Unlike many who come to Dr. Sarno’s treatment, I do not have a debilitating back pain that makes it hard to get through my days. Instead, I have a seemingly mysterious (but not unique, I know) condition in which I am in pain at night, lying in bed. Whatever position I am in, on my back or on either side, the part of my back or shoulder that I am lying on aches. It hurts enough that I cannot sleep or stay asleep. I awaken dozens of times during the night to turn over. If I turn over onto my back, it is only a matter of a minute or so before the discomfort is more than I can stand and I must turn on my side, which also starts to hurt.
The pain in my back is not just an unbearable discomfort, but it is a “princess and the pea” situation, where I can feel every little tiny wrinkle in the sheet under me, every place where the fabric of my pajamas is stretched a bit, stretching my aching skin along with it. I just want to scream. I have no choice but to turn, but turning just moves the ache to the new part of my body that I am lying on.
All my life before I came down with this condition I was a back sleeper. I remember up until a few years ago I loved lying on my back, and I could luxuriate in bed in the morning, enjoying the softness and warmth of the bed. Now, I cannot wait for the night to end and my pain with it. I just want to get out of bed, that instrument of torture. Of course, it is true that I have some minor aches and pains in my back during the day, but they are relatively inconsequential and probably common to almost everyone.
I thought it likely that this pain, which started at the same time that I began (since eliminated) taking statin medications for high cholesterol, was an extension of the severe muscle pain that statin medications are infamous for causing. But even on the statins, I did not have any particular muscle pain during the day. I did, until about a year ago, have a frequent tendency to get a crick in the neck, suddenly and often for no apparent reason. That would be very painful and last a few days, and happen every few weeks or months. For no apparent reason, that went away when I retired, even though the amount of time I spend at the computer in retirement is not less than before I retired. Could it have been just stress related?
I have complained about my weird back condition to doctors, who have x-rayed me and pronounced me as having no obvious back problem. It has been suggested to me that I likely have fibromyalgia and I was offered a referral for diagnosis. But when I asked how I would benefit from having a diagnosis of fibromyalgia from the referral, I was told that the only benefit to me would be that I could get some kinds of drugs that they probably otherwise wouldn’t give me. I did try one drug that is for nerve pain, gabapentin/Neurontin. It basically did not help. I’m very opposed to masking symptoms with pain killing drugs that don’t address causes or effect cures, and especially if the drug is one that it is hard to get off of, like gabapentin. I eventually quit taking it. Other than that, I have just tried NSAIDs, which do nothing at all for my strange nighttime back pain. I also tried chiropractic, which did nothing, and acupuncture, which did very little.
I can easily believe that there is no physical problem with my back. I can easily believe that the pain is caused by reduced blood flow, and therefore reduced oxygen and nutrients, to the tissues involved. I cannot say definitively why the blood flow would be reduced, but I do believe that it is not a medically treatable condition. Also, I can easily agree that I have plenty of anger and stress inside.
I read Dr. Sarno’s book, Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection about a week ago. It resonated with me. I believe that it can really help many people, perhaps not all, and it does not matter to me whether improvement is on the basis of a placebo effect or not. Since the night that I read the book, my back discomfort at night is still there, but seems to be less of something to get angry and upset about, and more of an unwelcome visitor whom I can laugh at, even if I cannot make it go away completely. I can accept what discomfort I have better, though I still have to turn over repeatedly at night. I hope for further improvement as I go through this program.
The pain in my back is not just an unbearable discomfort, but it is a “princess and the pea” situation, where I can feel every little tiny wrinkle in the sheet under me, every place where the fabric of my pajamas is stretched a bit, stretching my aching skin along with it. I just want to scream. I have no choice but to turn, but turning just moves the ache to the new part of my body that I am lying on.
All my life before I came down with this condition I was a back sleeper. I remember up until a few years ago I loved lying on my back, and I could luxuriate in bed in the morning, enjoying the softness and warmth of the bed. Now, I cannot wait for the night to end and my pain with it. I just want to get out of bed, that instrument of torture. Of course, it is true that I have some minor aches and pains in my back during the day, but they are relatively inconsequential and probably common to almost everyone.
I thought it likely that this pain, which started at the same time that I began (since eliminated) taking statin medications for high cholesterol, was an extension of the severe muscle pain that statin medications are infamous for causing. But even on the statins, I did not have any particular muscle pain during the day. I did, until about a year ago, have a frequent tendency to get a crick in the neck, suddenly and often for no apparent reason. That would be very painful and last a few days, and happen every few weeks or months. For no apparent reason, that went away when I retired, even though the amount of time I spend at the computer in retirement is not less than before I retired. Could it have been just stress related?
I have complained about my weird back condition to doctors, who have x-rayed me and pronounced me as having no obvious back problem. It has been suggested to me that I likely have fibromyalgia and I was offered a referral for diagnosis. But when I asked how I would benefit from having a diagnosis of fibromyalgia from the referral, I was told that the only benefit to me would be that I could get some kinds of drugs that they probably otherwise wouldn’t give me. I did try one drug that is for nerve pain, gabapentin/Neurontin. It basically did not help. I’m very opposed to masking symptoms with pain killing drugs that don’t address causes or effect cures, and especially if the drug is one that it is hard to get off of, like gabapentin. I eventually quit taking it. Other than that, I have just tried NSAIDs, which do nothing at all for my strange nighttime back pain. I also tried chiropractic, which did nothing, and acupuncture, which did very little.
I can easily believe that there is no physical problem with my back. I can easily believe that the pain is caused by reduced blood flow, and therefore reduced oxygen and nutrients, to the tissues involved. I cannot say definitively why the blood flow would be reduced, but I do believe that it is not a medically treatable condition. Also, I can easily agree that I have plenty of anger and stress inside.
I read Dr. Sarno’s book, Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection about a week ago. It resonated with me. I believe that it can really help many people, perhaps not all, and it does not matter to me whether improvement is on the basis of a placebo effect or not. Since the night that I read the book, my back discomfort at night is still there, but seems to be less of something to get angry and upset about, and more of an unwelcome visitor whom I can laugh at, even if I cannot make it go away completely. I can accept what discomfort I have better, though I still have to turn over repeatedly at night. I hope for further improvement as I go through this program.
