| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/15/2005 : 15:36:14
Hi guys,
I went to the opthmalogist's office on Thursday (two days ago) for a routine eye exam. I had my eyes dialated and had the test for glaucoma where they numb your eyes and then put some sort of piece of machinery on your eyeball to test the intraocular pressure. Everything tested out ok but i've had pain in my right eye since the visit..it started on the way out of the exam room. The pain feels like extreme eye strain and some burning which gets worse when I try to read or watch tv (Or go on the computer..I am typing this with one eye closed). I went through the exact same thing a year ago after an eye exam and it finally left a few days later when I went to an osteopath doctor who does a type of "energy balancing work". She never even touched my eyes but said she sensed it had affected my nervous system and waved her hands over it (or some sort of strange procedure) and presto the pain immediately vanished. The doctor has now moved away to another state and in the back of my mind I was sort of nervous about having the eye exam done again without having her as a back-up in case this sort of thing happened again. This whole thing feels so stupid but the fear I have as well as the pain is real. (I called the eye doctor just now and he said he has never heard of such a reaction to the dialating drops or the eye pressure test and to come in on Tuesday if I still have pain. He thought possibly the machinery the used to touch my cornea could have irritated it.) Part of me wishes that the "energy doctor" was still in town to take away the pain and the other part of me thinks this must be some sort of tms. (My nagging ankle pain went away when this happened). I'm not sure how eyes can be affected by tms--lack of blood flow to the ligaments that hold the eyeball in place? Any thoughts? |
| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Carol |
Posted - 01/20/2005 : 13:52:48
Laura, my burning mouth feels like exactly that, a feeling of burning pain on top and at the front of my tongue, and on the left side of my mouth. Occasionally it spreads to the whole mouth, but mostly it is on the left side, just like all my TMS manifestations. I occasionally also get canchre sores, but it sounds like not nearly as much as you. The burning moutb ranges from not there at all to quite severe, but it has nearly disappeared since I started with the back pain. It only flares up not if I am under a lot of stress and the back pain is not "doing it's job".
Sara Jacoba, I agree wholeheartedly that we need to rethink this TMS thing. Low oxygen seems like a logical cause for some of the symptoms, but not for others. I think Dr. Sarno only uses the low O2 theory for the muscle, nerve, and tendon pains that we have. Other things certainly must have other mechanisms. I now believe, as I said in another post somewhere, that TMS can cause a very wide variety of symptoms in just about any part of our bodies.
for my friends with the "dizzies", yesterday my husband and I finally applied for long term care policies. This is a question and issue we have been struggling with for months, and I think it has caused lots of my pain recently. We have looked at lots of policies, and have been looking for someone who will cover a cancer survivor, which my husband is. We are dealing with a lot of end of life issues now, and I absolutely hate it!
Anyway, as we were in the process of signing the application, sitting at my dining room table, I had a sudden attack of vertigo. It came and went in an instant, as I had the instant recognition of what it was and why I had it. As someone pointed out to me on the dizziness thread, my symptom has returned since we started discussing it here. After I banished the vertigo, and a couple of hours after we finished the applications, I started to have a lot of pain in the back of my neck and up to the back of my head. At the same time I had a severe attack of TMJ. I realized that my TMS was once again trying some different symptoms. By this morning the neck pain and TMJ were gone, and my back pain is a lot better. I think I may finally have this on the run! I am so excited!
Carol |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 01/19/2005 : 17:50:33
Hi SarahJacoba,
That's a good overview of TMS. I like it!
Regards,
tt |
| Sarah Jacoba |
Posted - 01/19/2005 : 10:28:41
I cant speak on the medical details of what you're talking about but wanted to reiterate a couple things from my experience
1) when you treat something (like you burning mouth/tongue sensations) according to the medical professional's advice and it gets worse instead of better (as you describe) it is TMS (in my opinion and experience). Everything I've treated as a "real" medical complaint and treated according to the doctors' advice has gotten worse not better. Strangely both allopathic and holistic doctors, faced with this paradox (and the failure of their own certainty and advice), never wised up and said maybe its psychosomatic; they just treated it as sign of how bad things were, and prescribed something else on top of the first thing. Which kept the whole cycle going and worsening. Lame!
2) We all need, in my opinion, to drop our allegiance to blood flow, etc, as the only explanation. I have had eye pain, canker sores, sensitive teeth and gums, pressure and ringing in the ears, and (currently) halitosis/weird taste in the mouth. All but the last have gone away in time without intervention. I even posted once that my hair gets limp and annoying on bad TMS days -- which I still believe is connected, despite the person who told me it couldnt be explained by Sarno's theory. Well, I believe that your mind can depress your whole energy field or aura (for lack of a better term) and science will someday understand this better; for now, I just know the mind can cause anything to happen, through blood flow and a host of other mechanisms.
