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Andrew2000
40 Posts |
 Posted - 10/31/2006 : 18:56:26
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Hi Holly,
I had suffered from plantar fasciitis last year (whatever 'that' is! other than a catch-all phrase invented by podiatrists) and after reading Dr. Sarno's books and focusing on all the emotional issues going on in my life, I recovered completely - although it took some time ... The tricky thing about "TMS" is that you always have to be on the look-out for when it might pop up again, and in my case, suddenly -- out of the blue -- without doing any additional physical exercise out of the ordinary, I developed a neuroma in my right foot two weeks ago ... Coincidentally(?!) I'm suddenly facing big decisions in my life related to job and family ... so this time, I decided to take the 'bull by the horns' and not dwell on the physical ... I've literally been forcing myself to face head-on the things that I know I have to do to move forward in my life (including confronting my family on a few complicated issues and maybe even changing my job again, for the second time in a year) ... the more present I've been in my thoughts, and the more I've been working toward trying to dissipate my fear -- the less I've felt the neuroma ... I hope you feel better ... don't be afraid, fear is one of the biggest culprits of all. Accept that life is all about change, keep your eye on the ball of what's really going on in your life -- and watch how fast the physical symptoms will pass. (p.s. the sharp pain I was feeling from the neuroma is nearly gone now and also, like you, once it started, it switched from one foot to the other ... that is, I am afraid, the nature of the beast.) |
Edited by - Andrew2000 on 10/31/2006 18:59:09 |
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holly
USA
243 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2006 : 06:17:49
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| Andrew thank you for that. I need to hear stories like that! I happen to be speaking to my father last night on the phone and asked him if he ever got anything like this and to my surprise he has gotten those electrifing pains in his toes. He said it could be from bad circulation of all things.(my feey are usually pretty cold) he also said it comes and goes and that sometimes it takes awhile and didn't make much of it. Then i wondered if maybe my varicous viens could have something to do with it as both my parents had them which i seemed to inheriet. I can't help but wanting to get to the bottom of this. I am even wondering if I even really have/had a neuroma and if I can wear shoes with a bit higher heal after all??? I went out and bought some expensive booties in both black and brown with a tiny heel to wear out to dinner etc. thinking I wouldn't be able to wear what is in my closet anymore ever again. Question Andrew: When you were diagnosed with your neuroma did the poditrist press on that "spot" on the top of your foot to diagnose it and did you have pain there too which supposingly produces the sharp pains in the middle toes??? That had me convienced. maybe now in retrospect it is just like the spots that Sarno presses on when diagnosing TMS in other areas like the back and leg??? |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2006 : 19:25:53
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I don't know what to think about neuromas. The one I developed a couple of months ago has come and go several times since then. Actually, it only seems to bother me when I put on a particular pair of shoes with hard soles. The difference is like night and day. That's why I'm puzzled about neuromas. I know Sarno is skeptical about them being an actual physical problem, but my own sense is that it is.
Fortunately, it's not a big deal either way. Wear different shoes and it's either gone or almost gone. Wear the hard shoes and it's a problem. |
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Andrew2000
40 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2006 : 19:59:59
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Question Andrew: When you were diagnosed with your neuroma did the poditrist press on that "spot" on the top of your foot to diagnose it and did you have pain there too which supposingly produces the sharp pains in the middle toes??? That had me convienced. maybe now in retrospect it is just like the spots that Sarno presses on when diagnosing TMS in other areas like the back and leg???
Holly - truth be told, I didn't go back to the podiatrist when I felt what I believed to be all the symptoms of a neuroma. I'd already been the route of orthodics, cortisone shots, etc. for plantar fasciitis and discovered that all of it -- in reality -- had to do with my emotional state, not a physical problem, or difficulty with shoes. So I figured, what's the point in going back? ... When I self-diagnosed what felt like a neuroma this time around I spared myself the expense and frustration of going back to the podiatrist and began working on my inner self again. The more I did, the less pain I felt. |
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holly
USA
243 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 06:52:59
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| I can't help but wonder if my polyneurophy of 3 years and now this neuroma is all TMS?? I just got the new book and started reading some. I DO seem to always have one thing after another and almost as soon as I say I feel so good another thing pops up! I am leaning towards the TMS aspect and things are slightly better. I will see what happens. Thanks all! |
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redskater
USA
81 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 09:12:35
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this is interesting. I've been wondering the same thing. A few weeks ago My big toe started tingling, since then has become numb. Now I've got a nerve running up the front of my foot that feels like electric shock. I was wondering if lack of oxygen can cause it. Or is it just a situation that has become aggrivated over time. I teach skating and am in pretty unforgiving boots a few hours every day. However, I've been doing this for almost a year now. Plus I was a competitive skater for 10 yrs, and professionally for another 10, so what gives? another way for tms to invade? I've kept on journaling, so I'll keep at it and see if I can make this go away like everything else I've experianced. interesting!
