| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| floridaboy |
Posted - 09/26/2004 : 20:13:58
I am looking for "tricks of the trade" when it comes to conquering TMS of the wrists and forearms that is triggered when typing or using a mouse. Needless to say I am battling TMS in knees, shin splints, heartburn, face/jaw pain and myofacial pain in ankles and neck. I am a mess but definitely getting better with numerous Sarno book readings, self talk (sometimes screaming), web surfing, and 2 visits with a TMS doctor. I would have went back, but i had to move away from her location. I am 6 months into the battle, I am running regularly for the first time in 10+ years...definitely not pain free...but I am running! I am typing...same story...still having pain...but typing. I just seem stuck. Lots of progress early, but everytime I talk myself out of pain...a week later it comes roaring back. Typing has been the hardest to "uncondition"...just looking for an assist. |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| floridaboy |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 18:56:27
Sorry tennis tom. My doctor was in Washingtron DC and her name is Dr. Andrea Segal. She is located at the Center for Integrative medicine and is Fabulous. One thing she was quite adamant about is how often TMS'ers "Should on" themselves. I should do this I should have done that. She told me to eliminate it completely from my vocabulary. Use could. It provides choice. Also, she said I wasn't allowed to feel guilty unless I purposely "hurt" someone. All other guilt ws not allowed. Words we could all live by. |
| floridaboy |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 18:45:08
I will checek out the web link...thanks. I appreciate the insight Menvert. Tennis Tom...that was fabulous. I just read your reply out loud to my wife and she also thought it was great insight (even the flea analogy!). I was discharged from the Navy rated 40% disabled and couldn't even write with a pen or "look" at a computer. Look at me now! I ran Saturday (5 miles) and had the worst pain in my calfs/shins EVER. It was hell. I was bummed out and feeling doubts of the emotional basis...I made a comittment right there Saturday afternoon to "BET IT ALL" on TMS. I decided to run on Sunday anyway. If it wasn't TMS, I wouldn't be able to walk 6 miles let alone run. You see I plan on fulfilling a life long dream to run a marathon in January. Everytime I have tried in the previous decades...some injury or pain (mostly Knees or Shins splints) has stopped me two to three weeks into it. Well I am almost 6 months into it this time. I have ran runs so far ranging from 3 miles to many 8's, 9's a few 10's and even a 13miler. On almost everyone of those runs I have battled with my brain. I think pscychological...bring up nasty childhood memories, say a lot of F-bombs to my brain...It sucks on one hand, but your email helped give me the appreciation for just how far I have come. Well I "Bet it all" and decided to ignore the pain in my shins (barely able to touch them Saturday) and went running on Sunday. I live in Florida as you can see and waited for a lull in the horrific winds of Hurricane Jeanne to tell my brain I wasn't buying it. I ran 6 miles in one of my best times and with less battles than normal. The most important thing is my shins felt like I hadn't run in a weeks. This stuff is REAL..it is NASTY and it does not want to quit. The funniest thing...and I do mean Funny...is my knees haven't hurt in 6 months. Guess what hurts today? You got it...my knees. I have got it on the run for sure. I am doing what you told me to do. I am celebrating. Two things are happening. 1) I am slowly gettting my life back 2) I keep gathering data points that this IS tms and not a structural RSI problem. I am beggining to actually believe that with enough data points, I can continue to look back at "how bad my dog use to have fleas!" By the way...did you see how much I just typed!!! Some burning type pain...but I am not scared anymore.
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| tennis tom |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 10:17:15
Dear Floridaboy,
Can you mention the TMS doctor you saw? There are so few of them on the planet. I hope to be doing a lot of travel in the future and if I should be lucky enough to be near one, I would go in for a "check-up" consultation, even if there was nothing wrong with me-TMS preventaive maintenance.
It seems that you have come a very long way in six months. Your're running and typing, etc. Rejoice in your progress. It took you a lifeime to develop your TMS psychological personality traits. Six months, to come so far, is a relatively a short period of time in TMS terms. Think of your "healig" as more of a journey and self-actualizing process.
