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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
 Posted - 10/20/2004 : 13:26:42
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I wanted to know what you guys thought about my latest "injury"
As some of you know, I fell down the stairs a few months ago and recently realize that the lingering pain was the result of TMS.
My left elbow, the original TMS site, is doing great. It is say, 90 percent. It isn't preventing from doing any of the things i love, and it is only a matter of time before the pain is gone completely.
But a new "injury" has surfaced and I am having trouble attributing it to TMS. For the past few months, I have been using my right arm to lift up my messenger bag, which is full of case books and my laptop. I would say that this bag can weigh over 30 lbs. Anyway, i noticed a while ago that when my arm was fully flexed, meaning that my hand was near my shoulder, there was a slight pain near my elbow, specially near the tricep tendon.
Since starting to workout again, the pain in my right elbow has gotten worse while the pain in my left elbow has gotten better and better. The reason I have trouble attributing the pain to TMS is because I noticed it at the height of my TMS pain in my left elbow.
Last night, I did a back workout. For those of you that don't weight train, a back workout involves, rows, pull-ups, etc.
It put a lot of stress on my new injury. And although there was minimal pain, i couldn't stop thinking about it. I woke up multiple times during the night expecting the elbow to be immobile. I remember hearing stories about pitchers, pitching a great game and waking up the next day unable to move their arm. I couldnt' get that idea out of my head.
A large part of me wants to work through the pain, but another part of me thinks it might actually be an injury and that I could do permanent damage and as I fear, wake up the next morning unable to move my arm.
I know TMS pain shifts, and the only way my left elbow got better was by working through the pain and realizing the true cause of the pain. But part of me is still scared.
The arm exercise that puts the most amount of stress on it, is arm curls. It's strange because the pain comes from beneath my elbow, not on the inside of the elbow. It's like the pain comes from stretching the tendon too far.
Anyway, do you guys think i should go ahead and do arm curls and not worry about whatever pain might result?
Thanks so much for all of your help!
Zach |
Edited by - Zshapiro32 on 10/20/2004 13:30:40 |
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Fox
USA
496 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2004 : 14:52:12
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| Although you obsessively fear an increase in the pain in the right elbow, you admitted that the current pain in that area is actually only minimal......What we generally hear on this site is that one TMS pain site gets better before another trigger site surfaces as a substitute, but I don't see why there can't be a transition from one site to another when the first site is at its worst or why there can't be two trigger sites at the same time. For example, I have concurrent TMS symptoms -- sciatica, tinnitus, sinus area face pain, and headaches -- although one site is always more prominent in its ability to distract than the others, but the prominence alternates......The pain in the right elbow sounds like good ol'TMS symptom substitution to me....I would keep working the right elbow with weights just like before even if the pain gets a little worse....If the pain does grow extremely intense, and it may because you are expecting it to do so, then you can lay off on the lifts that directly affect that elbow for a BRIEF period of time. |
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menvert
Australia
133 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2004 : 18:22:20
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Well I must say my pain started as forearm tendonitis in my left arm . and what Do you know, a month later it had affected my right arm the same... so yes, TMS will take the opportunity to mirror the pain to the other side.... especially when there is that slight lingering doubt of 'oh, but my other arm is now doing all the work because my injured one isn't' but don't believe that it's a POS it is TMS.
What you explained about being somewhat ' obsessive'/worried about the emerging pain in your newer site suggests to me that it is very muchly TMS...
I know personally, how hard it can be when you start being afraid that the pain is non-TMS. It just takes practice to learn how not to obsessive about it... I still get stuck in the unhelpful thinking/obsessing but not so often anymore.
I actually have up to seven sites where I will experience symptoms, sometimes in several places at once with one specifically more prominent usually. |
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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2004 : 14:53:47
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Thank you both for your advice. The new injury just seems too coincidental. The only way I have ever gotten over a soft tissue "injury" is to fight through it, proof positive that I do suffer from TMS, but I am still afraid. Also, the pain is very new, so I tell myself that I haven't given it enough time to rest.
I tell myself that this injury is tendonitis, one that I've never experienced before, and that it only gets better with rest, but rest doesn't seem to help.
The pain actually got better when I stressed it this past tuesday. Last night I went out and had a few drinks. The pain was unbearable by the end of the night and my shoulder even started to hurt. With every injury I've ever had, alcohol seems to intensify it. I eat a very strict diet, and maybe my body is worried that when I go out drinking, I might gain weight and it is afraid. Who knows? But for whatever reason, alcohol makes it much worse.
One thing that really bothered me, was that after my back workout, whenever I would keep my arm in the same place for a long period of time and then moved my arm, there would be a loud pop.
My knees do this all the time, without any pain, so I tell myself that the popping is harmless, but I've never had this popping sound in my elbow before.
Any ideas?
And I thank you all for your help. I am so reluctant to talk to my father, a conservative pediatrician, or look up elbow problems on the internet for fear of finding "western-medicine" type explanations that might slow my recovery.
Sorry to be so self-centered.
zach |
Edited by - Zshapiro32 on 10/22/2004 14:57:36 |
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golfer's elbow
