Secondary Symptoms Foot Pain

J

jen_kayak

New Member
I am 26 years old. In March this year I had sudden onset right foot pain. I continued walking on it and it became excruciating. Of course I decided I had done some awful damage to it. I could hardly touch the floor. I finally got an MRI months later and when it came back normal, I felt devastated.

At this point the pain had become a burning sensation amd my foot went red and cold. After numerous doctors appointments where I did not feel believed I was diagnosed with CRPS. Although initially happy to have a name for my symptoms my mental health deep dived when I looked up my diagnosis on Dr Google.

This whole time I was also having right knee pain which practically imobilised me because I could not cycle. After 9 months of not being able to walk without crutches or cycle at all I felt locked in my own body. Doctors did not know how to help me, and friends and family did not know how to deal with my grief.

I started associating my knee pain in particular with sitting in the office. Eventually I took some time off work. About this time (a month ago), I came across a Howard Schubiner video and something clicked. I faced up to the burning pain and within a week my visible symptoms began to dissipate.

All sounds good, except after a week of relief and hope my left foot started to hurt. This started very suddenly, I got up after sunbathing, feeling relaxed, and noticed strong pain. It is not the same burning pain, it is in a smaller area and more severe. This continued to get worse over the next weeks. I have had doctors suggest bursitus/bunions and muscle strain.

I have been going down the same fear pain cycle again. This has actually been the hardest part of the journey, because my right foot somehow seems fully recovered (I no longer fear it at all) and it is the left one stopping me from walking. If you told me a month ago this would be the situation I would never have believed you.

Does anyone have experience with secondary symptoms who can give any advice? I am waiting on an MRI I am paying for to know for certain. I just don't think I can be 100% confident in TMS without the scan. But every time I go to a doctor they tell me something else which feeds my fear, especially the possibility of bursitus.
 
Hi @jen_kayak
This is simply a part of TMS - the pain in some people moves around. If it doesn't get your attention about what is really the problem, it tends to find another way to let you know.
Have you attempted to do any tms work? Read a TMS book and otherwise educated yourself about current pain and psychology science?
 
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Hi! Well the video is the first time I heard of TMS, and just believing in it was enough for me to get 95% better on my right foot. Once I realised how powerful the mind was I ordered Howard Schubiner's book, and I have been doing the writing/ meditating exercises. My right foot has continued to get better. But I don't think it has been as effective for the other one because of the doubts.

My left foot did have a very good week, but my anxiety came raging back so badly, I started fearing everything else. And by the time those fears had relaxed, the foot pain was back.
 
@jen_kayak
It is not uncommon for tms pains to move, change, or for us to experience changes in anxiety and other states of mind doing this work.
Your brain has been protecting you from feeling your anger, sadness and or other emotions by creating anxiety, fear and symptoms to distract you from the true psychological issue. Now you are beginning to turn towards the truth, and it wants to, of course protect you from that. Dr. Sarno who is Schubiner’s mentor employed us to “think psychological” - that is to strengthen your belief that there is nothing physically wrong with you (after you have been “cleared” by Dr’s meaning you have nothing causing you death, they can’t find anything wrong, you get many different diagnoses but none seem right etc). The simple fact that symptoms are ping ponging around is actually a really good sign!

Symptom Imperative is one term for this phenomenon. Here Dr. Schubiner explains it: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/symptom-substitution-why-do-mbs-symptoms-move-and-change-over-time.8189/ (Dr. Schubiner's Blog - Symptom Substitution: Why Do MBS Symptoms Move and Change Over Time?)

If you have not yet explored Dr. Schubiner’s website, I suggest you have a look at it. More great videos on pain science!
 
jen_kayak said:
I am 26 years old. In March this year I had sudden onset right foot pain. I continued walking on it and it became excruciating. Of course I decided I had done some awful damage to it. I could hardly touch the floor. I finally got an MRI months later and when it came back normal, I felt devastated.

