Piriformis Muscle Pain

[DavinaMarie]

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Thanks!

Enrique

Enrique, Forest told me that you suffered from Piriformis muscle pain i have been fighting sciatica for over 2 years, finally succumbed to a spinal injection 3 weeks ago which did nothing at all in pain relief, Dr. now wants to inject under ct scan into the piriformis muscle, when he pressed it today i nearly jumped off the table, i believe in tms but still cannot shift the pain and am confused and divided [The Divided Mind] of Sarno indeed. Any encouragement would be much appreciated. With many thanks, DavinaMarie

 

[Enrique]

DavinaMarie,

Yes, I've suffered from pain in the piriformis so I can relate. As a runner, it was a very uncomfortable feeling especially as I was following my typical protocol of continuing my normal training routines. So that meant many runs with pain in the rear end. Looking at my logs, I noted that the pain started in Nov of 2010 and lasted for a couple of months.

My general protocol for dealing with pain is that I try to figure out if it's TMS/PPD or if it is pain caused by a real injury. This is very important for me because unless I can believe 100% that it's a TMS pain and not a real structural injury, then this pain isn't going to go away. For me this is sometimes very challenging. I'm working out a lot, running, cycling, and swimming. So it's really easy to associate a pain with a given activity. When I got the glute pain (I prefer to use the less conditioned word "glute" rather than piriformis because priformis syndrome is just so commonly used by everyone to refer to this chronic condition. ) Anyway, when I got the glute pain, it was 2 days after a very hard run. So there was a good reason to believe that this was not a real structural injury. If it was a real injury, wouldn't it have been hurting that evening or even the next morning perhaps? So that fact, was #1 on my list of reasons why this was TMS. Then, of course, I started focusing my mind, every time I felt the pain, on my feelings and emotions that were going through my mind at that moment. I was thinking psychological. When I felt the pain, I wasn't thinking about what I could do to fix it or who I could find to fix it for me. I heard a good quote recently which I'll paraphrase about how if you are looking outside of yourself to find a way to fix you then you aren't dealing with the real cause which is your very own thoughts, your way of thinking, or your feelings and emotions. If you aren't trying to become aware of these thinking patterns and then changing those thoughts to be more productive then you're going to remain stuck in the pain.

Interestingly too, is that one of the common diagnostic areas that TMS'ers will have tenderness and pain upon prodding is the lateral upper buttocks area. I don't know if this is the piriformis muscle location exactly, but still that's close enough for me and another reason that I put on my list of reasons that this was TMS and not a real structural problem.

Going back to my general protocol for dealing with pain:

1. I do whatever I can to get myself to believe 100% it is TMS. This is very important.
2. I resume normal activity as much as my pain will allow and I stop searching outside myself for the cure
3. Then whenever I feel the pain, I force my mind to think clean (as Monte calls it) (i.e. focus on my thoughts, feelings, not the pain). I just posted the other day about this point: http://tmswiki.org/forum/threads/ignoring-the-pain.305/#post-2175

If you're struggling with #1, that's ok. Do the best you can. There are some good resources on the wiki and some other threads on the forum which cover the topic from different perspectives. This is a recent Q&A with an Expert thread on this subject: http://tmswiki.org/forum/threads/is-it-ppd-tms-or-a-real-structural-issue.270/#post-1897
I know what it's like to struggle with 100% belief. It can be very hard. But I find that my belief builds and builds as I add more and more evidence on the side of it being TMS vs a real structural problem.

Try to do #2 and #3 and see if you don't experience reduction in pain that helps give you more reasons to believe in the psychological diagnosis.

Hope this helps!

 

[DavinaMarie]

DavinaMarie,

Yes, I've suffered from pain in the piriformis so I can relate. As a runner, it was a very uncomfortable feeling especially as I was following my typical protocol of continuing my normal training routines. So that meant many runs with pain in the rear end. Looking at my logs, I noted that the pain started in Nov of 2010 and lasted for a couple of months.

