| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| dannord |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 13:20:15
Hi,
I had 10 years of 24 hour a day, 7 days a week chronic pain in my fingers, wrists, forearms, arms, elbows from typing, mousing, and using a computer up until 12/12/2008 as a computer science student and as a software engineer. I believed I would live with it the rest of my life. It took me 8 weeks to fully recover.
I am an interesting case because I don't have any major trauma's in my childhood or daily life that led to TMS but just a generally stressful family and a high achieving, perfectionist attitude.
I grew up with a solid family unit, a very close identical twin brother, I was good at sports, school, had high self esteem. I went to college and was the captain of the track team. I found computer science and loved it. Things were on the up and up.
My parents got divorced when I was in college but it didn't seem to bother me and transitioning to the working world. I was in a cubicle typing away and I didn't like it but I "sucked it up" and did my job the best I could. I started getting pain while typing/mousing and nothing ergonomic, or medical seemed to help. I plowed through the pain and kept working. I tried everything for 10 years. It was awful, bad, horrific and depressing all wrapped up in one. I finally gave up and left computers behind to be a project manager, and then a headhunter. But the pain was permanent and it still followed me no matter what job I did and how little I used a computer. My quality of life was pretty low. I found TMS 6-7 weeks ago and the recovery began.
I wrote an entry the day I found the TMS diagnosis and checked in along the way so the best way to learn my story is to read it below:
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5187
I think I have a personality conducive to this type of pain defense mechanism. I am high-achieving, I have an intense and high achieving family, but I have a sensitivity to what others are feeling/thinking that governs much of my decision making.
I think the key is reading enough information (posts, books, etc) that you are 90% sure that this is possible and could be your diagnosis and then get ready to do some serious crying. Its a personal journey that ends really well and it starts with writing down or talking about all the crap that has ever happened in your life. I started with when my twin brother got surgery when we were 4 years old - my earliest memory - and ended with my boss telling me that the phone system I installed sucks. And it had 1500 items in between. I feel flushed out now and clean and ready to tackle the world. This newsgroup has been helpful and the process is hard but I honestly believed I would have to live with this my whole life, and now I don't. My phone number is at the end of my thread listed above. Call me, I would be happy to tell you about it live.
- dan
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| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| dannord |
Posted - 08/27/2024 : 10:14:36
Hey folks - checking in after a few years away. I had a flare up recently and re-read Dr Schechter's Think away your pain book. It is great to see the science moving forward with fMRI and new symptoms being added. It reminds me how far I've come - from a 20 something young healthy guy with crippling pain who was two weeks from taking permanent disability to a 46 year old guy in early retirement because I got to do 18 years pain free building a career, family, and a ton of happiness without every moment being focused on my body and my pain.
For those new to TMS - it is real, I am proof. A decade of arm / wrist pain erased over 3 months of determined emotional work and journaling.
I have played whack-a-mole ever since with symptoms ranging from heartburn, tinnitus, throat pain, shoulder, elbow, forearm, back pain in multiple locations, hernia-like pain, teeth grinding, knee pain, sciatica.
My TMS is incredibly sticky. It will take any ignored emotion - anger, sadness, fear, disgust (that is a new one), jealousy - you name it - anything I stuff or don't deal with can attach to a recent injury or even a symptom somebody told me about, or an old haunt and suddenly its been 3 months of daily pain and I need to pause and restart my treatment.
Bring the focus from body to mind. Bring it up - don't think about the pain, think about the emotions going on in my mind.
I had a gnarly recent flare up around a real injury - my old college track injury in my knee. One week of internal work, a new therapist and it subsides and I'm back in the gym.
Hang in there. Believe the diagnosis, the brain controls everything in your body including how you receive pain signals. It can amplify them.
Pain is not damage. Aging doesn't cause pain. Get active, think emotionally, and stay curious about your emotional self. |
| ElijahLynn |
Posted - 11/24/2020 : 18:50:50
Hi all!
Dan's story was so inspiring that I reached out to him and he agreed to share his story with me AND record it for others to hear* as well! My main motivation was that my wife has numb and painful hands, leading up to her wrist, which never goes away and is always present. The first step in this journey is hope, or at least a glimmer of hope to learn more, so that is my goal, to give my wife hope that this could be worth learning more about (I have had success with backpain). A bonus to this interview is that Dan shared he also had sciatica, which my wife suffers from frequently too!
Listen on SoundCloud here > https://soundcloud.com/elijahlynn/dan-nords-10-years-of-rsi-recover-success-story/s-CRgyfo2CZ6r
* It was supposed to be a video recording so you will hear mention of things that you should be able to see but it ended up being an audio recording, so that is why. We may do another one that is video soon, and I'll post back if/when that happens! |
| dannord |
Posted - 06/25/2017 : 21:08:03
I read that Dr. Sarno passed this week and it made me sad. It made me realize that I can still help fellow sufferers of typing related pain so I updated my success story which I feel is now a full and complete success story thanks to Sarno and this community. It's been ten years since I posted that first hopeful cry for help. Thanks Dr Sarno and thanks TMSWiki.
I put the reply in the original thread below along with my cell number- call me if you're hurting and stuck and having trouble buying in.
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5187&whichpage=2 |
| MikeySama |
Posted - 12/27/2008 : 07:13:44
I achieved a similar state in my recovery the first time i tried it. Had been on hiatus for over a year, and was recovered in less than a month.
The pains were gone for over a year, and then they returned. And have never gone really gone away again for a longer period. The longest i've been painfree since then is a month. They always come back...
----
Call me Mike :) |
| elliot1 |
Posted - 12/16/2008 : 14:37:38
I came on to this forum quite cautious of TMS. But then read your original post and it described me (although thankfully 2 years of RSI, not 10).
Your first post in that thread would have been the exact words I'd have chosen. Then I read your next post remarking on improvement, then the next, then the next etc. And now you're free of it. Utter madness.
Anyway suffice to say that I'm knee deep in Sarno and Fred Amir literature. A couple of days ago I couldn't look at my computer without the familiar sharp pains. And now I'm writing this message to you on my keyboard without any hesitation. I cannot believe how life-changing the last 5 days have been.
Congratulations on conquering your RSI TMS. I bet you're on top of the world. |
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