New here! Pudendal nevralgia due to cycling... TMS?

Yeah! Another success story! Doing the work to heal all your unpleasant emotions is so worth it.

 

Tam olarak neler yaptılar?Bende çok zor durumdayım. Kendini nasıl iyileştirdiğini anlatıyorsun?

 

I am in a very difficult situation. What exactly did you do to recover? can you explain a little bit?

 

If your question is for me friend. For me knowledge is power and I did the work. I've been studying mind body modalities for more than 3 decades as well as neuroscience and anatomy. I'm certified in NLP, hypnosis, EFT, Reiki and Yoga, to name a few. I've been working on my emotional challenges since I was in my 20s. With all this and more I figured out how to get my brain to stop choosing to make pain. Now I coach others.

There isn't a fast way out of TMS issues, you must figure yourself out and MOST importantly do the work to resolve the difficult emotions that drive TMS. Fortunately for you lots of folks have created excellent programs to help you.

 

Hi there, I am right now in the middle of a very bad setback. Last time I wrote I was able to recover using the TMS techniques, I managed to get back on the bike, cycle long distances etc. Lately I was training for a marathon and suffered an injury, that my physiotherapist describes as a trochanter bursitis, and inflammation of the gluteus medius and piriformis muscle. That created a sensation of burning and pinch nerve in my right hip. The problem I don't understand is that a few days after I consulted with the physio and started treatment, my pelvic pain/pudendal nerve FLARED so badly that now I can't do anything without hurting. My focus is entirely on this pain which is much stronger than the new pain. I also have to constantly run to the bathroom. I don't really get what happened since there is no real link between both, and my brain is of course wondering: "what if this time the pain is structural"? "the pain is worse than last time".... "what if it doesnt go away this time". I of course am panicked. I can't practice any sport because of the two pains.... I guess I am writing to get some insights as to such a setback.....

 

So sorry to hear you have flared up. As a sufferer of pudendal neuralgia since 2009, I can relate to plunge into horrid flare ups when you're starting to feel better. Many are the times when I thought my flare ups were worse than before, and had I injured myself somehow, and what if the symptoms of the new flare up won't go away, etc, etc. All this made my anxiety levels go through the roof and this in turn affected other parts of my body with the pain spreading to my back, thighs, sometimes even my feet! You wrote about rushing to the toilet--if you meant the bladder is acting up, then I'm sure you know that the pudendal nerve affects both the bladder sphincter and the anal one, among other things. So a flare up can involve so many other nerves and organs, plus it can change the symptoms from flare up to flare up.

It took me a very long time to learn this and over the years I've learned to let go more and more of the fear, plus I won't allow any physical therapist anywhere near me anymore. Physios (and other practitioners such as chiropractors and osteopaths) are usually effective when it comes to actual injuries. So say you play football and you injure a muscle in the groin--so this is a sports injury that happened right there and then, and physiotherapy will work because the injury is just that--an injury--but if the pain comes from neuroplastic pain (the kind of pain we all have) then a physio will not be able to help because one cannot treat neuroplastic pain with physiotherapy, and treating the area as if it were an injury will only irritate the whole thing and even give you more pain. Anyway, at least this has always been my experience.

Remember what neuroplastic doctors say: "Don't treat the pain physically. Treat the pain psychologically!" This is a difficult lesson to learn and one which I always have to remind myself about as irrational fear takes over me, which is what my brain wants. And so I have to stop this and remind myself of what Dr Howard Schubiner (author of "Unlearn Your Pain") once told me--it is called the 5Fs, and I have them on my fridge door now so I can quickly read them over and over:

DO NOT FEAR PAIN
DO NOT FOCUS ON PAIN
DO NOT BE FRUSTRATED BY PAIN
DO NOT FIGHT PAIN
DO NOT TRY TO FIX PAIN

I hope this helps you. Repetition is the key as is truly letting go--even though I totally relate to how difficult this can be. Trust me!

 

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Hi and thank you for your message. How are you feeling now? Still living wth PN symptoms? I am still in the midst of the crisis... it is SO DIFFICULT with this type of pain since it sooooooooo intense.... you can't sit, sleep.... no posture seems to calm the pain down. And as you know, not sleeping exacerbates the pain... AND of course, I am FIXATED and OBESSED and Hypervigilent on the nerve pain that I feel.

and this time since it was trigger by a real sport injury of my right hip and sciatic nerve, My brain is constantly telling me: "OMG what if this time is different, the pain is so much worse than last time, etc."

And I cant help but being mad at myself since I know everything about pain and the TMS principles AND STILL have to go through this entire path again. I just have no energy left inside of me this time. It is really difficult to no go down the medical road again.

 

Hello. I'm so sorry you're not well. Reading your message, this is what jumped out at me: "I am FIXATED and OBESSED and Hypervigilant"
This is the right combination to bring on the pain. Both Dr Sarno and Dr Schubiner say that in order to calm the pain and make it go away we must repudiate the pain and be reassured within ourselves that this is indeed TMS. And most important of all, we MUST LOSE THE FEAR and really mean it. The brain likes to play tricks on us, and the moment it feels unsafe about something it will throw pain at you in order to distract you from the real issue: YOUR EMOTIONS.

These days, when I feel new pain or a flare-up is different from the last one, etc, I ask myself: "What emotions could be behind this particular pain?" And then I wait to see if I get any insights into what I'm feeling, or some emotion may suddenly come up, and then I write it all down.

I cannot tell you what to do re: doctors, etc; only you can make that decision. But remember that the brain is quite capable of creating new neural pathways, especially when it knows that you are onto it. The brain's very sneaky, so don't be surprised if suddenly you have a new pain or if the pain changes location. I've had this many, many times, but only you can make decide whether you wish to have this checked out for peace of mind or whether you continue with the TMS program.

I've lost faith in doctors, physios, chiros, et al, a long time ago, and after I wasted thousands and thousands of dollars I decided to go it alone. When I feel bad I read and re-read about neuroplasticity, and it's amazing how all of a sudden I come across some advice from Dr Sarno or Dr Schubiner that I forgot about or that I missed, and this really helps me to keep going.

I wish you all the best in this journey. It's a tough journey, but the tougher you are, the closer you are getting to beating this thing. I think the brain knows this, too, and this is the reason why it invents new neural pathways.