Really Struggling with Knee Pain

That's the Symptom Imperative. Add that to your evidence sheet!

 

Yesterday, my knee pain eased a bit. I felt a little better all day, but I had severe nausea after lunch. Could this also be a Symptom Imperative?

 

Could be!

(Or it could be just something you ate at lunch)

 

So I’m 2 weeks into my renewed efforts to help my knee pain. I’m on day 7 of the structured program. Wanted to post my status so far, get some thoughts from others.

4 months ago I re-started my cycling, after a few years with minimal bike time. I used to cycle 3 or 4,ooo miles a year, so have the muscle memory for the sport. In May of this year I started with a modest 3X a week, over a couple months, 5X a week. After 3 months of excellent improvement and about 12o miles a week, my left knee began to hurt, the pain would move around a bit, but always in relation to the kneecap. I self diagnosed it as PFPS.

After just a week of mindbody healing, the pain basically went away. (For a few days) This week I ramped my cycling back up to 100 miles, with one ride at 35 miles. During that ride, my left knee began to ache, not hurt so much but ache. I followed that ride up this morning with a 20 mile ride, which my knee continued to ache. Not much, like a 2 or 3.

My point is, I feel like I’ve made good progress, but I do wonder if I am simply feeling the normal muscle tiredness from going from 0 miles per week to 100 per week in 4 months. Either way, I plan to keep doing what I’m doing, but being smart about it as well.

I would like to ride most every day, but I take days off to make sure I’m giving my body some rest. (Or maybe I’m allowing fear to control me?)

BTW, I am a textbook TMS patient, fortunately I discovered Dr. Sarno a long time ago.

Any input would be appreciated!

 

There’s nothing wrong with taking rest days. Perspective is important. Rest to allow the muscles to grow and recover, to honor and respect your body and the work it has put in? Awesome! But rest from the perspective of having some structural issue that can only heal by inactivity does not align with TMS work.

Part of this journey is learning to trust our bodies again, being able to distinguish normal pains like soreness related to exercise and pains related to TMS. As we stick to the journey it gets easier and easier to distinguish between the two.

I notice this trend on this forum and TMS personalities in general where they feel this compulsion to exercise obsessively (I am included in this category!). Not sure if that’s you. It’s not really conveyed in your post aside from you expressing the desire to cycle everyday. But I’d say be mindful about these thoughts. I think a lot of us chase things because our history of having low self worth. Not saying that’s you, but I think the way we mentally approach our hobbies and outlets is important. Ex. I am doing this because it’s fun and I derive joy? Or I am doing this because to not do it means I’m weak and pathetic?

 

I'm like this. All or nothing. Moderation is difficult for me -- I actually have a really hard time figuring out when I need rest from exercise and when I don't! I have zero common sense about this. As in, it's not that I know I should rest and I refuse -- it's that I *really have no sense of what is normal and healthy in terms of rest and activity*.
I think this aligns with the TMS personality -- we're willing to punish ourselves by behaving as if we don't have normal human needs. Like for rest from intense exercise! To the degree that, for me at least, I don't actually really know what normal, healthy human behavior in this area is. I don't really know what normal human needs are in terms of a lot of different things! I get allll mixed up on this!

 

Thank you @Rabscuttle - your words capture the issues and my personal experience. You said, ‘Part of this journey is learning to trust our bodies again, being able to distinguish normal pains like soreness related to exercise and pains related to TMS. As we stick to the journey it gets easier and easier to distinguish between the two’

That’s the perspective I haven’t learned, but I want to.

And yes, I do have the compulsion to exercise excessively. I haven’t figure out exactly why, but I’m working on that.

Anyway, your post was exactly the kind of perspective I was looking for! Thank you!