| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| srinid |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 08:12:36
Hi all,
First of all thank you so much for the very helpful discussions and information. I've been lurking on this forum for around 8 months and I more or less believe my chronic lower back pain (having for last 5 years) is reduced to around 20%. Let me give a brief account of my journey for last 5 years.
I reside in India, working for the last 15 years as a software engineer. On Christmas 2007, I did a pilgrim trip of around 300 miles in a day - I drove all the 300 miles myself. I could not get up from bed next day morning. I waited for few days and consulted an ortho surgeon, got an MRI done, was diagnosed with grade 2 spondylolisthesis. Surgeon accredited my pain to that and advised a spinal fusion surgery. I was scared of any kind of spinal surgery, took to google and found a chiropractor and met him. He did various tests on my body, movements and said my muscles are very weak because of long sitting in front of a computer, bad posture, no exercise and diagnosed me with Myofascial Pain Syndrome. Most importantly, he said, no surgery is required and that with proper body postures, exercises and trigger point treatment I can be normal in few months. 'no surgery is needed' was like music to my ears, I started taking trigger point treatment, even though its painful I observed that muscles are not so hard and pain subsided after each session only to come back in a few days. Both the doc and myself accredited it to me not being regular with exercises, sitting long sometimes, sleep disturbances (after reading Dr Sarno, I can myself as a perfectionist), etc. Believe it or not, i almost stopped sitting and worked standing, most of time standing or walking at home as well. I purchased a gym ball both at home and office, and used to sit on it whenever i have to sit (as per the doc's advise). After 4.5 years and lot of nudging from my wife, I decided to look around for alternatives - I tried yoga for few months, it helped me a bit with calming down my agitated mind. I'm the type of person who used to worry over negative possibilities at work (like missing deadlines, not meeting my job expectations, etc..), so no wonder I used to be very anxious most of the time.
I don't recollect how, but fortunately I came across Dr Sarno and this forum. I bought Healing Back Pain and read it once, I could immediately find myself on most of the pages and felt so excited, pain reduced for few days. With the boost I got from the book, I started doing things which I was avoiding - going for long drives, trying to sit for long hours, etc. It was fine in the initial few weeks, later pain has increased and I started suspecting the whole theory itself. Fortunately, I used to read the messages on this forum everyday (I do that even today), at the same time continued trigger point treatment. I was not sure if I can get rid of the pain.
My PT doc had to go on a long vacation to his hometown for 3 months, I was very scared initially as I don't have the doc to treat my pain once in two days (yep, I had close to 600 trigger point sessions in last 5 years). But, all the good info shared on this forum slowly started trickling into my subconscious (hopefully) - mindfulness, acceptance, giving up, getting rid of negative thoughts/emotions, etc. helped me a bit I believe. I found Eckhart Tolle, Thich Nhat Nanh, Jon Kabat Zinn, their books, audio, etc. which kind of helped me imbibe some of the concepts needed to get rid of the chronic pain.
I won't say i'm 100% pain-free, I still feel some pain, but then I'm not feared of pain, I take "there is nothing wrong physically with me" as true as "sun rises in the east". I still have to work a lot on my negative emotions, I still have sleep problems. Also, I firmly started believing that pain is a part of me, not an external entity, stopped fighting it, started accepting it, no longer worry about when i will get completely cured of pain - love SteveO's great advise in this context "you heal in your own time, not in some one else's time", how true it is.
Now, while I'm cheering myself that I'm conquering this chronic back pain, I started having severe pain around the eye sockets, pain in the temples for the last 3 weeks. Coupled with this, I'm feeling nauseating. I got Liver Function Test done, found to have immunity down, continuing on antacids and immunity-raising pills. I got my eye sight checked, no change in eye power was found, doc felt may be I'm straining my eyes because of my long working hours on a computer.
I'm wondering if my subconscious is now causing distractions in the form of eye pain, headache, nausea - as i still have to conquer negative emotions/thoughts, mind control (still having issues with broken sleep). I wish I have the back pain rather than eye pain and nausea.
