Numbness and weakness along the sciatic nerve

[solarflower77]

Hello everyone,

I'm quite familiar with TMS yet I find myself with another dilemma..

15 years ago I had a horrendous sciatic pain in my left leg that lasted 2 weeks and then disappeared. It left behind residual numbness in my foot and toes that went away eventually, or was so minimal I never noticed it again.

Over the 15 years I sometimes would strain (pick something up, or help someone heavy up at work) and have a little of a flare up but it would always resolve eventually.

About 3 weeks ago I had some left side tingling/tightness on my whole left side (including face, shoulder, arm, leg) as if I was split in half. It lasted a little and then came back a few days later, always at night. I have been extremely stressed at work and in life and I'm in peri-menopause so attributed it to some strange meno symptoms. However 2 weeks ago I developed numbness and tingling in my left foot, weakness in my left knee and numbness on the outside of the shin. I remember it was exactly where my sciatic pain used to be. The numbness is pretty bad, I can't stand on my toes on that foot, and walk wonky. There is absolutely no pain anywhere though. Just numb and weak. And some tightness on my hamstring. No low back pain, no shooting pains. The numbness reduces when I lie flat on the floor with my legs 90 degree on the chair. But when I walk it's scary, I feel lopsided. I am having an MRI tomorrow of my lower back. I was told it is much worse to have numbness only, it means the nerve is not firing any more.

Could this be TMS? Even with the weakness of the knee and the whole leg feeling pretty disabling? Pretty worried especially since even though the MRI is tomorrow I have to wait up to 4 weeks for the written results (that's the way it goes here). I will get the DVD with the image though so could take it to an orthopedic doctor to read.

Any ideas would be very appreciated.

 

[Baseball65]

I'm quite familiar with TMS yet I find myself with another dilemma

Order a copy of "Healing Back Pain" by John Sarno and read it ... There is nothing in your story unique or different or scary. Anything we told you here would be re-transmitting that info. If after you read it and follow the instructions you have questions, they'll be answered here promptly.

Could this be TMS?

Yes... I had every symptom you've mentioned and more....and they're all gone

Nothing in an MRI confirms or denies TMS...structural changes that the medical industry blames for symptoms are 100,000% BS...

 

[JanAtheCPA]

We do want to know that someone has been checked out medically for sudden new symptoms that don't resolve quickly with TMS knowledge, because of course no one here can diagnose on a free forum. Am I correct to assume that before being referred for an MRI, you were properly examined by a qualified medical practitioner? Who presumably did not see anything requiring urgent intervention?

If that's the case, it certainly can't hurt to assume that the TMS mechanism is at work, because there is nothing invasive about knowledge, AND really getting into it can improve all aspects of your emotional as well as physical health.

I'm quite familiar with TMS

Can you tell us what your familiarity entails? Many people say they are familiar, but have never actually read Dr Sarno. Or, they read Sarno once in the past and had a "book cure" but never really did what we call "the work". Which is in line with the advice from @Baseball65. We also have recommendations for other easily-accessible resources but want to give the appropriate level of advice!

 

[solarflower77]

Thank you so much for your replies. I really appreciate them.

I read Mind/Body Prescription back in 2009 and The Divided Mind in 2011. I worked with some of my symptoms over the years, a lot of them resolved when the appropriate emotion was accessed. I did a little work with dr Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain. I totally believe that most of my symptoms have always been TMS. I think however as soon as the symptoms were gone I would fall back into repressing, stressing and I haven't really shifted into being more open, curious rather than panicked, in the long term.

However my lower back has been the "scary symptom" - always.

If it was just pain I would rest and do the inner work knowing that it's TMS. But having just the numbness and weakness really freaks me out.

I haven't been to a doctor yet. I told my symptoms to a physio and he suggested getting an MRI so I'm doing that and will take the image to a doctor, possibly today.

Last night I woke up and felt some tingling in the perineum on the left side. It subsided and I fell back to sleep. This morning I woke up and as I started walking the numbness and weakness wasn't there - however 5 minutes later it started coming back, first into the leg, then the knee and tingling in my toes. It's just so scary for me. Pain - I understand, but this numbness and weakness make me believe it's something serious. I know that's how TMS works yet I am unable to stop the mind spiraling into chaos. I keep thinking that there is a serious disc issue that will require surgery, that when I am horizontal it releases but when I start walking the pressure builds and the disc presses on the nerve.

I have had lumbar MRI's in 2011, 2014 and 2018. There was nothing scary in them, just "normal" amount of slightly bulging discs, loss of disc height etc.

