still wondering...

[cindi f.]

Hello! I very much appreciated a response to my private question last week...however, since the response was " I don't know", I thought I'd post it here. I have had severe shoulder pain for months, and have been diagnosed with calcific tendonitis. I have seen the calcium deposits on my xrays & received a cortisone shot which helped for about 2 wks. I found Dr. Sarno's book while looking for any help & it resonated strongly with me....definitely a tms personality & have had recent back, foot, ankle pains & anxiety issues. Now it's just the shoulder. Could this be TMS? What about the official diagnosis?! Thx so much for any feedback!!!!

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, Cindi. I'm not a doctor so I can't say ignore the medical diagnosis about calcified tendonitis.
But if you got your symptoms down to just the shoulder, I would keep thinking TMS.
Pain also can move around from our unconscious mind, until we deal with our repressed emotions
or perfectionist and goodist personality. I'd keep working on that. Try to ignore anxiety by
thinking positive and living in the present moment, not worrying about tomorrow.
Find some pleasant distractions to take your mind off any symptoms.

 

[cindi f.]

Thanks so much Walt! So are you saying It's ok to "not ignore" the medical diagnosis, but still pursue tms treatment methods? I was under the impression you had to commit 100% to tms or it wouldn't work...confusing! Although I sense that this is a physical condition made worse by my underlying tms. Does it sometimes work like that? So grateful for this forum!!! Thx!

 

[Peggy]

Hi Cindi: I don't know anything about calcified tendonitis, but I do know lots about sore shoulders. I used to go to the chiropractor twice a week to reduce back pain and shoulder pain. It worked a little, and I had to go back all time. When I learned about tms I started working on my pent up emotions. I started feeling better in a week or two. That was when I got the courage to stop doing physiotherapy exercises. I also stopped going to the chiropractor and physiotherapist at this time. I felt about 80% better in 6 weeks. I also have the anxiety issues you mention. They seem to take longer to reverse themselves.

Only you can decide what you need to do. There may be a bumpy period where you are not sure which way to go. Maybe you will do a little bit of both for a little while. In the end TMS is very much a self-diagnosis, we can only tell you what our experiences are.

 

[North Star]

Cindi - My guess is that even before the pain started, you had the calcific tendonitis. (Tendonitis/tendinosis are TMS favorites!) I'm not medically qualified to make that judgment though…that's the value of consulting with a TMS doc. Why not shoot a questions over to Dr. Schubiner at unlearnyourpain.com and see if he could give you a general answer?

Another interesting litmus test would be if it the pain moves over to your other shoulder. I was dealing with my right shoulder for years and then just a few months ago, I woke up with my left shoulder hurting. It continues to pester me but I'm treating it as TMS. (I did get an official diagnosis from Dr. Schubiner, btw. With the longevity of my symptoms, I felt like I needed to consult with a TMS specialisit.)

Hope this helps!

 

[cindi f.]

North Star! I could have cried when I read your reply this morning! Last night, as I lay in pain at 3 am, a crazy thought comes to me; " I'm going to get an xray of my other shoulder, I bet there's PAINLESS calcium there & then I've got you!!!" It's so bizarre how the pain can be so intense & then disappear for hours ( like when I was at the movies, or when my husband insisted that it didn't look swollen!) Gotta stay off the tendonitis forums where everyone's been in agony for decades cause that really makes it hurt, lol!!! Thank You! C.

 

[North Star]

Well, how cool is that, Cindi! I love it when synchronicity happens! Boy, that come and go pain game is SO characteristic of TMS. I walked three miles just the other day…mostly pain free. And then in the middle of the night, bam! The ole shin splint pain. I'm getting better at telling it to scram, and it does. But it has taken some time.

And yes, stay out of those forums! Gah, they are depressing. And then we TMSers have a knack for incorporating new symptoms when we read about others' symtoms.

Please keep us posted if you do get an xray of that other shoulder. And btw, to the forum!

 

[BruceMC]

From what I've read and heard from people suffering from calcific tendinosis is that quite often the calcium deposits are reabsorbed over time and the pain subsides. Just how long the re-absorption process takes varies quite a bit though - weeks or years. Therefore, it seems like it's very hard to differentiate TMS from calcific tendinosis if both conditions decrease gradually over time. I've heard that sometimes surgery is used to remove the deposits, but to me that sounds like a pretty radical step to take. But it does seem like a lot of relatively minor irritations like a bulging disks or calcium deposits can serve as physical "triggers" for TMS. Real fine line. I think someone on this forum - Alan Gordon? - mentioned how TMS can "piggyback" on top of real physical conditions and intensify their symptoms. I do know that I was working on the scissors machine in the weight room this spring for several months and gradually got up to 200 lbs. No pain. Then, one day my shoulder started to hurt on the back of the scapula and got so painful I had trouble sleeping. Solution? Cut out the scissors machine workout or go way way down in weight. After a while the pain subsided and went away. Did I get a calcium deposit that was reabsorbed? No way to tell, but the pain did go away. However, I do notice that that same muscle will tense up whenever I go back to lifting much lower weights on the scissors machine. It seemed as though that muscle group had learned or been programmed to get tense whenever it bore weight. I guess I'll never know for sure without an X-ray or MRI, but it sure makes me suspicious that TMS programmed that muscle to get tight and hurt in response to any repetitious action I perform with it. That mind-body interface is just so thin and porous you can just never know for sure.

Calcific Tendinitis Wiki article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcific_tendinitis

My shoulder didn't hurt where this diagram shows a typical calcium deposit though.

 

[Elena99]

Hi, Cindi. I'm not a doctor so I can't say ignore the medical diagnosis about calcified tendonitis.
But if you got your symptoms down to just the shoulder, I would keep thinking TMS.
Pain also can move around from our unconscious mind, until we deal with our repressed emotions
or perfectionist and goodist personality. I'd keep working on that. Try to ignore anxiety by
thinking positive and living in the present moment, not worrying about tomorrow.
Find some pleasant distractions to take your mind off any symptoms.

There's a point here that I haven't figured out. How does one deal with the perfectionist or goodist personality? Like what do you actually do?

To the OP, I was diagnosed with tendonitis in my elbow. Then months later I was told I was "cured" and my physiotherapist didn't know why I still had pain because I was "fine". I think TMS can look like tendonitis easily.

 

[mike2014]

There's a point here that I haven't figured out. How does one deal with the perfectionist or goodist personality? Like what do you actually do?

To the OP, I was diagnosed with tendonitis in my elbow. Then months later I was told I was "cured" and my physiotherapist didn't know why I still had pain because I was "fine". I think TMS can look like tendonitis easily.

With regards to your comments on perfectionism and being a goodist, I would say the key is to master the art of letting go by using meditation and being mindful. Not until you naturally surrender and realise these false desires will not make your life more complete, will you be truly happy.

The unnecessary pressure we put on ourself by enforcing these false notions, adds no extra value and in fact can cause us to suffer, lose clarify and focuss. Thus moving us further away from being our perfect authentic selves.

The key is not to be afraid or have a fear of not being perfect, but to be more compassionate and love yourself regardless.

I know there are a heap of books on this topic, but I'm thoroughly enjoying 'Present perfect' by 'Pavel Samov'.