Very confused

Hello TMS community
I have an issue with "rule out anything structural" !!
The entire medical establishment works on the physical so they are not going rule out anything structural. Yes some pain can be ruled out as structural with MRI's but the majority show abnormalities, so how are we the general public supposed to walk away and convince ourselves over a neurosurgeon? TMS doctors are very few and far between here in America and the list for my state wisconsin is way out of date since nobody here is a TMS doctor anymore.. Sorry I'm losing hope here and may have surgery since my legs are getting numb now,

 

This is something I worry about too as no non-TMS Dr. is ever going to say "There's nothing structurally wrong, its psychological". If they can't find anything wrong they'll just endlessly refer you to someone else (who also likely won't find anything). Problem also comes in when there are certain disorders that can't be detected in imaging and can only be verified by surgery (like pudendal nerve entrapment, which is what I currently worry about). So you'll see horror stories of people saying "I went from Dr. to Dr. and they said it was all in my head until I found [some Dr.] and he figured it out!" The "rule out anything structural" caveat from Dr. Sarno always comes back to haunt me as I say "did you REALLY rule it all out?" How much testing and treatments do you need to do? Its slippery slope.

I guess at some point you just have to take the leap of faith. I used to suffer from OCD (which is probably affecting me now too as I'm still obsessing over every pelvic symptom I get) and one of the ways I was told to overcome OCD in the past is just to accept that you're never going to "solve" any problem you're obsessing over by reasoning your way out of it. Nothing is ever 100% certain but you just have to accept it. Easier said than done, of course, and I'm currently failing it at, so take that as you will.

 

Hi, whofeels love.

Jason's advice is excellent. Accept the pain and maybe take a minor pain-killer, but
focus your mind on it being caused by something psychological, not structural.

I urge you to put off surgery. Most surgery does not heal pain, at least not permanently.
I regard doctors and MRIs with great skepticism. Doctors want to have a lot of tests on patients
and have MRIs and CT scans because they make money off of them. The same with surgery.

You have not reached the last possible solution to get free from leg or any other pain.
What could possibly be so structurally bad that would cause your leg pain?
What surgery could possibly heal it?

I urge you to start the Structural Education Program so you can learn what repressed emotions
cause your pain. Also, take an Advil or two and see if that helps. It's okay to take pain killers.
Just try to believe 100 percent that your pain is from TMS. I'm confident that it is.

You seem to be worrying yourself unnecessarily. It's called "catastrophizing," and we all do it.
We worry a minor pain into severe arthritis or a heart attack. Most of the time, all we need to do
is take some slow deep breaths and think positive. I even laugh my worries and pain away.

 

Hi Whofeelslove,

Yes, Walt and the rest of "we sufferers" know this level of adding fuel to our fire well. It is part of the process and we learn to slow down and observe the fear and panic.

My doctor told me that the nerve release surgery he had me scheduled for was to "increase blood flow to the nerve." Since Dr. Sarno's theory is that blood flow is restricted by TMS, the surgeon's reason for the operation completely correlated with TMS. This helped me delay surgery until I could really involve myself in TMS practices. Maybe it resonates with you too?

This process for you (and it was for me) may be more about convincing yourself that you do have TMS, than it is about convincing yourself you don't have a physical problem. I noticed in an earlier post you were expressing your doubts about Dr. Sarno's approach. It is natural to doubt and fear. Here is an article I wrote about my doubt, which may resonate.

http://www.tmspainrelief.com/exploring-doubts-about-dr-sarnos-work/

Andy B.

 

In my case, the doctors did find something structural, bulging and herniated discs in my neck. What I did was ask my doctors if it was safe for me to wait six months before considering surgery. I had back surgery for a ruptured disc in my lower back when I was in my early 30's and it helped a little but did not take the sciatica and majority of my pain away. At the time I thought this was because I had some kind of nerve damage. This is why I was very hesitant to jump into surgery with the cervical disc problems. At the end of six months I had documented enough inconsistencies in the structural explanation for the pain to take surgery off the table completely. I do believe the MRI results slowed my recovery considerably though because the results made it that much more difficult for me to embrace the TMS diagnosis 100%.

 

Great insight from all of the above. It's hard to admit doubt on this site. Because we want to fully believe 100% and then move on... cured. We all want that golden ticket right? Step 1: believe 100%. Step 2: you're cured! But it doesn't always work that way. Every TMS story is unique and different.

I think it's totally normal to question if TMS is real at some point. I recall an excerpt in The Great Pain Decption where a copy of HBP was thrown across the room as the author deemed it pure junk (paraphrasing, I forget the exact quote). But he fully healed later in time. Having doubts now doesn't mean that true belief or knowledge is out of your reach. Maybe ease up on measuring your daily TMS belief ratio. If there's a part of me doubts TMS, I look forward to that part catching up with the rest of me that does see the realness of TMS. Allowing time to learn and integrate is important.