At this point the pain had become a burning sensation amd my foot went red and cold. After numerous doctors appointments where I did not feel believed I was diagnosed with CRPS. Although initially happy to have a name for my symptoms my mental health deep dived when I looked up my diagnosis on Dr Google.

This whole time I was also having right knee pain which practically imobilised me because I could not cycle. After 9 months of not being able to walk without crutches or cycle at all I felt locked in my own body. Doctors did not know how to help me, and friends and family did not know how to deal with my grief.

I started associating my knee pain in particular with sitting in the office. Eventually I took some time off work. About this time (a month ago), I came across a Howard Schubiner video and something clicked. I faced up to the burning pain and within a week my visible symptoms began to dissipate.

All sounds good, except after a week of relief and hope my left foot started to hurt. This started very suddenly, I got up after sunbathing, feeling relaxed, and noticed strong pain. It is not the same burning pain, it is in a smaller area and more severe. This continued to get worse over the next weeks. I have had doctors suggest bursitus/bunions and muscle strain.

I have been going down the same fear pain cycle again. This has actually been the hardest part of the journey, because my right foot somehow seems fully recovered (I no longer fear it at all) and it is the left one stopping me from walking. If you told me a month ago this would be the situation I would never have believed you.

Does anyone have experience with secondary symptoms who can give any advice? I am waiting on an MRI I am paying for to know for certain. I just don't think I can be 100% confident in TMS without the scan. But every time I go to a doctor they tell me something else which feeds my fear, especially the possibility of bursitus.
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@jen_kayak, I feel the same pain in my left foot. Left Great Toe feels so hot. I also have other symptoms like tinging and burning sensation in left hand and some times right hand and right feet. But burning/hot pain in left feet, especially in big toe, is excruciating. Like you, I have recently got to know about TMS..still learning. Whenever I read some success stories or watch Dr. Howard videos, feel so confident, but when the pain comes back, I am lost/defeated again. It is like one step forward and two steps back...Very stressful..but I am hoping to get better...Ordered two books of Dr. Sarnos..waiting for the books
 
@krk_mindbody, you really only need to read one book by Dr. Sarno to get the gist of his theories. I only ever read The Divided Mind, because that's the one that was recommended to me way back in 2011, and since it was his last one, I felt no need to revisit earlier versions (indeed, he did a great job dispensing his theories in four efficient chapters before turning over the book to six other MBS specialists, five of them MDs).

There are so many other resources out there, covering so many different aspects of the condition that we still call TMS in honor of Dr. Sarno, and while The Divided Mind and Dr. Sarno absolutely saved my life, I have also availed myself of many different points of view and many more current and updated sources of information about the neuroscience of the mindbody connection - and I think that it's vitally important to do so.

Like @jen_kayak, your time and money would be better spent working the program in Unlearn Your Pain from Dr. Schubiner, or a similar workbook from Dr. David Schecter, or just checking out our free (and no registration required) Structured Educational Program on the main tmswiki.org site.

Since your symptoms sound like so-called CRPS (a diagnosis which sounds important but means NOTHING since the words only describe the symptoms, not a physiological process) I also recommend the self-published book by our own @TG957 , aka Tamara, who recovered from crippling CRPS symptoms (find the link and her story and postings on her profile page TG957 | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org) - the e-book price is now $2.99) There's also a new e-book by @theacrobat - he just posted the first three chapters for forum members here: The Mind Solution: Healing TMS Pain with Dr. Sarno recovery book free chapters | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)

Good luck.
 
@krk_mindbody the Howard Schubiner book really is amazing. And if nothing else it is a better mental health tool than any therapy (in my own experience). I 100% relate to the experience of believing so strongly and feeling uplifted when I'm reading about TMS, but as soon as it comes time to face walking I'm terrified again.

Latest update is I went for a 20 minute walk and the left foot pain was gone. I couldn't believe it! I was absolutely convinced that now I was cured. Next morning my right ankle is hurting. Again I'm convinced it's an injury. But my left foot pain (which was so intense) is gone. Sometimes I think I'm going mad. As soon as I get over one pain it's like it never happened, and all my attention shifts to the next one.

