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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2011 : 18:58:39
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I followed the Sarno advice and finally had my last chronic pain site checked out. It was the original problem that led me to be diagnosed with a "one in a million" back problem, a thoracic disc herniation. It started two years ago.
I'll make it as short as possible. Older posters/members know the story already, but newbies do not.
I was experiencing pain in my side. I had had gallbladder surgery three months earlier. I went to a neurologist and he told me (correctly) that I had a thoracic dis herniation. An MRI proved the neurologist's diagnosis.
I spent 1.5 years in extreme anxiety. A mid-back herniation makes you "untouchable", because of the possibility of any working with it causing paralysis and even death.
I never dreamed I had a back problem, and up until that time had had no problem bending, lifting, walking, standing, etc. My back froze and was in such spasm that my entire torso was twisted or "torqued" as a massage therapist told me. My chest felt like it was going to rip apart from the inside, as did my right side. I had many of the symptoms of the herniation. I was cashed in at a young age.
Reading HBP and MBP led me to question the entire diagnosis. Other doctors doubted the results too. This forum and its mainstay members( Thank you, thank you!) gave me courage to go out and resume activity. I did. My back problem was "cured". All the muscles loosened, finally, and much movement became so much easier.
Today I went to a neurologist to get his best guess on what's up with my side. His best guess is neuralgia. My gallbladder, three times its size had damaged nerves on my side. He said I have phantom pain, maybe. Or maybe the nerves are "damaged". He almost laughed at the idea of the disc herniation causing the pain, because the disc was herniated but just sitting there ON THE WRONG SIDE, with no nerve compression and no other spinal deformities.
So, I spent 1.5 years with the wrong diagnosis. Let this be a lesson to those who get only one opinion and accept it. Don't do it.
As for the neuralgia I will get past that too. I know what he dose not, that even in the last two weeks I have improved. Some of it has to do with attitude; some with weight loss. This neurologist advised me that my nerves would have repaired themselves by this time if they were going to. Well, maybe. But I also know that my back thoracic muscles and hence nerves tighten up with anxiety. These stretch the anterior muscles and nerves. I found that out with the increased anxiety leading up to this visit. Old symptoms came back. If my nerves were dead or compressed I would have numbness. I do not. There is some kind of irritation, but I think the above explains most, not to mention fixation, bracing and conditioning.
In a matter as serious as this, do not trust the first diagnosis that you get. The moronic chiropractor told me that my herniation would never let me recover 100%. Well, that was NEVER, EVER the problem. But his words stuck with me for so long.
Peace and wellness to all.
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
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jjh2go
35 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2011 : 07:45:51
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| Neuralgia sounds like TMS to me. Sounds like something doctors cannot figure out, so they give it a name. Do "damaged nerves" really cause pain?? A friend of mine has an arm that doesn't work since birth. Her nerves were damaged during birth, and it is real damage. She doesn't have any pain, and she doesn't take medication. The arm simply doesn't work. Every once in a while she will complain of some pain, but she says she only gets nerve pain when she is stressed or anxious. Well, there you go. TMS is causing that, not the nerve damage. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2011 : 08:35:23
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Great news Back2-It! Thanks for posting, that's inspirational. Neuralgia is an archaic term for TMS that was popular at the turn of the previous century for "nerves" and such. Docs/barbers would prescribe snake-oyls, whose main ingredient was alcohol. Seems like things haven't changed much. A few years back doctors would not have dreamt of referring patients to chiros as they were thought of as quacks. Now "modern" medicine is so confounded by TMS pain that chiros can be found within orthopedic practices. Good going on your weight-loss, it's a big bonus of being able to return to exercising after the nocebo fear of movement is lifted. You've successfully fulfilled your moniker by getting BACK TO IT! Your post would be a good addition to the Forum's "SUCCESS STORIES" section!
Congratulations!
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2011 : 14:13:09
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Hey TT,
I don't feel I'm a success story yet; that is why this is posted here.