 

[Baseball65]

I haven't really shifted into being more open, curious rather than panicked, in the long term.

My personality hasn't changed a lot at all...My belief about myself has..

However my lower back has been the "scary symptom" - always.

That's why I asked if you had read 'Healing Back Pain"...to Sarno, if you were harboring ANY fear about your physical well-being, he didn't consider you 'cured'. That is obviously what is coming back to getcha.

If it was just pain I would rest and do the inner work knowing that it's TMS. But having just the numbness and weakness really freaks me out.

The Incident that brought me to this work and 'Healing Back Pain' was begun with Numbness and Tingling. I had just gotten into the Entertainment Union, had a second Child and began a Job at Paramount. In my second week, my leg got so Numb and weak, I had to escort it by pulling it with my trouser. I had NO pain....just weakness and a lack of feeling. In fact, my first thought was that there was something wrong with my HIP.

After a month or so I went to a Dr. They told me it was my Back. THEN I got back pain as well as the Numbness and weakness.

I went and got a bunch of MRI's and everybody had a different take. "It's your disc.....You have a congenital fusion....you have stenosis.... your Hips are horribly twisted" But i got zero relief, even after 9 epidurals (3 sets of 3) Hundreds of treatments, therapy, magnets, back braces, SURGERY and enough drugs to kill several touring Funk Bands.

This was marked by several attempts to go back to work over a year and a half. My family could Not survive on my disability check.

I got dumped on the 'Chronic Pain' trash heap and was assigned to one of those centers.

After an emergency room visit, I got angry at the whole damn system and purchased a copy of "Healing Back Pain" .

I treated it like my personal trainer and I was fully healed and back at work in about a month. I have had a couple days relapse in 25 years. I do not believe in Back Pain...or better, It is just a messenger about some RAGE that has piled up that I am ignoring. I turn 60 this month and still work in Heavy construction. I have zero limitations other than my ability. THIS is what caught my attention in your OP :

Over the 15 years I sometimes would strain (pick something up, or help someone heavy up at work) and have a little of a flare up

There is not such thing as a strained Back. Sarno himself asks it as a rhetorical question in the back of the book. This is what he would call 'physico-phobia". It is not fear on your part, but rather a lingering belief in the fragility of the back buried in your unconscious.

When Sarno said to get 'Checked out'

checked out medically for sudden new symptoms

He repeatedly said to rule out Cancer or a tumor. Many of the 'real' diagnoses that people believe means they don't have TMS are found on MRI's. Herniated discs, tears in ligaments, etc. I myself broke a spinal vertebrae in a fall and had zero pain, and didn't take any special care while it knitted itself, because it was only discovered after it had healed (I fell two stories)

The medical world continues to use more and more minutiae to diagnose symptoms because their recovery rate is so poor. It's No wonder....the problem is in my life and my head, not in my back or Hip.

I began looking closely at my Wonderful loving Family, my 'Great" Job and my failures at the things I really wanted to be doing. AHA.... all of those pasted on smileys that made me such a great Dad and Husband and Middle class Nirvana guy? That's where my problem was hidden. I didn't have to change a Thing except my beliefs about those things. That is 'the work' and the feelings of numbness, pain...whatever you got? Those are there to distract me. It's actually like an over evolved coping mechanism that just can't keep up with all of the Rage inducers of modern society that have been foisted upon us, by ourselves.

 

[CalmIsTheCure]

From my understanding this is ehy TMS keeps coming back to people. Because ultimately you need to change. Obviously you will still be you. But I think the main thing is to change how you perceive think act and be.
If how you perceive yourself, the world and others doesnt change. It keeps coming back. Or tjats at least my understanding

 

[feduccini]

But having just the numbness and weakness really freaks me out.

Numbness, tingling, stiffness, a strange sensation of having some sort of energy running through the leg... these are my 24/7 symptoms. Usually there's no pain. Even so they're the ones that get more easily to my emotions.
I think part of the reason is that they're very strange sensations that doesn't feel natural.

But I do know they're always there exactly because they get the most of my attention.