Gaye |
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 09:29:24
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wrldtrv, I have just one word for your situation: CONDITIONING!
Any trigger can be an excuse for TMS to start up. Once it does, the pain will seem to correspond to the trigger -- hard shoes, in this case.
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Wherever you go, there you are. |
Edited by - armchairlinguist on 11/02/2006 09:29:47 |
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holly
USA
243 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 13:37:45
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| I am almost getting excited at the thought of my feet problems actually being TMS. I would like nothing more to know that that is what this all has been and now is. then at least i know it is really nothing and I don't really have neuroligical problems going on down there forever!! |
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HilaryN
United Kingdom
879 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 15:42:41
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I just read this thread for the first time.
Wow, a foot neuroma. What a great term! I wish I'd known about that a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I had one but I didn't know it was called that, otherwise I'd have gone hotfoot to the doc to tell her. 
I was walking round my room in bare feet and I accidentally trod on some awkwardly-shaped object. I caught myself in time and managed to shift my weight to the other foot. But then the foot which had trodden on the object started hurting. Not on the sole of the foot, which had come into contact with the object, but inside the foot. It was really painful, as though it were inflamed.
I tried to work out how that could have happened. If the sole of my foot was hurting it might have made sense (although not really because I shifted my weight in time). There was just no logical reason for it so I decided it was TMS and laughed at it. It gave me a sheepish look and slunk away pdq. It did peek out a couple of times over the next day or so to try its luck, but I wasn't having any of it, and it didn't give me any more trouble.
Hilary N |
Edited by - HilaryN on 11/02/2006 15:44:38 |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 19:37:23
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| I've thought of that too, ACL (conditioning), but I don't think so. First, this is only a recent development; I never had any problem with those shoes before. Second, why would I have suddenly developed this aversion to those particular shoes--what purpose would it serve? Finally, the problem sometimes occurs in other shoes too, though much milder. |
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2006 : 21:11:46
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wrldtrv, that's exactly how I would have described my foot problem when it first started up, and it was definitely TMS; it's now gone, but only after applying TMS thinking.
I don't think particular problems in the TMS realm necessarily serve a particular purpose, just the general one of intruding into our thoughts and plans thus distract us. Why does TMS sometimes make my left shoulder hurt by tightening a trigger point in my neck? I don't know, but it annoys me and if severe, makes me plan around it, and that's the purpose of TMS. To be intrusive and distracting. To occupy our brains. Doesn't matter what the pain is, the pain is distracting.
Like you said, if it's mild it's no biggie, just don't pay much attention to it and don't wear the shoes if you don't want to deal with it. But I had the experience that what seemed mild at first could later progress into a full-blown, disabling problem, so I'm not inclined to just let things lie anymore. For myself. YMMV, of course.
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Wherever you go, there you are. |
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2006 : 01:17:16
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About 5 years ago I began to have problems when I tried to wear a particular pair of shoes, even though I'd worn them many, many times and they had always been my most comfortable pair. They weren't wearing out, they were still in great shape, but I suddenly began having neurological symptoms in my feet and legs whenever I wore those shoes.
Then it progressed to other shoes, every pair that didn't have a big, boxy toe began to cause the symptoms of stiffness, partial numbness, pain, inability to rotate my ankles and balance problems because my toes wouldn't move. And while the original pair of shoes was flat, I also began having problems with any shoe with a heel of 2" or more. And the problems didn't go away when I took the shoes off, the symptoms would last for days.
I ended up giving away most of my shoes and replacing them with shoes that had boxy toes and heels no higher than one and a half inches.
Then I started having problems with some of those shoes too! But now the problems didn't go away, they just became an every day thing. Plus now I couldn't tolerate having blankets over my right foot at night, not even a light sheet. I was told I might have multiple sclerosis, but my tests didn't show any signs of that. But this time I kept the shoes, hoping that somehow I'd be able to wear them again, because I'd only worn them a few times and I just hated the thought of giving them away too.
It's been several weeks now since I learned of TMS and recently I've been able to put blankets over my foot again. The other day I decided to try on a pair of shoes that I haven't been able to wear for more than a year. I wore them with no problem whatsoever.