Neuralgia is a catch-all used when they aren't sure what is causing pain.
Underneath it all for me is anxiety/depression. I have to get to the root of it all.
jjh2go -- exactly right about bodily nerves. I recognize this now after reading so much medical crap. I had almost the exact same symptoms for a couple of months, then they went away, but that was before I learned the pain and became sensitive to it.
I'm highly suggestible and I had read about this horrible post surgery "gallbladder syndrome" prior to even knowing I had a gallbladder problem (but I had the achy pain in the side); then I went back after the surgery, and even after the pain had disappeared, and breathed a sigh of relief that I had recovered with no residual pain. Then, wa-la! That pain appeared. Sick.
I have to work myself out of the original pain, and believe me, I'm open to suggestions.
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
Edited by - Back2-It on 08/31/2011 14:40:13 |
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2011 : 14:45:13
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quote:
Originally posted by jjh2go
Neuralgia sounds like TMS to me. Sounds like something doctors cannot figure out, so they give it a name. Do "damaged nerves" really cause pain?? A friend of mine has an arm that doesn't work since birth. Her nerves were damaged during birth, and it is real damage. She doesn't have any pain, and she doesn't take medication. The arm simply doesn't work. Every once in a while she will complain of some pain, but she says she only gets nerve pain when she is stressed or anxious. Well, there you go. TMS is causing that, not the nerve damage.
Many people lost their arms and legs due to war or accident. Do they suppose to be in pain all the time since their nerves are damaged beyond repair. What about people got hurt in motocycle accident and severed their spinal cord and paralyzed. They were just paralyzed, they don't feel pain anymore.
I think anxiety is our body's normal reactions to PROLONG negative thoughts (dead, lost job, divorced, financial stress, rejection, loneliness... anything negative that is going on in your life).
Notice the word PROLONG. Usually 2, 3 weeks or longer of constant stress is needed to cause anxiety/panic. An then once you got it, even after you got rid of it, you will become very vunerable to anxiety/panic attack because of CONDITIONING. There will be many physical and wrong thought triggers that will bring back anxiety/panic.
to me it is easier to cure yourself of the first anxiety/panic attack. It is difficult to desensitize yourself and prevent it from coming back. It will take years for most of us to master it.
good writing Back2it. I've got many wrong diagnosis during my decades of fighting my mindbody illness. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2011 : 20:37:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Back2-It
...Underneath it all for me is anxiety/depression. I have to get to the root of it all.
...I have to work myself out of the original pain...
...I'm open to suggestions.
May I suggest then, accept that anxiety and depression are also TMS. Dr. Sarno terms them AFFECTIVE symptoms rather than physical, psychogenic structural symptoms--but they are TMS just the same--just another form of distraction!
May I also suggest you do not have to get to the root of it all, the Good Doctor says you only have to accept the theory, that the pain is benign, harmless, and that the mindbody is STRONG! It emanates from your subconscious in an effort to protect you from facing and feeling undesirable emotions.
May I also suggest you figure out what you want to do and start doing it rather than getting hung-up in a tautological inward psychobabble.
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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
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2011 : 21:25:24
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TT...
quote:
... tautological ...
I had to look that one up LOL.
You are right. I don't have to get to the root of anything, but rather recognize that anxiety/depression a symptom as well.
So interesting this pain thing: I was at a friend's house and another friend there was in horrible back pain. It flared up when he got out of bed ten days ago. He has an "L-5" problem. Also, his right side is aching. (Maybe this is the right-side bug that's going around?) 
I suggested it might be anxiety/nerves -- he has been unemployed now for about three years. I don't think he attributes it to anything emotional. Maybe he will. I hope so for his sake. One shouldn't "learn" pain. It's harder to unlearn.
Balto.... you are right, too. I have many things that are causing me stress at this point. I have been dealing with what I could, one after the other, but have more to do. Or I have to change the way I think about some of these things.
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
Edited by - Back2-It on 08/31/2011 21:29:03 |
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The Story of a Wrong Diagnosis