Any advice, thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
srinid |
| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| srinid |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 21:34:08
Thank you so much Ace1 and tt! You hit the nail on the head so as to say. I always had trouble with experiencing and expressing emotions right from my childhood. I don't want to blame my parents for not training me in that aspect, they both had tough childhood losing one or both parents in their early childhood and grew depending on or staying at uncle's/aunt's places. I believe I have lot of behavioral commonalities with my mother - managing emotions being one of them. Thanks tt for you the excellent stuff in your sig, I will go through them thoroughly in leisure.
tt, I'll stop going to the chiro even if he comes back. My actual healing (whatever amount or % it) happened in the last two months, my chiro is supposed to come back in another 1 week.
Any good pointers to books/audio on managing emotions starting with fundamentals would be great.
Thank you all so much for the information, advice, guidance, etc.
Best regards,
srinid |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 10:25:11
Welcome Srinid, good thoughtful TMS introductory post. You fit the profile of someone who will be greatly helped by the Good Doctor's message. Driving 300 miles will not hurt your back! I drive to get away and RID myself TMS tension. I've driven up to 1,300 miles in a day and only felt some stiffness that went away with a soak in the hot-tub. I drive race cars and Jeeps and the bumpier the ride and the twistier the roads--or no roads--the better--it's like the E-ride at Disneyland. As the Good Doctor Sarno exclaims, THE BACK IS STRONG!
You are lucky that you ran away from the ortho and did NOT do surgery--google "failed back surgery" and you'll see. The chiro-quack-ter is not your friend either. If he were a real doctor he would have recommended surgery if he was licensed to perform it. He coincidentally recommended what makes HIM money, that is treatments for your or his life--whichever expires first--until your wallet is completely emptied--"Don't ask a barber if you need a haircut." I've been there, tens of thousands of $$$$$ spent on useless treatments, manipulations and snake-oyls. I could have done something useful with all that money like buy a Cobra, the car not a snake. Hundreds of accupuncs, rolfs, tragers, from A-Z, with NO intrinsic benefit--but one--they take you off of life's battlefield for about 45-60 minutes of respite from life's pressures that create TMS tension. The respite lasts until you're out of the practitioner/manipulator's parking and the first person on life's highway cuts you off and gives you the finger to boot! There is nothing wrong with balancing out your rage/soothe ratio with some massage as long as you know that's what your're doing it for. With all the money we've spent on voo-doo procedures to be "cured" we could have easily bought our own hot-tubs with really strong jets or good massage chair.
So if you're still seeing PT's or bodyworkers or chiro-quack-ters for treatments to "cure" anything STOP it as it is counterproductive to Dr. Sarno's program. You mentioned "fear" when your PT was living town for a while--not good for your TMS confidence building. The healing comes from within. What I saw glaringly missing from your otherwise excellent post was any mention of the true causes of your TMS pain: emotional issues. If you do not know what they are, then as always, I recommend you look at the Rahe-Holmes list of life's stress creating situations that cause TMS--there's your science of TMS. I'll unlock my sig box so you can find it there as well as other usefull TMS info.
Cheers and Namaste'
tt
P.S. Yoga is a great tradition, especially when you embrace all of its eight (or ten limbs, depending) and not just the Western approach, which is the asanas only and a little humming around. In fact, two "bad" yoga moves were the triggers for my TMS/arthritic? right hip. So watch out in Yoga class, women are naturally more flexible and we men are just getting into the stretch when they are coming out of it, forcing us to rush to the next one.
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DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." Author Unknown
"Happy People Are Happy Putters." Frank Nobilo, Golf Analyst
"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." Mark Twain and Balto
"The hot-dog is the noblest of dogs; it feeds the hand that bites it." Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter
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"If it ends with "itis" or "algia" or "syndrome" and doctors can't figure out what causes it, then it might be TMS." Dave the Mod
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TMS PRACTITIONERS:
John Sarno, MD
400 E 34th St, New York, NY 10016
(212) 263-6035
Here's the TMS practitioners list from the TMS Help Forum:
http://www.tmshelp.com/links.htm
Here's a list of TMS practitioners from the TMS Wiki:
http://tmswiki.org/ppd/Find_a_TMS_Doctor_or_Therapist
Here's a map of TMS practitioners from the old Tarpit Yoga site, (click on the map by state for listings).:
http://www.tarpityoga.com/2007_08_01_archive.html |
| Ace1 |
Posted - 10/23/2012 : 08:51:01
This is excately what I have seen when someone "ignores" one body part very well, but doesnt take care of reprogramming of the mind, it just shifts. This is were affirmations visualizations, and reconditioning yourself to situations that have stressed you out come into play. Please check out my post on steps to healing |
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