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lia
USA
14 Posts |
 Posted - 09/25/2014 : 15:42:12
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Hi everyone,
In June, I had to attend an event so I wore high heels and had to walk around the streets with them on. My feet became very tired, so I changed into my sandals, and a while later, when I was sitting down, I felt pain in my ankles. I figured that I had twisted my ankle because I recalled that I had lost my balance, and had to put a lot of pressure on my ankle while it was bent in order to stop myself from falling. What is weird is that I did not feel pain at the instant when I lost my balance and bent my ankle, but when I was sitting down, which was maybe 15-30 minutes later. I had also no swelling in my foot.
I figured that it was a very mild injury, and jogged on it the same day. for about 30 minutes. My ankle started feeling sore and stiff, and, the next morning, it hurt to go down the stairs. I walked around the whole day on the day following my "sprain." I'm not saying TMS caused my pain, because I believe I did sprain my ankle, but it has been 3 months already and I don't think my ankle has improved at all ever since the first 3 or so weeks. There was some improvement at first, but now there is just lingering pain that never seems to get better. I also have ankle clicking (without pain though), which is very annoying.
I tried exercising 2 weeks ago, and the pain started feeling better but around 2-3 days ago, the same pain returned. It is not extremely painful, but I have that same stiff, sore feeling I've had the day I sprained my ankle. Shouldn't such a mild sprain without any immediate pain or swelling heal within a few days?? It's been months! And I'm also really young, only 17. I've had so many injuries these past 2 years.. its' ridiculous.
I think I may just need some reassurance that I can keep exercising without making it worse. I went to a doctor and he said my ankle should be almost healed, but that visit was 2 months ago.. |
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sf0789
Korea
8 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2014 : 23:25:13
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Hi Lia, sorry for your "injury."
I had injured my right ankle 3 months ago, wore a cast for 1 month, now doing PT and rehabilitation exercises for 1.5 months. while I was on cast, my left ankle, which was not injured at all, started feeling very sore and painful. I did ultrasound test, but nothing came up. I went to see an orthopedist, and he said my left ankle is perfect. Then I figured the pain on the left ankle was definitely TMS while the one on the right ankle was a real one due to a human body's healing process. The TMS pain on my left ankle still comes on and off, but the pain level is now definitely manageable and I just don't care about it. (FYI, there's still a clicking sound, too)
I assume that your doctor didn't put you on a cast or splint in the first place means your injury was very mild. No immediate pain adds more confidence to such conclusion, too (however, swelling sometimes happen overnight in real injuries. BUT if you didn't have much swelling at the moment of injury, I think that tells the same thing: mild sprain). That kind of mild sprain should be healed in 3~4 weeks at the longest.
Have you recently went to an orthopedist or podiatrist? I think the first thing you need to do is to rule out any real injury or medical issue (e.g. fracture, actual sprain (elongated or torn ligament), severe damage on the cartilage) that requires you a specific medical therapy process. In your case, check if you're still not healed.
In case of foot/ankle, a foot specialist should know what's wrong with the confidence level of 90% after an X-ray AND palpation/physical examination. The rest 10% can be assured by MRI which checks any issue on the cartilage. If nothing significant comes up, just as in my case, then you are safe to confirm TMS diagnosis on yourself.
By the way, if the doctor say nothing significant but put words like "your ligament/tendon/muscle is weak" or "you have a flat foot," just ignore them. Such "abnormality" does not make a serious issue or pain. You can strengthen your weak part with exercises, and those weakness might have existed before your pain started. It should not be the cause of the pain.
Also, always remember TMS pain is there to distract you. It does its best to distract you, which means it gives pain on the body parts that you consider to be weak (e.g., parts that were injured or that you had surgery on before). Even though the body part has healed long time ago, you continue feeling pain because the TMS pain replaced the real physical pain after the injury has already completely healed--in order to make you think that the pain is real and physical.
In short, first rule out any real injury, and then go on with TMS therapy if you have no structural issue. Good luck!
- Seraphina |
Edited by - sf0789 on 09/25/2014 23:41:30 |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2014 : 05:17:06
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Hi Lia,
From my personal injury experiences, having been a tournament tennis player and also having run many marathons, your ankle does not sound at all like you sprained it. When you sprain an ankle YOU KNOW IT right then and there!