I realize now that at the time the foot and leg symptoms started I was going through a difficult emotional situation. And when the symptoms became an everyday thing, I was again in a very stressful situation.
So don't give up, Holly. It really sounds like the pain must be TMS, and if you keep feeling that excitement of knowing it's not a true neurological problem, you'll probably be able to get back into any shoes you want to wear with no symptoms. |
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Fox
USA
496 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2006 : 07:37:03
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| WRLDTV - conversely, where is the logic in thinking that the problem is the hard sole shoes - if they never hurt you before. If the shoes were the problem, they would have hurt you the first time that you wore them. It's conditioning. |
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holly
USA
243 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2006 : 13:48:01
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| Corey I can't believe what I just read!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sheets, the shoes, the heel height, everything you said is my story!! You are exactly my age too!! This has been going on for 3 years!!! There is no doubt I had issues...big ones like having to make the decision as to whether or not to let my mother live or die and the stress of finally selling my business that I hated. I was diagnosed with polynerophy in my pinky toes which started maybe a month after a bad bang injury in an unrelated middle toe after my mother died. I actually thought that maybe, just maybe it was TMS then but it just never went away so I kind of ruled it out. I have tons of shoes that I can't wear in my closet and have lived with the feeling of doom never to wear something nice on my feet again! I would put Dr. Sholes moleskin w/padding on the pinky toes and that is what helped me just get by. I seemed to do ok with height lately and my feet were feeling pretty good so I decided to treat myself to some higher than I would normally wear open toes shoes (after removing breast implants after many years) for a change. I tried them on in the store, walked in them for a few minutes and then 2 days later before I even took them out of my car I started noticing sharp neuroligical like pains in my middle toe on my left foot. I said what the hell is that??? At first it felt like the edge of my toenail was rubbing the neighboring toe. That was exactly how my first pinky toe issue had started too!!! Then it progressed & I could barely walk on it. I thought maybe i fractured my toe somehow. The shoe issue had been going on for years now. I would spend hours, days trying to find something that I could wear that looked good. It occupied my mind alot!!! So did you ever have the pinky toe issue?? I actually think as my middle toes now hurt my pinky toes seem slightly better. If this has all been TMS I will be darned!!! After your most similar story it is really freaking me out!! So did you also have the pinky toe issue where no shoe was able to press against them even slightly??? Are you wearing all your shoes again?? This is so amazing!!!!!!!!! |
Edited by - holly on 11/03/2006 14:04:12 |
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 11/04/2006 : 14:35:55
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Hi Holly,
This is a long post--hope you can get through it! My symptoms in my feet have included both general pain and neurological type symptoms. My right foot and leg have been worse than the left. My pinky toes haven't really had much general pain, but they would get partially numb and feel somewhat tingly and feel as if they were swollen, although they weren't swollen. The pinky toes felt very uncomfortable when there was any pressure on them, but it wasn't a sharp pain. The pressure from shoes against my toes would then trigger that partially numb but also tingly feeling to go up into my legs. That's when I gave up wearing shoes that had never bothered me before, anything with a rounded toe or more than a small heel. Ironically, the pair of shoes that I first began to have a lot of trouble with was the only pair of dress shoes that I could wear when I had a broken toe, a couple of years before the neurological problems really kicked in.
On the top of my right foot, just behind the toes, I always had a feeling like something kind of sharp was being pressed against that area. It always made me think of how the edge of a can might feel if it was pressed onto the top of my foot. That was also the foot that couldn't tolerate any blankets or sheets over it, because the lightest touch on my second toe, next to the big toe, was too painful. At times I'd get sharp pains in my second toes. Last year I developed sharp pains in my heels and along the bottom of my feet. I actually began using a cane sometimes to take some of the weight off of my right foot.
I went to just wearing flat sandals in summer and boots with only a one inch heel in winter. I have some boots with a heel that's a little higher that I had to stop wearing last year, and that's what I tried last week and was able to wear. I have a couple of other pairs of dress shoes that I had stopped wearing and haven't yet tried again, but I plan to do that soon. I have clothing that I stopped wearing too, because I couldn't find shoes that I could tolerate that would look good with those outfits. It's been kind of depressing to have to give up some of my favorite stuff!
It's interesting that one of your issues was your mother's life. At the time that I began to have major shoe issues, my mother, who lived with us because of a number of serious health problems, including dementia, had just been diagnosed with cancer, my husband was being treated for a recurrence of cancer, and his state disability had just run out but he hadn't yet been approved for Social Security Disability, so we had no income except my mother's. I was overwhelmed with all the stress.