--Sarah
"When dream and day unite" |
| Laura |
Posted - 01/19/2005 : 00:03:41
I'm at the end of my Tobradex prescription and my eyes (left eye mainly) are still bothering me. The redness and itching are maddening! I was told that when the prescription runs out that I need to buy artificial tears because I must just have a dry eye condition. After reading all your posts, I think it's bulls--- but I'd never tell my eye doctor that!
Also, can someone please tell me exactly what burning mouth is. I said that I have it because it's the only way to describe how my mouth feels. Starting about 6 or 7 months ago, I noticed my tongue would get this "fuzzy" feeling, like I had burnt it by eating something too hot. It was like I had a chronic case of "cotton mouth." Next, I got these small white patches on my mouth, on my gums, etc. I was diagnosed with Leukoplakia, which I'm told is a precursor to mouth cancer. I was asked "Do you smoke" (I do not) and "Are you a heavy drinker?" (also negative). They gave me something called Daniel Solution, a mixture of about four or five medications, which you swish around in your mouth. It didn't get rid of the white spots and then I began to develop tons and tons of canker sores, all over my mouth and even under my tongue. I saw an ENT, who used some awful stuff on a stick that burns the sores. It felt like I had a huge crater in my mouth, very painful. He also prescribed more Daniel solution.
Last week, while having a routine dental cleaning, the dentist said "I see you still have some leukoplakia under your tongue. You may need to see an oral surgeon and get it biopsied." Today, I was chewing some Altoids sour cherry gum and my mouth is so sensitive, it felt like the taste buds on my tongue were splitting open into little ulcerations. Certain foods, chewing gum, mints, even some toothpaste can set this off. Once I've had one of those things, my tongue feels like it's been burned by scalding hot food. Is this burning mouth or burning tongue or whatever it's called?????
Thanks! By the way, it seems like the senses would be a perfect location for TMS - sore red eyes, ringing in the ears, mouth problems.
Laura
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| Hocky |
Posted - 01/18/2005 : 20:22:30
LLJ, see my reply above. I was also told my eye pain was due to dry eyes (which I always had, but never had pain). The artificial tears helped for a while, then stopped helping.I think dry eyes/mouth/ skin are part of the symptom. They definitely are common in fibromyalgia, which is a TMS manifestation itself. |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/18/2005 : 17:46:32
I just go back from the opthamologist's office and he couldn't find anything wrong with my right eye. He thinks it could be pain from dryness and gave me some artificial tears. I told him that I didn't have this pain before the eye exam last week where he used anesthesia drops and dilating drops but he still didn't think the drops caused the pain. I'm wondering if TMS can cause drying of the tear ducts. I know that when you are anxious you can get a dry mouth--so why not dry eyes? The pain in my eye is so strong that I can't feel any other pain in my body which is interesting. I'm going to yell at my body to knock off the eye pain..I'm not going to be intimidated by it. |
| Steve |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 19:30:18
Yes, there is no doubt burning mouth syndrome (BMS) and most disorders in the TMJ family are TMS (can I come up with more acronyms? :-) I know this to be fact because several years back my TMJ/BMS issues began right after my chronic shoulder and neck pain went away. Eventually I was able to lick both, however I again had a shoulder problem last year that AGAIN morphed into mouth pain. Doh!! So keep the faith, it's all TMS and it's all benign and it will stop.
By my own admission, lately I've not been doing the emotional "homework" that I should be to get rid of the TMS pain, which is probably why I still have it. Just been too lazy.
By the way, I've noticed that when my darn mouth isn't bothering me, I get nasty tension headaches or sinus problems. The brain is a crafty thing. |
| Hocky |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 18:03:21
I have had episodes of eye pain, diagnosed variously as dry eyes and conjunctivitis (but I don't thik it was because two different antibiotics did not help). I had burning, fatigue, twitching, pressure-like sensation, and it was quite worrysome at one point. In one episode, I had also redness and watering. When I got introduced to TMS theory, the first symptom to disappear was the eye pain because I quickly recognized it for what it was. I was told I had to indefinitely use a lubricant and clean my eyelids everyday with a soap solution. B.S. I don't do either, I even wear contacts. When it recurs, I think about it, and it seems to fade away in a day or two.
Sarno mentions undiagnosed opthalmic conditions in MBP as possible manifestations/equivalents of TMS.
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| Carol |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 17:54:59
In the past I have asked whether anyone on the board has experienced burning mouth, and gotten no responses. I was beginning to think I was the only one, even though Dr. Sopher mentions it as a TMS equivalent in his book. Now there are two resposes to this message from people who have experienced it! I am really pshyched! I have believed that it was TMS for a long time, but was beginning to doubt it. There is a whole forum on the internet devoted to burning mouth syndrome. When I first started having it, many years ago, I went to a neurologist. she had never heard of it, but after doing some research found a few documented cases. Now there is a whole forum! Is this a whole new way for TMS to "get" us? And along the same line, has anyone experienced bad tastes in the mouth for no apparent reason? This has happened to me twice. In both cases it was an extremely salty taste, which came on for no reason. Both times it lasted about a week and gradually faded out.
