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positivevibes
204 Posts |
 Posted - 05/06/2008 : 09:29:15
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Today it occurred to me that a weird recurring problem with my toe might be TMS. I'd appreciate if you guys could tell me what you think.
A few years ago, I woke up one morning with a terrible debilitating pain in the second toe of my left foot. My toes had been very cold the night before and had turned blue briefly. Thinking I'd injured it somehow, I saw my podiatrist. She took an x-ray and found nothing wrong. But upon examining that toe, she saw that the tip was redder than it should be and said that it appeared that the blood flow to that toe had been compromised. We thought that perhaps I had Raynaud's Syndrome (possible, since I have a thyroid problem and my Aunt has Raynaud's -- the two things can go hand-in-hand). The pain totally disappeared within one week. But then, a few weeks later, I had horrible back pain for several weeks.
About a year later, that toe suddenly began hurting again. I tried to figure out why. It seemed to be tied to a particular pair of sandals -- maybe I was putting some bad pressure on that part of my foot? So I decided not to wear those sandals anymore. After the pain went away guess what...I broke out in a mystery rash (while on vacation). Several months later after being under a lot of stress, my back started hurting again. Anyway, I saw the podiatrist again and she thought perhaps I had a neuroma at the base of the toe.
There are a few other instances which I won't bore you with. Fast forward to today. Recently the toe has been hurting on and off --a nd my back has been bothering me, too (totally TMS pain I'm sure of it). I have not worn those sandals or any shoes that would irritate the toe. I don't do anything out of the ordinary that would make it hurt. It usually starts throbbing when I'm sleeping.
Since the podiatrist mentioned compromised blood flow, it makes me think of ischemia and TMS. So I have to wonder if this weird problem with my toe is TMS? Dr. Sarno talks about the pain moving around in the body. The pain is really bad -- it makes me limp for several days until it eases up.
I saw a rheumotologist last year, thinking that perhaps it *was* Raynaud's. She said no -- the way the pain manifests itself is NOT Raynaud's at all. If it's a neruoma, and if I'm doing nothing out of the ordinary to irritate my foot, then why does it start hurting for no clear reason?
What do you guys think? The strangest thing about this is, it seems to happen out of the blue. OR perhaps not....really when I think about it, it seems to happen around periods of stress or psychological unrest in my life. |
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mizlorinj
USA
490 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2008 : 11:15:49
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Um, I think you've answered your own question. Keep in mind: the body heals, and heals quickly at that.
I have done A LOT of reading since my TMS episode in 2007. Many books I learned about on this forum, and each book seemed to lead me to another one. It's been a year of great learnings. Some are written by docs, some aren't. But all are based on experiences.
Just because your aunt has raynauds does not mean you will. In fact, we seem conditioned to believe things "run in the family" and the modern thinkers are questioning that we aren't setting ourselves up by that conditioning. Several in my family have diabetes; I do not. And since I believe it can have an emotional root, I am not at all afraid I will get it. I won't. I've seen it serve them well as a scapegoat; they blame every possible thing that goes wrong physically on "the diabetes". But they absolutely are not open to examining their own thinking. Sad. They have a condition to blame it on so why explore painful emotions or the past. Or change your life and thinking!
Hmm, I can see that situation annoys me. I need to do some writing on the fact that I cannot help them though I've tried; they have to be open to a different way of thinking and help themselves.
I digress. . .
How about not babying the toe, doing some writing about your emotions and experiences, and moving on with life?? Nothing anyone can say will make you accept it as a mindbody condition--you need to do that for yourself.
Best wishes for healing,
Lori |
Edited by - mizlorinj on 05/06/2008 11:19:08 |
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AmyAJJ
98 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2008 : 11:17:27
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Sounds like your last sentence kind of answers your own question.
You notice the toe pain when you're having some kind of stress. Sometimes it seems like it's connected with a physical situation like a cold toe, or the tight sandals, but that could just be the mind's way of taking advantage of a situation where it assumes you will blame it on physical instead of mental stuff.
It's opportunistic in that way. Oh, she'll think it's from the sandal, but I'll really go there with this stress and she'll never think that it's stress. She'll blame the sandal and I'll get to keep on hiding trying to distract her from the emotional stuff.
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southpaw
Canada
29 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2008 : 12:34:03
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| Even if it is Raynaud's, that is one of the equivalents mentioned as TMS! I've had Raynaud's in my hands very badly one winter but it disappeared the next. Didn't understand why that happened then but I do now. |
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Baseball65
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2008 : 16:04:13
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I assume you've already been checked and are NOT a diabetic? That is a common symptom of that particular malady.
BRO...you just totally reminded me of my pre-sarno days. I used to get Reynauds symptoms in my feet. I blamed my shoes, the concrete floors at work, everything. I would hop up and down and stamp my feet, but all it ever did was make it worse.