 

[Baseball65]

From my understanding this is ehy TMS keeps coming back to people. Because ultimately you need to change. Obviously you will still be you. But I think the main thing is to change how you perceive think act and be.
If how you perceive yourself, the world and others doesn't change. It keeps coming back. Or that's at least my understanding

I am largely the same inside as I was when I was 30...but when I am caught up in a role? It's much easier to see it faster, because we are also largely redundant. ... the selfish childish 5 year old in me is still awake. If I have learned anything from Sarno, its's never to discount that 5 year old. He never goes away no matter how 'mature' we might be on the outside. The 5 year old (Id) fighting with the Moses (Superego) is largely responsible for symptoms. To keep me from looking at that.
The 'Adult' me? That's the pasted on smile. Pretending he's the real me is a liability. Sarno does a great chart on these in "Mindbody Prescription"...Just reviewing that chart is a huge help remembering who I really am.
All 3, but only showing (intentionally) the world my adult. Most everybody else can see the others, but our adult THINKS he's the real team captain

 

[CalmIsTheCure]

I believe you have to teach that 5 year old that the behaviours it believes are keeping it safe because its the only eay they know how is now redundant. We understand that it did these things to survive but now we can teach ourselves a better way.

Our brain wants 4 things.
Love
Connection
Safety
Deserving.

And our brains will do anything to get those things.

And its now our job to teach our brains that they can get these things in healthier better ways.

 

[solarflower77]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I learnt so much from them. Love, connection, safety, deserving.. so so true.

The MRI didn't show anything that would suggest a new problem in my lower back. I do however still have this numbness and weakness in my leg. It's there pretty much all the time, for 2 months now. The orthopedic doctor suggested getting EMG testing done.

This whole story started in July, after a flight, I experienced whole left side body numbness/tingling. It only lasted a while that evening in bed and then came back 2 weeks later again at night. Mid August it became more permanent and now it's always there - the left side of my body from the top of the head to my toes is slightly numb: my face, my arm, rib area, the of course the leg and foot. It gets more pronounced when I'm stressed. I had a brain MRI last week which came back clear and cervical spine MRI which showed some C5 - C7 damage but I haven't seen a doctor yet, my physio said he didn't think it was serious.

I have a lot of trigger points on top of my head on the left side, when I press into them it feels so sore. It's almost like fascia problem rather than muscle problem. In the last 4 weeks I also developed a dysautonomia symptoms: high heart rate when I walk which makes me feel very faint, adrenaline rushes in the morning that last sometimes even an hour (extreme fight or flight), digestive problems.

I'm really discouraged that my symptoms don't move around like it usually goes in TMS: I have consistent numbness in that leg and foot/toes, every day for 9 weeks now. If the symptoms are so specific can it still be TMS? I know I'm like a broken record.. I've just gone down so many rabbit holes in the last few weeks convincing myself I have cervical instability and will require surgery, or maybe discs are pressing into my spine and that's why I have this unilateral numbness that won't go away.

 

[BloodMoon]

I have consistent numbness in that leg and foot/toes, every day for 9 weeks now. If the symptoms are so specific can it still be TMS?

Yes it can be. I had severe coccyx pain with radiating numbness across my buttocks and down my left leg for more than 18 months. I had steroid injections in my coccyx under general anaesthetic - which were useless, they gave me no pain relief. An X-ray and MRI scan showed nothing that could be responsible for the symptoms. I carried a cushion around with me to use every time I needed to sit and I resigned myself to probably suffering those symptoms for the rest of my life. Eventually though, those symptoms gradually went away and my brain moved on to giving me pain in another part of my body and that made me realise I was suffering with TMS/mind/body symptoms.

 

[Cactusflower]

@solarflower77
Your symptoms and trigger sound similar to mine. I had a huge mixture of guilt, rage and fear of rejection over that fight. It was a giant reflection of many of my triggers, worries and an understanding that I had no idea of how to set boundaries.
I also had some strange symptoms and was diagnosed with some nerve “damage” in my feet. It is now very minor, and I don’t worry about it but look at my feet when putting on my socks/shoes daily as was suggested, just in case. Never had a problem!
I also have had “diagnoses” in my back and neck but don’t worry about those because I’m confident that the TMS work I am doing will right things some day (Dan Buglio is a great example of this).
I had a ton more symptoms (all gone but do visit for moments at times) but some of the more muscular ones. They seem to be taking their sweet time but there is a very strong co-relation to stress and emotions and my tolerance level of these sensations.
You will need to learn to turn your mind away from obsessing about the physical sensations and towards the emotions, fears, feelings and personality traits you have not been wanting to feel as well as noticing thought and behavior patterns which are not of benefit to you.
Starting by reading any book by Dr. John Sarno (and if you have, read it again), and Claire Weekes will help if you begin following their advice.

You’ve been going down the medical rabbit hole for a few months now and it sounds like it hasn’t helped. This forum isn’t about all your medical results etc. It’s about doing mind/body work.