And back on the subject of eye pain, I have had occasional twinges of pain behind my eyeball, but nothing related to the glaucoma test and nothing with visible redness. I now believe that TMS can cause problems virtually anywhere though. There are way too many weird things that have happened to people on this board, with no identifiable causes.
Carol |
| Hilary |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 16:43:02
Very interesting. I've had flakey, dry, itchy skin around my eyelids for about a year. It just suddenly started up for seemingly, and goes from one eyelid to the other. What else can TMS throw at me? One of these days I'm going to grow a second head! |
| Laura |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 00:07:58
Wow! This is all very interesting. I'm on day 5 of my second eye drop prescription and my eyes are still bothering me. They burn and itch, especially at times like right now when I'm tired and I'm reading and typing. Like you, Steve, I've had the "burning mouth," canker sores (which got so bad they had to put this awful burning stuff on them and it felt like I had open craters in my mouth), and TMJ. Like you said, all upper body, including my dizziness (my head feels like I'm floating/rocking several times a day) Isn't it amazing what stress can do to the human body?
Laura
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| Steve |
Posted - 01/16/2005 : 15:47:04
I have had eye pain as part of TMS. For me, it is in the same family with shoulder, neck and head/face pain, which includes TMJ, burning mouth, face numbness, eye twitching and canker sores. All upper body stuff. My eye pain felt like pressure on my corneas.
Funny, I also remember Howard Stern (a famous TMS patient) several years ago on his radio program constantly complaining about some "weird eye pain" for several weeks about 7 or 8 years ago. He said it felt like his eyeball was about to pop out. |
| holly |
Posted - 01/16/2005 : 08:39:47
I want to tell all of you that YES the eyes are a TMS target. It happened to me about 3 years ago. The lids where the lashes meet got very irritated after someone did a free makeup session on me. I can only use clinque makeup and the "reaction" went on for a very long time! I went to the doctor and also was prescribed Tobradex. Then my husbands cousin had the same thing when she was moving into a very expensive house on the water. She was under alot of stress and thought the salt from the air by the water was doing it and she already bought the house and so on.... She is a nurse and I told her it was the stress and it finally went away. She still talks about to this day sometimes. It seems similar to getting those saws in your mouth when the rage is romping! |
| Laura |
Posted - 01/15/2005 : 20:01:05
I sure do. I've been in a feud with my husband for three days straight. I'm so mad at him I feel like running away. The fight started over one thing but since then some new stuff has come up, stuff that I found out about that really has me upset. Yes, I get really anxious. Then, when the anxiety kicks in I get a dizzy/imbalance/rocking sensation in my head. My stomach is in knots and my head is pounding. It is times like these I wish I had stayed single!
Laura
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| n/a |
Posted - 01/15/2005 : 16:19:22
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the reply. I can relate about having something bad happen after trips! It is almost comical if it wasn't so frustrating. I was also trying to think of what is going on in my life that I don't want to see...Marital issues could be it. .
I hate bringing issues up and arguing about it. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. I guess I will do some journaling or drawing about it.
Laura, do you get anxious when you argue with your husband? |
| Laura |
Posted - 01/15/2005 : 15:49:20
Funny you should mention eye problems. Right before Thanksgiving, I developed some strange eye infection that didn't seem like it was quite conjunctivitis but was bad enough to send me to the eye doctor. My left eye was extremely red (I said I looked like the devil!!) and the other one slightly red. My eyes burned and itched like crazy. I wanted to scratch them out of my head.
The doctor prescribed eye drops (Tobradex??) which is a steroid, antihistamine eye drop. In a couple of days, it was gone. At the time it happened, there was a LOT of stress going on in my life. I was never actually sure it was an infection but wondered if it was more like an allergy. The eye doctor didn't ever give me a clear cut answer, just prescribed the drops.
A couple weeks ago, right after Christmas and the stress of all that, I took a road trip to Texas from California to see family. Talk about stress!!!! While we were there, the eye thing started up again. I started freaking out and ranting and raving about how everytime I go on a trip something happens and it always seems to happen to me (it's almost comical). When I got back home, within a a day or two it started clearing up. Then, it started up again and I just last week went back to the eye doctor. He said he wanted to put me back on the eye drops. My new fear is, will I need to be on these freakin' eye drops for the rest of my life? What the heck is going on with my eyes. If you read Louise Hay's interpretation of eye problems, she would probably ask "What is it you don't want to see or look at?" The weird thing is, conjunctivitis is extremely contagious and that is what I'm being treated for. How come nobody else I've been around (my family and friends) has come down with it?
I, too, have wondered how TMS plays a role in all of this. I'm going through MAJOR stress right now, with losing a best friend and arguing with my husband. Could that play a role? I don't know. I hope you find some answers.
Laura
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