past two weeks, has your pain been moving around? How has this affected your belief in the diagnosis?
It's very interesting how the questions in this program really seem to reflect what's going on in my life. Just two days ago, I developed a new symptom... and sadly, it scared me and still does.
For 2.5 years, I've had POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), with the main symptom being a very high heart rate whenever I'm upright. I've gotten used to it, and during the program, it actually improved so much that I even started walking on a treadmill. Not running yet, but still, it's a great achievement for me.
So, over the past week, I've been feeling quite weak and low on energy, which is okay. I understand that flare-ups can happen. But what happened two days ago knocked me off my TMS track... I developed this dull, pulling/burning pain in the middle-left part of my chest, right where my heart is. It disappears when I lie down and comes back when I get up, stand, or walk.
Through the TMS program, I've learned to ignore my heart rate when I'm upright, and it's worked wonders for me. I really felt that the key was not to focus on the symptom. I guess, as I succeeded in doing that, my brain said, "Wait a minute, she's not listening to me anymore. Let's come up with something new!"
Now, looking back and trying to figure out what might have triggered this, I remembered one thing: about a week or so ago, I was feeling pretty good and said to my husband, "I should get an ECG once in a while and have my heart checked, because it's been working so hard for so long. Just to make sure everything is okay."
I have no idea why that thought popped into my head or whether I planted a seed in my brain, but it kind of worked... just not in a way I'm happy about.
To be honest, I do want to go and get my heart checked, because it's really not easy to shake off those negative thoughts and fears, which I now know can seriously interfere with my recovery from TMS.
It's very interesting how the questions in this program really seem to reflect what's going on in my life. Just two days ago, I developed a new symptom... and sadly, it scared me and still does.
For 2.5 years, I've had POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), with the main symptom being a very high heart rate whenever I'm upright. I've gotten used to it, and during the program, it actually improved so much that I even started walking on a treadmill. Not running yet, but still, it's a great achievement for me.
So, over the past week, I've been feeling quite weak and low on energy, which is okay. I understand that flare-ups can happen. But what happened two days ago knocked me off my TMS track... I developed this dull, pulling/burning pain in the middle-left part of my chest, right where my heart is. It disappears when I lie down and comes back when I get up, stand, or walk.
Through the TMS program, I've learned to ignore my heart rate when I'm upright, and it's worked wonders for me. I really felt that the key was not to focus on the symptom. I guess, as I succeeded in doing that, my brain said, "Wait a minute, she's not listening to me anymore. Let's come up with something new!"
Now, looking back and trying to figure out what might have triggered this, I remembered one thing: about a week or so ago, I was feeling pretty good and said to my husband, "I should get an ECG once in a while and have my heart checked, because it's been working so hard for so long. Just to make sure everything is okay."
I have no idea why that thought popped into my head or whether I planted a seed in my brain, but it kind of worked... just not in a way I'm happy about.
To be honest, I do want to go and get my heart checked, because it's really not easy to shake off those negative thoughts and fears, which I now know can seriously interfere with my recovery from TMS.