My general protocol for dealing with pain is that I try to figure out if it's TMS/PPD or if it is pain caused by a real injury. This is very important for me because unless I can believe 100% that it's a TMS pain and not a real structural injury, then this pain isn't going to go away. For me this is sometimes very challenging. I'm working out a lot, running, cycling, and swimming. So it's really easy to associate a pain with a given activity. When I got the glute pain (I prefer to use the less conditioned word "glute" rather than piriformis because priformis syndrome is just so commonly used by everyone to refer to this chronic condition. ) Anyway, when I got the glute pain, it was 2 days after a very hard run. So there was a good reason to believe that this was not a real structural injury. If it was a real injury, wouldn't it have been hurting that evening or even the next morning perhaps? So that fact, was #1 on my list of reasons why this was TMS. Then, of course, I started focusing my mind, every time I felt the pain, on my feelings and emotions that were going through my mind at that moment. I was thinking psychological. When I felt the pain, I wasn't thinking about what I could do to fix it or who I could find to fix it for me. I heard a good quote recently which I'll paraphrase about how if you are looking outside of yourself to find a way to fix you then you aren't dealing with the real cause which is your very own thoughts, your way of thinking, or your feelings and emotions. If you aren't trying to become aware of these thinking patterns and then changing those thoughts to be more productive then you're going to remain stuck in the pain.

Interestingly too, is that one of the common diagnostic areas that TMS'ers will have tenderness and pain upon prodding is the lateral upper buttocks area. I don't know if this is the piriformis muscle location exactly, but still that's close enough for me and another reason that I put on my list of reasons that this was TMS and not a real structural problem.

Going back to my general protocol for dealing with pain:

1. I do whatever I can to get myself to believe 100% it is TMS. This is very important.
2. I resume normal activity as much as my pain will allow and I stop searching outside myself for the cure
3. Then whenever I feel the pain, I force my mind to think clean (as Monte calls it) (i.e. focus on my thoughts, feelings, not the pain). I just posted the other day about this point: http://tmswiki.org/forum/threads/ignoring-the-pain.305/#post-2175

If you're struggling with #1, that's ok. Do the best you can. There are some good resources on the wiki and some other threads on the forum which cover the topic from different perspectives. This is a recent Q&A with an Expert thread on this subject: http://tmswiki.org/forum/threads/is-it-ppd-tms-or-a-real-structural-issue.270/#post-1897
I know what it's like to struggle with 100% belief. It can be very hard. But I find that my belief builds and builds as I add more and more evidence on the side of it being TMS vs a real structural problem.

Try to do #2 and #3 and see if you don't experience reduction in pain that helps give you more reasons to believe in the psychological diagnosis.

Hope this helps!

Enrique this really does help thank you so much for taking so much time and thoughtfulness into your reply it is a great relief to realise there are others suffering from the same complaint, I am trying to forget that I saw that biking on a machine in the gym is the worse possible excercise for pirformis and sciatica along with the rowing machine, both of which I do every day.....any advise as to how i handle that one??

Warm regards,

DavinaMarie

 

[Forest]

I am trying to forget that I saw that biking on a machine in the gym is the worse possible excercise for pirformis and sciatica along with the rowing machine, both of which I do every day.....any advise as to how i handle that one??

Usually when I hear someone say that a certain activity is the worse thing you could do my first thought is conditioning. If you think something is going to be bad for your pirformis or sciatica most likely it will. TMS will take advantage of any doubt you have and will create symptoms in any place where you will think it is a strucutral cause or where it will distract you. This is why the three points Enrique mentioned are so important.

Point 1 will help you eradicate doubt and more importantly stop the distraction that TMS strives for. When you accept the diagnosis, you will no longer have to have the internal debate over if something is TMS or not. Once you stop focusing on structural causes for your symptoms you will set the stage for rapid improvement. There are a number of different ways to get here. The best way is probably to read TMS books and gain knowledge about what is going on. The more knowledge you obtain the more your unconscious mind will accept the diagnosis. Reading forum posts and success stories is also very helpful, and is what I did to accept the diagnosis.

The best way to overcome doubt that a certain activity is bad for you is to simply do it. This is where I think point 2 comes in. By becoming physically active we are challenging the believe that we are frail and injured. More importantly, when you do the activity that you have been avoiding you are sending a powerful message to your unconscious that this activity won't hurt you and that you know what is going on. Exercising and being active can affirm the diagnosis and build up your confidence in both yourself and in TMS.

I used to avoid typing on the computer because I thought it was what caused my wrist/hand pain. Like you, I was told that typing on a keyboard was the worst thing I could do if I had RSI. The more I held onto this belief and worried that typing was the worse thing I could do, the more my symptoms became worse. However, the more I started typing and gaining TMS knowledge, the better I became and the more my symptoms faded away.

If you eradicate the fear that a certain activity will harm you, your symptoms will begin to fade away, and you will recover.

 

[intense50]

I'll have pain in the left glute right after running. I'll limp for a day or two depending on mileage i did. If i push on the side of my lower thigh it hurts like an inflamed bursa or i t band .