Alancolorado
New Member
My TMS story
I am new to the forum and writing my story to possibly help someone just like so many others have helped me on this site. At this point I don’t have a question but I may as my journey continues.
I realized I had TMS back in October of 2017 but then back tracked and realized I have had it for many years. For years I had pain that would come and go and be quite painful for long period of times. Knee pain for 6 months, foot pain for a few months. Insomnia for 15 years and even dandruff out of nowhere that couldn’t be treated. The two major issues I have had was pain in both elbows and hip/groin/front leg pain. These are the two I would like to focus on.
Background - I am 48 years old very successful (in business) and have been working out hard 6 days a week for 15 plus years. I suffered through all the pains described above but two years ago I suffered from terrible “tennis elbow” first in one arm then the other. My son would call it pizza elbow as I could lift 100 pounds over my head but couldn’t lift a piece of pizza to my mouth cause of the angle of my elbow. Got all the usual diagnosis and treatments. Ice, heat, massage, foam roller, took time off, etc. nothing worked at all. Two years and was just my life. Then one day it was gone (literally one day) in both elbows it was just gone. Clearly was the happiest person ever.
Was a great few months of pain free elbows and I didn’t care about knee or foot issues . Then last august I got the worst back spasms I could ever imagine. Didn’t do anything just happened. Couldn’t sit for long periods of time, and hurt to stand after sitting. All the usual conditions. After a few weeks of no relief I heard Howard stern talk about Dr. Sarno and the process began like it has for so many of us. It made sense I knew it was me and the pain was 90 percent gone in a week then all gone in 2 more weeks. Another month or so past and felt great. Then out of nowhere pain in my groin hip and leg appeared and made my back spasms seem like a treat. For the first two weeks out of panic and fear I forgot everything I read about TMS and went back to common treatments. Chiropractor, massage, and finally an orthopedist. He did the X-ray and then MRI. While we waited a week for the MRI results I happen to read Steve O The great pain deception and it helped but wasn’t ready to fully believe. During that week I was prescribed Codine, Tramadol, muscle relaxers, etc. I was now counting on them to manage my day. The MRI results day came and it was all the bad news at once. Disc issues L4 L5 S1, narrowing of the spine, joint damage, etc. talks of Epidural shots started and I didn’t hear much else for those 10 minutes. My mind jumped to my new life of pain and no fitness. But something happened at that 10 minute mark, I realized that it was good news not bad news. Dr. Sarno talked about ruling out tumor, cancer, etc and that the abnormalities were normal. I ignored the rest of his advice left his office and stopped everything. I quit all traditional remedies to “fix” my problems that day. The next day I was 50 percent better and within two weeks I was 95 percent better. Would have a flair up but then gone in a few minutes.
Another two months passed and that leads us to today. I am on day 2 of the exact same groin/hip/leg pain that came back while pushing myself in the gym. I am immediately turning my attention to what is going on emotionally vs last time running to the doctor. Bad news is it hurts like hell. Good news is I am more educated and think this will produce quicker results. Last time I waited 3 weeks to exercise again from fear. This time as soon as I can walk at 80 percent going back to activities as i have no fear just pain. I will keep this post updated in hopes in helps someone.
***update two days later. Again posting just to help if someone could possible feel better from this.
I had a relapse yesterday where I was a beyond 10 pain. Those who have had it know what I am talking about. That brings me to the family support topic. While my family cares deeply they don’t believe in TMS they are trying to convince me of all the normal treatments (who can blame them). Anyway went to ER last night and they gave me a shot of Toredol and a shot of a steroid. Also two Valium (must admit that part was great). Got me back to a 5 pain and slept for 10 hours finally. Then gave me the standard medicine (muscle relaxes, codine and Valium for as needed). Took it for one day and didn’t really help much and made me feel like I was back to the old beliefs. So I decided to go back to my TMS beliefs asap and stopped taking them today and walked 3 miles though the trails by my house. Hurt like hell for first 10 minutes but then spoke to my brain and realized people with major injuries can’t do what I am doing. And then really enjoyed the last couple of miles. Going to do my best to stay off the pills today if possible and if it hurts bad. Walk! Also have an appointment next week with a mind body therapist here in colorado. If these updates are useful I will keep posting every few days or with new activities. Keep believing. Alan
I am new to the forum and writing my story to possibly help someone just like so many others have helped me on this site. At this point I don’t have a question but I may as my journey continues.