I've started to think of this whole thing differently. Treating my body and the sensations as a whole rather than separate parts. I went through an eating disorder when I was younger and the fear I felt about food was real and overpowering. I think of this as a mental condition in a similar way, except instead of associating food with danger, my brain has associated walking with danger, and will do anything to try and stop me.

I got through that and we can get through this too.
 
jen_kayak said:
@krk_mindbody the Howard Schubiner book really is amazing. And if nothing else it is a better mental health tool than any therapy (in my own experience). I 100% relate to the experience of believing so strongly and feeling uplifted when I'm reading about TMS, but as soon as it comes time to face walking I'm terrified again.

Latest update is I went for a 20 minute walk and the left foot pain was gone. I couldn't believe it! I was absolutely convinced that now I was cured. Next morning my right ankle is hurting. Again I'm convinced it's an injury. But my left foot pain (which was so intense) is gone. Sometimes I think I'm going mad. As soon as I get over one pain it's like it never happened, and all my attention shifts to the next one.

I've started to think of this whole thing differently. Treating my body and the sensations as a whole rather than separate parts. I went through an eating disorder when I was younger and the fear I felt about food was real and overpowering. I think of this as a mental condition in a similar way, except instead of associating food with danger, my brain has associated walking with danger, and will do anything to try and stop me.

I got through that and we can get through this too.
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@jen_kayak wow, what a change in your thinking since your first post in this thread. I could sense your fear, frustration but now you are so confident, which is amazing, absolutely. I hope I would be there soon. I have become kind of hypochondriac by reading others’ symptoms and applying them to myself. That fear keeping me in the loop.

As I am just onboarding to this journey, any tips that I should start with while I am waiting for my books? That would be great help.
 
JanAtheCPA said:
@krk_mindbody, you really only need to read one book by Dr. Sarno to get the gist of his theories. I only ever read The Divided Mind, because that's the one that was recommended to me way back in 2011, and since it was his last one, I felt no need to revisit earlier versions (indeed, he did a great job dispensing his theories in four efficient chapters before turning over the book to six other MBS specialists, five of them MDs).

There are so many other resources out there, covering so many different aspects of the condition that we still call TMS in honor of Dr. Sarno, and while The Divided Mind and Dr. Sarno absolutely saved my life, I have also availed myself of many different points of view and many more current and updated sources of information about the neuroscience of the mindbody connection - and I think that it's vitally important to do so.

Like @jen_kayak, your time and money would be better spent working the program in Unlearn Your Pain from Dr. Schubiner, or a similar workbook from Dr. David Schecter, or just checking out our free (and no registration required) Structured Educational Program on the main tmswiki.org site.

Since your symptoms sound like so-called CRPS (a diagnosis which sounds important but means NOTHING since the words only describe the symptoms, not a physiological process) I also recommend the self-published book by our own @TG957 , aka Tamara, who recovered from crippling CRPS symptoms (find the link and her story and postings on her profile page TG957 | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org) - the e-book price is now $2.99) There's also a new e-book by @theacrobat - he just posted the first three chapters for forum members here: The Mind Solution: Healing TMS Pain with Dr. Sarno recovery book free chapters | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)

Good luck.
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@JanAtheCPA Thank you for your suggestion. I ordered The mindbody prescription and healing backpain. I will certainly order The devided mind too.

I spent around 12000 to 15000 euros so far just to diagnose. It didn’t help me anyway, in fact, the end result accelerated my stress, which is causing more physical pain.

1 to 2 percentage of above spending on books could have saved me.

Thank you for the links of successful story. This forum is full of positive atmosphere. I wish I found this before this pain took over my life. I was in many facebook support groups until last week. THAT WAS REALLY REALLY CONSUMING ME A LOT, So many sad stories with no improvements. I joined groups like Trigeminal neurologia, small fibre neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy….oh god.. I was in a fire hole. I UNINSTALLED MY FACEBOOK LAST WEEK, the best decision ever. I feel like this is first step on my TMS journey.

Thank you for the links. Very grateful.
 
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