Since this is the TMS Help Forum, I feel safe to conjecture that it's TMS. That said, explore what is going on emotionally in your life. If you can't find anything go to the Rahe-Holmes list for examples of stressful life situations that cause psychosomatic/TMS dis-ease--there's your science!
If you need a little structural crutch to get you back into running, wrap your ankle with a Koban style Ace bandage. That should be enough, and that's what an orthopedist did for my ankle when I severely sprained it the first time. For a real ankle sprain, to immobilize it and get back onto the playing field, there's also trainer's tape, but you are no where in need of that.
G'luck!
tt
P.S. I have never worn high heels but none the less from your description it still doesn't sound like you sprained your ankle, you would have definitely known it at the moment, immediate pain, swelling, and black and blue.
p.p.s. AND WHAT PHINA SAID! She's fast becoming a TMS Guru.
==================================================
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
Posted by Skizzik @ TMSHelp from comedian Maria Bamford:
==================================================
"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
"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." Mark Twain and Balto
"The hot-dog is the noblest of dogs; it feeds the hand that bites it." Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter
"...the human emotional system was not designed to endure the mental rigors of a tennis match." Dr. Allen Fox
"All my friends in Los Angeles are the sensitive type. They all have like all the diseases like Chronic Fatigue, Epstien Barr, Fibromyalgia. Like all the diseases where the only symptoms seem to be you had a really crappy childhood and at the prospect of full time work ya feel kinda achy and tired."
Posted by Skizzik @ TMSHelp from comedian Maria Bamford
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"If it ends with "itis" or "algia" or "syndrome" and doctors can't figure out what causes it, then it might be TMS." Dave the Mod
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TMS PRACTITIONERS:
John Sarno, MD
400 E 34th St, New York, NY 10016
(212) 263-6035
Dr. Sarno is now retired, if you call this number you will be referred to his associate Dr. Rashbaum.
"...there are so many things little and big that are tms, I wouldn't have time to write about all of them": Told to icelikeaninja by Dr. Sarno
Here's the TMS practitioners list from the TMS Help Forum:
http://www.tmshelp.com/links.htm
Here's a list of TMS practitioners from the TMS Wiki:
http://tmswiki.org/ppd/Find_a_TMS_Doctor_or_Therapist
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Edited by - tennis tom on 09/26/2014 10:58:26 |
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Jeff
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2014 : 16:19:11
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| I sympathize because ankle pain (in both ankles) was the symptom that finally led me to discover Dr. Sarno's writings all those years ago. I'd had various other symptoms that resulted in a lengthy doctor chase where I was tested for anything and everything (the tests always came back normal), but the ankle pain was what caused me to push the doctors aside and search for another explanation. And I found it with TMS. So yes, ankle pain can be TMS. And in your case, it may be the perfect pain for your TMS gremlins to stick you with. Their goal is to cause a pain that you will believe (or at least suspect) is physical, not TMS. So they often hit you in a spot where you have just suffered a minor injury, or where you thought maybe an injury had occurred. That way you'll never know whether the ankle pain is the result of an injury, or TMS. That's how the TMS gremlins roll. You must do what you can to rule out the physical, but at some point you have to take the leap of faith and conclude it can only be TMS because nothing else makes sense. In my case, the ankle pain finally did go away, and it has never returned, although it took a while for that to happen (about 6 months, if I recall correctly). It also can be helpful to take stock of your own psychological situation, your stressors in particular. It isn't always easy to psychoanalyze yourself, but often people have a sense of what's been eating at them. |
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lia
USA
14 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2014 : 19:11:47
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Thank you everyone for the help and replies. It just makes no sense to me how such a minor ankle sprain can take so long to heal. What really bugs me is the clicking though, because I feel like every time I injure myself, that injured body part ends up clicking (my knees and elbow are other examples.
I will get it checked out one more time just to rule out any real physical injuries. |
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Jeff
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2014 : 10:19:26
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| I should have mentioned this, but a key give-away that my ankle pain was TMS and not something physical was that it moved around from day to day. The pain was not always in the same place. That's often the way it is with TMS. (The TMS gremlins may be devious, but they are also sloppy.) If there is a physical cause to your pain, you should always hurt pretty much in the same place. If you're finding that your pain is erratic -- either in where it hurts, or when it hurts -- that can be a sign of TMS. But I agree that you should rule out the physical first. I just re-learned that lesson vis-à-vis my eyes fairly recently. |
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Ankle Pain and not sure if TMS