I realized I had TMS back in October of 2017 but then back tracked and realized I have had it for many years. For years I had pain that would come and go and be quite painful for long period of times. Knee pain for 6 months, foot pain for a few months. Insomnia for 15 years and even dandruff out of nowhere that couldn’t be treated. The two major issues I have had was pain in both elbows and hip/groin/front leg pain. These are the two I would like to focus on.
Background - I am 48 years old very successful (in business) and have been working out hard 6 days a week for 15 plus years. I suffered through all the pains described above but two years ago I suffered from terrible “tennis elbow” first in one arm then the other. My son would call it pizza elbow as I could lift 100 pounds over my head but couldn’t lift a piece of pizza to my mouth cause of the angle of my elbow. Got all the usual diagnosis and treatments. Ice, heat, massage, foam roller, took time off, etc. nothing worked at all. Two years and was just my life. Then one day it was gone (literally one day) in both elbows it was just gone. Clearly was the happiest person ever.
Was a great few months of pain free elbows and I didn’t care about knee or foot issues . Then last august I got the worst back spasms I could ever imagine. Didn’t do anything just happened. Couldn’t sit for long periods of time, and hurt to stand after sitting. All the usual conditions. After a few weeks of no relief I heard Howard stern talk about Dr. Sarno and the process began like it has for so many of us. It made sense I knew it was me and the pain was 90 percent gone in a week then all gone in 2 more weeks. Another month or so past and felt great. Then out of nowhere pain in my groin hip and leg appeared and made my back spasms seem like a treat. For the first two weeks out of panic and fear I forgot everything I read about TMS and went back to common treatments. Chiropractor, massage, and finally an orthopedist. He did the X-ray and then MRI. While we waited a week for the MRI results I happen to read Steve O The great pain deception and it helped but wasn’t ready to fully believe. During that week I was prescribed Codine, Tramadol, muscle relaxers, etc. I was now counting on them to manage my day. The MRI results day came and it was all the bad news at once. Disc issues L4 L5 S1, narrowing of the spine, joint damage, etc. talks of Epidural shots started and I didn’t hear much else for those 10 minutes. My mind jumped to my new life of pain and no fitness. But something happened at that 10 minute mark, I realized that it was good news not bad news. Dr. Sarno talked about ruling out tumor, cancer, etc and that the abnormalities were normal. I ignored the rest of his advice left his office and stopped everything. I quit all traditional remedies to “fix” my problems that day. The next day I was 50 percent better and within two weeks I was 95 percent better. Would have a flair up but then gone in a few minutes.
Another two months passed and that leads us to today. I am on day 2 of the exact same groin/hip/leg pain that came back while pushing myself in the gym. I am immediately turning my attention to what is going on emotionally vs last time running to the doctor. Bad news is it hurts like hell. Good news is I am more educated and think this will produce quicker results. Last time I waited 3 weeks to exercise again from fear. This time as soon as I can walk at 80 percent going back to activities as i have no fear just pain. I will keep this post updated in hopes in helps someone.
***update two days later. Again posting just to help if someone could possible feel better from this.
I had a relapse yesterday where I was a beyond 10 pain. Those who have had it know what I am talking about. That brings me to the family support topic. While my family cares deeply they don’t believe in TMS they are trying to convince me of all the normal treatments (who can blame them). Anyway went to ER last night and they gave me a shot of Toredol and a shot of a steroid. Also two Valium (must admit that part was great). Got me back to a 5 pain and slept for 10 hours finally. Then gave me the standard medicine (muscle relaxes, codine and Valium for as needed). Took it for one day and didn’t really help much and made me feel like I was back to the old beliefs. So I decided to go back to my TMS beliefs asap and stopped taking them today and walked 3 miles though the trails by my house. Hurt like hell for first 10 minutes but then spoke to my brain and realized people with major injuries can’t do what I am doing. And then really enjoyed the last couple of miles. Going to do my best to stay off the pills today if possible and if it hurts bad. Walk! Also have an appointment next week with a mind body therapist here in colorado. If these updates are useful I will keep posting every few days or with new activities. Keep believing. Alan
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