In learning any new skill, the rate of progress is exponentialy great, early on, because all the info is new. As we gain skill, the rate of progress slows but the rewards will be greater. Your TMS skills will become more refiined to deal with emotional situations that previously would have triggered your TMS.
Feeling "stuck" is a normal mode. Tansformation comes in bursts. Take stock of where you were six months ago and rejoice in your progress. You're at a plateau, but at a higher place than you were before Take soome time to reflect on the view. Wanting to feel 100%, is a TMS perfectionist trait. Perfectionism is a psycholgical trait that may have contributed to your pain. I feel I am 98%. That last two percent is exponentialy as difficult to achieve, as the first 98%--and may not be worth all the trouble.
I have great hip pain today. But I played six hours of tennis yesterday and won all my sets and also a team match that had some bragging rights attached to it. I have no one to blame for my pain today but myself. I will fix it in the next couple of days by whatever physical and psycholgical means it takes--so I can do it all over again. Hopefully I will have learned something and will have a little less pain next time.
We have an unrealistic overview of our progress and fortunately forget our past pains quickly. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to get out of bed to face life each day. Western culture does not put much stock in reflection. It would stall our steady prgress forward as measured in dollars. Nothing all that bad about that, but it contributes to the massive amounts of TMS our culture creates. It could be worse. We could go back to hunting and gathering, and an average life span of 25 years, but no TMS.
An example of how we don't appreciate our achievements, that keeps popping into my mind is a product I use on my two cats that has entirely rid them of fleas. It's called Advantage. I remember a few years ago all kinds of stuff that I paid good money for that didn't work worth a darn, flea collars, dips, powders, and the cat still had fleas. Advnatage really works. I think there should be a national holiday declaed, with parades in the streets. But, we have collectively forgotten the bad old days. I know that this may seem like a quirkey tangent I've gone off on but I think it is like our TMS pain. We forget how bad it used to be in our quest to be 100% TMS pain free. As long as we are breathing (shallowly), that is probably an unrealistic goal. We may reach plateaus but Everest is probably somewhere we will not be going, (nor do I want to). |
| menvert |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 08:26:45
hi,
this sounds very similar to my story . I started out with the major symptom being RSI in the left forearm and now its five years later and I have symptoms in both forearms and top of hands. I discovered TMS about a year and a half ago. I can now do typing & mousing much much more than I used to. But it is a very hard one to break the conditioning of. I still get pain in my arms quite rapidly from doing something which is work-related rather than leisure related, which makes me wonder how long it will take until I can actually work again. My own home office I am conditioned to know causes me less pain, but if am somewhere else it can be quite rapid.
The only 'tricks of the trade' related to RSI that I know of is if you are going to go back to typing in order to defeat your TMS do something you enjoy and is likely to take 100% of your attention. For me that is playing an online role-playing game...(it holds all of my attention for significant amounts of time but its also not too heavy on the requirements for typing and mouse). now after heavy keyboard even if my arms are sore . I am learning almost to pay absolutely no attention anyway. It usually goes away 10 minutes afterwards completely.
But I am still by no means close to 100% functionality, compared to what I used to do as a non-rsi person probably more like 30%. BUT I now dwell on my pain, very little and it doesn't cause me much stress. Which for me unfortunately means I just get more and more sites of pain.. throat knee back neck etc. So I have not entirely cracked this TMS but I probably would have gone insane by now without discovering TMS.
Reading this site every day really helps as well(I can't deal with the monotony of reading the same book over and over)
I think at the moment I've got to really work on actually wanting to get better now...
oh yes , rachel Podolsky (web site in previous post) is very helpful and she has gotten over her RSI completely. |
| Dave |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 07:57:52
On the Links page of this site there is a reference to the following web site:
http://podolsky.everybody.org/rsi/
You may find this useful. |
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