Last year, when the foot problems escalated, I was trying to do too much physically and was again really stressed about our finances, because my mom had passed away and without her financial help it's been rough.
I was taking a medication that helped somewhat with the neurological symptoms, but I've weaned almost all the way off it now, since learning of TMS, and my feet feel much better even without the medication. I'm still having general pain if I walk or stand for too long, which I had long before the neurological stuff, since the time that I first developed the CFS/Fibromyalgia symptoms, but I believe that's going to improve as I progress with the TMS work. I have experienced pain moving about, with one spot improving as another spot flares up, and I'm now viewing that kind of pain movement as evidence that TMS is the culprit in all of this.
For me, the hardest part of getting into the TMS work is my fear of the emotions. I still find myself pushing them back, because it just seems overwhelming to let them out. For so many years I’ve felt that I had to suppress my emotions in order to survive and function, and it’s hard to let that wall come down.
I hope you’ll be able to determine whether your symptoms are most likely to be TMS. It really sounds to me like they could be. The short time you had the new shoes on and the delayed pain sounds like a TMS thing. For me, one of the benefits of having been ill for so long and having had to be responsible for my husband and my parents’ medical care is that I really got to see that doctors often don’t really know the cause of something and so they just blame it on anything that might seem to have even the slightest possible relationship to the problem. Seeing that has made it easier to let go of all the stuff that doctors have told me in the past and accept TMS as a cause.
Best wishes for a better future! Corey
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holly
USA
243 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 08:22:59
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| very interesting story Corey! The part about the "can" especially. That is similar to the feeling of my toenail edge pricking the toe next to it. So either we have a similiar disease or we both have TMS. I remember years ago when I went to see a recommended physical therapest..... him commenting to me that he was surprised this thing didn't start running up my whole leg! ( I knew about TMS at that time and had thought this could all possibility be that.) He said that my continued working out at the gym (walking on the treadmill) probably helped me. I would assume that the walking brought more oxygen to my toes! It never did run up my legs. Yesterday I wore a pair of carefully picked(pretty) nice soft leather kitten heeled boots. For the first time the pinky toes don't really bother me as much, especially since the middle toes have now become the issue. I am determined to get back into my "fur lined" higher boots(also bought for this condition a few years ago) again one day. To tell you the truth this new low pair I found happens to look really good and since I am tall I should probably just stick with them anyway just not to fool around. If you want the name of them let me know. There is nothing out there like this pair. I bought it in brown and black so I feel good to go for the winter! I still haven't really walked around barefoot yet since that first poditrist told me to avoid that. If I do just happen to really have had a neuroma it does seem to be going away just as the second poditrist said it most likely would. Hard to differientiate but I am going with the TMS diagnosis! |
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cfhunter
119 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 08:57:10
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I would love to see a picture of the boots you found and where you found them as I suffer from a neuroma in my left foot and two bad PN symptomatic feet.
I live in my Chaco's in the summer and my Danskos in the winter but would love some CUTE shoes for winter that actually warm my feet.
thanks |
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holly
USA
243 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 13:28:41
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I searched and searched onine for the boots and nothing came up! So this is what i can tell you: California magdesians bootie. zip side in soft sueade style# in the boot say's 302530 also the # 65049. i couldn't find these online anywhere and what i did see from that company is very fartie shoes. try calling this #800 -234 -3384 for the company. they have tiny gold ball trim around the front above the sole of the low bootie. they look real good with jeans or velore sweats etc. the heel isreal low too. wore them last night without a problem!
You also have my exact problem: polyneurophy in both feet and neuroma on my left!! So either these are ligitimate conditions OR TMS!???????????????? |
Edited by - holly on 11/05/2006 13:34:01 |
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cfhunter
119 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 14:58:44
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I don't know....I JUST got into TMS reading and am finding that it is very intersting how many of the characterisits fit me to a tee of a person who suffers with TMS.
I haven't found a lot about feet and tms though which is my main problem.
I would love to know more about that myself. All I know about it thus far is all day today every time I felt the "sensations" or pain try to creep in I told myself in my head "Don't give the pain any power or control"...and so far it's been a better day then yesterday.
I even ran yesterday and am usually worse the next day and am feeling just okay...not symptom free but better.
It is VERY hard to believe a possible diagnosis that isn't on paper and confirmed by a DR. isn't it?
I live in the south and there is NO ONE in this area that is remotely educated about this that I know of. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 15:49:34
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THIS THREAD IS USELESS WITHOUT PICTURES!
I'm getting a TMS foot-fettish.
I hope Dave's up-graded site allows for pictures, this could get really good.
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foot neuroma
