I just finished reading Dr Sarno's Healing Back Pain about a week ago and it made a lot of sense to me. I do believe our minds are incredibly powerful. Although I want to believe, I'm not totally convinced (I wish I was as I understand the healing would be faster) but I feel a determination that I will do whatever it takes to get better. I have a ton of other emotions surrounding accepting the diagnoses-embarrassment for having it all possibly 'be in my mind', anger over all of the time I've lost and events that I've missed with my beautiful family, anger about the pain I've been through including the treatments I've had,anger over losing my ability to be active (wow, noticing a lot of anger here), guilt over the thousands of dollars I've spent trying to get better-just to name a few.
My story is similar to many. I've had years of neck and back pain, numbness and loss of strength in both arms and legs. I've been to many doctors and I've tried many different forms of treatment including chiropractic, steroid injections, acupuncture, rolfing, trigger point therapy, massage, PT, etc. Most made no difference or made me feel worse although rolfing gave me some significant relief. My MRIs have had many different interpretations showing lots of different things wrong with my back. One of the best things that happened to me was when I was talking to the neurosurgeon who insisted my neck needed to be fused because I had multiple bulging discs in my neck. When I asked him how my neck could be impacting my arms AND legs he responded that the neck couldn't but they could fuse my low back in the next operation. The next operation???? When I said I'm too young to have fusions (45 at the time and previously very active). He told me I wasn't young, Mother Nature was a bitch and I could just walk around in pain if I didn't want to have the surgeries. That made me very determined to find a solution other than surgery.
Fast forward two years and I am definitely much better than I was but not where I want to be. My pain is significantly reduced and I can comfortably go to work, but I still can't walk more than a mile or two without pain and certainly can't do aerobics, workout with my girls or ride my beloved horses. I want to be as healthy as I possibly can, I've upgraded my diet, take supplements and do a version of Yoga most mornings to help with my flexibility and reduce stress.
I'm excited to begin this journey but really afraid of failing and having to live with the pain and without the activities that I love.
My story is similar to many. I've had years of neck and back pain, numbness and loss of strength in both arms and legs. I've been to many doctors and I've tried many different forms of treatment including chiropractic, steroid injections, acupuncture, rolfing, trigger point therapy, massage, PT, etc. Most made no difference or made me feel worse although rolfing gave me some significant relief. My MRIs have had many different interpretations showing lots of different things wrong with my back. One of the best things that happened to me was when I was talking to the neurosurgeon who insisted my neck needed to be fused because I had multiple bulging discs in my neck. When I asked him how my neck could be impacting my arms AND legs he responded that the neck couldn't but they could fuse my low back in the next operation. The next operation???? When I said I'm too young to have fusions (45 at the time and previously very active). He told me I wasn't young, Mother Nature was a bitch and I could just walk around in pain if I didn't want to have the surgeries. That made me very determined to find a solution other than surgery.
Fast forward two years and I am definitely much better than I was but not where I want to be. My pain is significantly reduced and I can comfortably go to work, but I still can't walk more than a mile or two without pain and certainly can't do aerobics, workout with my girls or ride my beloved horses. I want to be as healthy as I possibly can, I've upgraded my diet, take supplements and do a version of Yoga most mornings to help with my flexibility and reduce stress.
I'm excited to begin this journey but really afraid of failing and having to live with the pain and without the activities that I love.
