Scary diagnosis with mild pain

[Athena]

How would Dr. Sarno approach a diagnosis with only mild pain associated with it?

My husband was experiencing symptoms he wanted checked out (tingling in his shoulder area, mild pain in his neck) to make sure he wasn't suffering from anything heart related of which he has some family history. The cardiologist thought his symptoms were more consistent with a pinched nerve than heart disease and suggested another doctor who ordered an MRI of my husband's neck. The MRI showed stenosis.

We spoke with a highly regarded neurosurgeon who is leaning toward surgery for him. According to the doctor, tingling in the extremities is a neurologic symptom and thinks the surgery would protect him from possible future neurological damage arising from the stenosis. It's an invasive surgery for symptoms that on their own don't bother him all that much (besides the fear caused by the diagnosis).

How would Dr. Sarno approach such a diagnosis? My husband doesn't suffer from much pain which he could attribute to TMS. When, if ever, did Dr. Sarno recommend spinal surgery?

Much thanks

 

[Andy Bayliss]

Hi Athena,

Stenosis is a common finding, I believe, which many have never had surgery for, yet eliminated symptoms through Dr. Sarno's approach. I used the term in the wiki and got this list, which I think would be good for you and your husband to go through, find supporting evidence for his experience re Sarno.

https://www.tmswiki.org/w/index.php?search=stenosis&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=1 (Search)

We spoke with a highly regarded neurosurgeon who is leaning toward surgery for him. According to the doctor, tingling in the extremities is a neurologic symptom and thinks the surgery would protect him from possible future neurological damage arising from the stenosis.

Frankly, this sounds very much like what I was told about my foot pain, which was not true, my nerve was not "dying." "If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail" might be a good expression to remember at this point in your research!

Another thing you might do is take the imaging to another spine specialist. I think I recall Dr. Sarno said that sometimes the proposed spine surgery was addressing nerve areas that didn't even correlate with the symptoms. Understand though that any nerve/spine specialist will tend toward a physical/mechanical fix, rather than a "think psychological" approach.

Andy B