I remember having those symptoms in particular when I worked in the movie business....always in the morning (even if I'd been up all night or it was 90 degrees out). My feet are ghastly white (I never ever expose them to the sun...they look like I got them from a cadaver) but whenever they were cold, they would look angry red. I have never ever had the symptom again since my back got better back in the 90's.
It was such a small thing and so infrequent compared with my shoulder, neck and back issues that I had never been to a doctor about it, but if Ischemia wants your attention, it has many ways of getting it. Mixing it up a little is almost better....keeps you from getting a nice placebo response.
But you should definitely rule out diabetes. I don't know much about the thyroid, but I assume you've had blood work done?
You might want to stop reviewing footwear and start reviewing footwhere...as in "where were my feet taking me when it happened?"
My feet were woken up at 4 o'clock in the morning , and taking me to work on a piece of crap TV show that only Yokels from the backwoods would be stupid enough to derive any entertainment value from. I hate Television. I hate the Film Industry. No more Movie work, no more reynauds symptoms (or anything else, for that matter)
-bb65 |
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positivevibes
204 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2008 : 23:21:16
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Well, the last time I had a checkup (a few months ago) my blood sugar was fine; perfectly normal -- always has been. I've never been anywhere near the zone of diabetes. But thanks for mentioning it!
I will be more specific about where my toe hurts. Upon investigation, I realized that it's not actually the toe itself, but the area right below the toe, where the toe joins the foot. My podiatrist explained to me several years ago that there is a nerve in that region. If what I'm getting is a neuroma, it usually occurs in the 3rd and 4th toes. But mine is occurring in the second toe (the one next to the big toe). I'm not sure if technically it is "Morton's Neruoma" or not. My second toe IS longer than my big toe, but not freakishly so.
My podiatrist offered to give me a cortisone injection in that region and I researched it and realized that I *don't* want that...because the injection is apparently extremely painful. Knowing that the pain will resolve itself in a week or so is a big reason to avoid injection of a medicine, IMO.
But if the pain continues I *might* go back to my podiatrist. At this point I'm really not sure if this pain is TMS or a real physical problem.
The curious thing is....yesterday (the day before my toe started hurting) my entire body felt weird, as if I was coming down with something. It felt as if I had a fever...my entire body seemed a bit achy...but when I took my temperature it was (as usual) below normal (that's because of my thyroid disease).
Anyway, I wonder if that weird achy feeling was some sort of TMS neurological anxiety-stress "thing" that was happening in my body? And then it just manifested itself in my sleep into my toe? Some sort of weird "neuropathy" brought on by a TMS attack? Anybody want to comment -- have you ever felt this way before some part of your body suddenly started hurting? I've had all sorts of aches and pains for the past few weeks, since my teenage daughter was diagnosed with scoliosis (which has been very upsetting).
Baseball -- BTW, I almost worked in the TV industry when I was younger, so I know where you're coming from with that! Had an internship at CBS in New York for Dave Marash's 5 O'clock Newscast (that was when he was a news man, not a sports anchor). It was extremely stressful and I was not happy there. I knew at that point that TV wasn't the right career for me, even though I had majored in broadcasting in college. Ultimately I did not stay in that industry. I became a writer instead and was much happier. Broadcasting is harsh and crazy, and I was (and still am) too nice of a person to ruthlessly step on other people to get ahead -- which is truthfully what it took to be successful, especially in TV news. |
Edited by - positivevibes on 05/07/2008 01:45:17 |
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2008 : 07:50:33
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There was a thread a while back from Holly about neuromas. She had a lot of worry and checkups and different shoes and stuff, but in the end I believe it turned out to be TMS. You might search for it and see.
I'm not sure exactly what the status of "neuroma" is (i.e. there may be some real neuromas), but it seems it can also be one of those things doctors say when they don't know what to say because they don't know what could be wrong. So I wouldn't necessarily take that as "not TMS" if I were you.
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It's not 100% belief that's required, but 100% commitment. |
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positivevibes
204 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2008 : 08:31:21
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quote:
Originally posted by armchairlinguist
There was a thread a while back from Holly about neuromas. She had a lot of worry and checkups and different shoes and stuff, but in the end I believe it turned out to be TMS. You might search for it and see.
I'm not sure exactly what the status of "neuroma" is (i.e. there may be some real neuromas), but it seems it can also be one of those things doctors say when they don't know what to say because they don't know what could be wrong. So I wouldn't necessarily take that as "not TMS" if I were you.
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It's not 100% belief that's required, but 100% commitment.
Yes, I found that and was reading it yesterday. I've emailed Holly to ask how things are going lately with her feet. Hopefully she will answer! |
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Strange recurring toe pain - is it TMS?
