Newcomer on my journey

Hello!
My story begins a few months ago in June. Of course, like the rest of the world, I was feeling the stress of the pandemic and lockdown. I have always had some health anxiety so this exacerbated it. In the past, I had my share of random pains (carpal tunnel like pain, vulvodynia, other pelvic pain, heart palpitations, headaches) and they typically tend to only be on my left side and went away or diagnosed as benign if I got it checked out.

I started to feel some pain and sciatica in my left leg. I chalked it up to sitting terribly at home and being less active (work had picked up and I guess pandemic put me in a funk). By July, I has developed pelvic pain on my left side (the same one I had years ago but had gone away). I had gotten an ultrasound for it 4 years ago and the doctor thought it was probably a burst ovarian cyst and was gone and it dissipated a few months later. At that time, both my mother and sister had been diagnosed with illnesses (okay now) and I lost my dear grandmother so I tend to think these were emotional pains.

Then, the GI symptoms started (bellyache, bloating, diarrhea). I went to my PCP who ran some blood tests. They were unremarkable minus a few increased WBCs. When nothing let up, she sent me for a CT. The CT was also unremarkable minus a few minor swollen lymph nodes. Of course the doctor mentioned something to the effect of oh maybe it’s a lymphoma or something but I highly doubt it as everything else is fine. I hung on to that and went into a downward depression spiral. I had a blood test again 2 weeks later and the WBCs were pretty much back to normal. The doctor was not concerned and then said she had talked to the radiologist further and highly doubt a lymphoma. Ugh why even say that to begin with.

I started to get headaches, insomnia, and eye twitches. Of course, I was googling my symptoms and made it worse. One day I felt like I was itchy all over after I saw that as a sign of lymphoma. Well, I realized that was not the case and as soon as I started doing some CBT all of that stopped. And I stopped googling.

I discovered Sarno and started to improve a lot. My GI symptoms are 95% gone, sleep is much better, no headaches, or other odd symptoms . I still have the pelvic pain that a chiropractor found to be a very tight Psoas muscle and jammed hip. The sessions have helped a little but I see how my mind truly exacerbated the symptoms. So here I am on my journey to recovery. I am a very anxious person, perfectionist, sensitive— very much a TMS personality. I have a lot of unresolved tension and some past trauma that makes sense. I am sure COVID was the tip of the iceberg to set this off. So here I am on my journey to healing. I’ve read Mindbody Perscription and the Divided Mind. Also going to read Healing Back Pain and reading the stories here. I downloaded the Curable app and it helps a lot!!! Wishing you all the best here.