Sounds like you need to decide how you plan to proceed.

 

[solarflower77]

Yes it can be. I had severe coccyx pain with radiating numbness across my buttocks and down my left leg for more than 18 months. I had steroid injections in my coccyx under general anaesthetic - which were useless, they gave me no pain relief. An X-ray and MRI scan showed nothing that could be responsible for the symptoms. I carried a cushion around with me to use every time I needed to sit and I resigned myself to probably suffering those symptoms for the rest of my life. Eventually though, those symptoms gradually went away and my brain moved on to giving me pain in another part of my body and that made me realise I was suffering with TMS/mind/body symptoms.[/QUOTE

Wow, thank you for sharing that story. I think my brain needed to hear this.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I'm with @Cactusflower - your posts are all about the physical details with zero reference to mental or emotional health other than making use of the TMS acronym a few times. Being able to use TMS in a sentence is not enough You need to be proactively applying TMS knowledge by doing the work.

I haven't been to a doctor yet. I told my symptoms to a physio and he suggested getting an MRI so I'm doing that and will take the image to a doctor, possibly today.

I honestly don't understand the obsession with MRIs in the last decade or so. The well-known problem with them is that they will show every little imperfection, so it's great that the doc you saw was able to say there was nothing of concern to explain your symptoms, because there are too many who will point out every little thing that is visible, in a desperate attempt to explain a possible cause for symptoms - or maybe just to cover their asses.

Reread what Dr Sarno and current professionals (Dr Schubiner comes to mind) have to say about MRI findings and consider applying the same outlook to EMG testing. I have yet to come across someone on this forum who obtained positive results from having that done after other exams and tests were inconclusive. It's just another fishing expedition.

I keep thinking that there is a serious disc issue that will require surgery,

Please get up to speed on the now-well-documented findings about the hideously poor outcomes of back surgery. They are abysmal. You need to do the work. Structured Educational Program - The TMS Wiki

 

[Rabscuttle]

@solarflower77

solar if we are to believe that our pain is TMS and that the brain is trying to distract from an underlying emotion/problem whatever, then why would the brain move the symptom around if in its current iteration it has you in a complete and utter panic thinking the worst how you need surgery, how youre broken etc.

You need to recognize you’re in a fear loop of obsessing over your symptoms. What’s more powerful than the pain and symptoms is the story we tell ourselves about the symptoms and pain. What story are you telling yourself, that you’re fucked forever and it’s all hopeless, or that it’s TMS, that there isn’t really anything wrong with you and that these symptoms can go away by putting work in?

 

[Joulegirl]

Yup-you are stuck in a fear loop. You have multiple symptoms cause your brain is seeing what scares you to keep you stuck. Most of us have experienced this and you have to get rid of the fear and start feeling your feelings that are keeping you stuck. I can't remember if you tried the SEP or not, but this is a free program on this site that is very helpful to start this process.

 

[Mitzie]

@solarflower77 Hi...everyone has given you so much great advice! I wanted to also share my experience with left side issues, including numbness. So this is just me..I have found that if I pay attention to where my pain or numbness or any other thing, rashes, itches, etc..are on my body I can often pinpoint where I need to do the "work"..for instance I was having numbness and tingling in my left hand..the left side of my face looked unhappy while the right stayed alert..and my left leg was always tender and painful in the ankle...So because I have used Dr. Sarno for everything, I applied it to my knowledge of yoga and the body..the left side for me is the feminine side..so I said ok..where am I not honoring the feminine in my life..Well it was in almost everything I was doing..I was angry that I had been carrying all the weight of raising a family on my own, I worked a manual labor job, not that a manual labor job is unfeminine but for me it was physically draining..I had become unattractive to myself..I no longer did any of the little things I used to do to feel pretty..So I used Dr.Sarno and focused not on the numbness or pain but on reconnecting to my feminine self. How: I sat down and did the "shadow" work..I wrote out on loose leaf paper everything I mean everything, in detail, that was making me feel or look unattractive to myself. It took a few days..and anytime the numbness tried to come I would ignore it and go put on music and take a bath and say girl you are so pretty. It all went away..of course it did. Our bodies are talking to us, our minds are creating distractions to keep us safe. But we can, and you said you have in the past, rewrite the script and receive a different outcome. I hope you feel better soon!! It sucks being in the fear apart.
P.S. I also stopped believing in menopause symptoms! Did you know in other cultures the symptoms we in the states experience are almost unheard of.