Day 10 Progress and doubts

I do feel that I’m making progress. I can still feel my pain almost all of the time, but it’s sometimes I’m the background now and I’m getting better at paying less attention to it. I run 4x a week and find that this helps my pain. However, I had pretty much stopped all other exercise other than running and walking as my brain had told me that it was making my pain worse. I did yoga yesterday for the first time in months. It felt great and like I had overcome a small obstacle. I’m planning on restarting a lot of the activities I love into my routine in the next couple of weeks, like swimming, badminton and weight training. I’m also running a half marathon this Friday. I feel like I’m physically strong but the pain is holding he back and stopping me from reaching my full potential.

I am starting to feel better mentally. I’m smiling more and allowing myself to do more of the things I enjoy. I also feel more hopeful for the future. I have a lot of stresses in my life at the minute but I know that I can get the things I need to done. I’m going to give myself more time to relax every week.

I guess I still have some doubts about TMS. My shoulder and elbow pain is actually starting to get better and isn’t there at times, but the pain in my wrist and middle finger seems to be there all the time. I’ve seen a GP, physiotherapist and an acupuncturist and they didn’t seem concerned about the pain I get in my finger which is the biggest cause of concern for me. They just told me to keep icing it and applying heat. I’m only seeing the acupuncturist now. I’m not really going there just for my physical symptoms, but I feel that I get a lot of mental benefits from it. I feel like I’m 95% convinced that what I have is TMS. I have a history of chronic symptoms, such as tension headaches, stomach issues and sciatica. Through my journaling I have realised that I’ve developed these symptoms when I’ve been going through a particularly stressful time. I’m going through a lot of stress now. I’m doing my teacher training, I’ve just moved from China back to the UK and my husband is still in China and we’re applying for his visa right now. It does make sense to me that symptoms would present themselves during this time. I just can’t help but have some small niggling doubts that what I’m experiencing is caused by some physical problem.

 

I’m on day 10 too. I’ve made progress being convinced my pain and tingling is neuroplastic and calming my fears. I haven’t been as successful not paying attention to it. I scan my body often for symptoms. Any tips for how to reduce this?

 

I’ve found meditation really helpful. I’ve been doing it for 20 minutes a day for the last few days and it’s helped a lot. I’ve also found that just doing something to take my mind off it helps. I did yoga again today and found that my shoulder pain was totally gone and I had less pain in my finger and wrist. After that I didn’t really think about the pain again for an hour or so and I’m only just really noticing it again now that I’m focusing on it. So I think that anything that can distract you from it for a while could help. Hope that helps and good luck!