Do I need an MRI before I can apply TMS?

I am having a hard time letting go of the fact I haven't gotten a clean MRI to say my sensations are not some neurological disease like MS or Brian growths.

I have began to run and the leg and arm got much better but my vision and head rushing sensations took over. I have been preoccupied with that and now today my arm and leg are tingling again and spasming.

I want to believe my GP who said he was 99.999999% sure I was fine as well as the Neuro doc who said I was as well. I guess I just keep thinking that I don't have a clean MRI to prove it once and for all. That adds anxiety as my wife is against it and it will cost a thousand bucks.

The rational side of me says it is more than likely TMS since the sensations and issues are not there all day but come and go and appear to intensify when I an anxious. I am so frustrated.

 

Only you can make the call on an MRI. It's your life. Many people like to get them just to erase a little more doubt. If you trust your GP and neuro-doc then take that into consideration. Would you put your life in their hands?

There are stages to healing from TMS. There is the hoping you have it stage, then the thinking you might have it, and then back to not so sure, and then the final stage of knowing you have it. You heal when you know you have it. You have to have confidence to heal. Do what you need to in order to build your confidence. If that's getting an MRI, then do it. If building your confidence will come from from saying "the hell with it, I know I have TMS," then that's how you move ahead.

You make the call.

Steve

 

Steve - Thanks, thats what I needed. I have to make the call and I alone.

 

Then, there's that famous experiment (reproduced several times) where you take a 100 people off the street without back pain and/or sciatica and give them MRIs. Nearly 70% of them have spinal abnormalities. Then, if you take a 100 people with back pain and/or sciatica and give them MRIs, you'll find that almost 70% of them have spinal abnormalities. The experiment has been repeated a number of times with the same findings. The only conclusion that can be reached based on the numbers is that there is no direct correlation between spinal abnormalities like bulging disks and herniated disks and the incidence of back pain and sciatica in the general population. In other words, there are patients with really messed up backs who don't have any back pain at all. And there are patients with perfect backs who have excruciating back pain. Those changes registered on the MRI are part of the normal aging process that Dr Sarno calls "gray hairs of the spine". Often times, when a patient sees his or her MRI with all those spinal abnormalities, their pain invariably gets worse. The MRI just confirms belief in a physical diagnosis and thereby programs your TMS all the more. However, if there is a tumor or something like that, it's best to have the MRI to eliminate that possibility. But in most cases lower lumbar pain and sciatica are TMS pure and simple.

 

I try to stay away from vampires and MRIs.

 

About 8 or 9 years ago (way before I found Dr. Sarno), I started having weird arm and leg tingling, mostly on my left side. The left side of my head was even tingling. I was so anxious about it! They sent me for an MRI because they were worried I was having a stroke or something, or that maybe it was MS. Well, the MRI was clean and all of the other neurological tests came back normal. I remember the neurologist telling me and writing in my chart that "anxiety could be the cause of my symptoms". He did say that if it continued to be a problem, that the next test he recommended was a spinal tap. I never went back! I still have the weird tingling off and on, but it is never that bothersome. I am calling it TMS...along with the chronic muscle-tension headaches, neck and shoulder pain, TMJ, all-over body pain, Tinnitus, Raynaud's Syndrome, and anxiety. I fit the TMS personality profile to a "t", and am learning how not to be my own worst critic.

Do you fit the personality profile for a TMSer?

 

There are always potential issues with having medical tests. Lots of times, abnormalities on various medical tests, including blood tests, don't mean anything, sometimes they do. So sometimes you just end up with more confusion and worry the more medical tests you have. Often, people looking for completely clean tests just end up chasing their own tail, not to mention creating lots of worry and anxiety.

 

honeybear -

I would have told you no before I read the Sarno book and found this site, I had never really thought about who I was if that makes sense.

I grew up without a loving mother and a military style father. I was pushed to excel at sports so I did. Being the best at sports as a young kid was my goal to impress my dad and I was always the best. My mom cheated on my dad when I was 10 and left. To this day all our conversations are about her troubles. She never asks how I am.

I went to school and pushed to get a high paying job. I again wanted to impress my family who never went to college. I ended up getting a job out of school making almost what my dad retired making. At work I wanted to be the best so I work hard and everything is perfect. I never say no and get the impossible done.

My co-workers and friends all comment how I have it all together.....but to be honest I feel inferior sometimes. I grew up poor and was accepted by the rich kids due to my athletic skills. I had the cheap clothes, worst car and even when I was accepted I knew inside they thought I was poor.

Now I make a comfortable living but even in my social circles where I am equal I still get the feelings that I am a fraud as stupid as that sounds.

With my hobbies, it has to be perfect or I obsess and stress out.

I never show my feelings, I have always been the rock for everyone. My parents, siblings, wife....they all rely on me to make decisions.

Even with my symptoms now I am obsessing and wondering why I don't feel perfect or normal. I guess you could say I have much repressed anger and stress combined with current day anxiety over health so maybe I fit the profile.

 

Pingman, it certainly sounds like you have TMS. I have a lot of the same personality traits that you have and my pain came along out of no where. I also started to stress about having some other condition, and this really made my pain worse and had so much anxiety. I have stuck with the TMS diagnosis and stopped other modalities. My anxiety has gone down tremendously and I have much better days this week. I think anxiety must be controlled and have mindfulness and enjoy each day as it comes.

 

Pingman, you sound like a great guy, so don't bully yourself that you are inferior to others.
I grew up poor, during the 1930s Great Depression, in Chicago, and we moved to a new cheap
apartment almost every year because we always fell behind in paying the rent. I lived with
cockroaches, bed bugs, rats, and put cardboard in my shoes when they holes in the soles
and there wasn't even a dollar to pay a shoe repairman for new soles. My sister walked to
school in snowstorms in gym shoes because her regular shoes had given out and there was
money to buy a new pair.

I was the first to go to college and I went mainly because I was working factory jobs and was bored.
My older brother must have felt inferior to me, although I never felt superior to him. Our folks
argued so much, about lack of money, my brother joined the navy and went off to fight the Japanese.
Four year later he returned and married right away and instead of taking the four-year college
deal AL

 

My computer crashed, but I am back again.

Long story short, I'm not sure but think my brother felt inferior because he didn't go away to college.
He thought it also held him back in a big promotion.
He also thought getting a four-year college education gave a person "class" or "status" or "culture."
That was stupid because a lot of people get

 

college educations, even graduate degrees, and they're dumb and have no culture.

It's who we are that matters. What we do with what God gives us.

Pingman, you're as good as anyone and probably a lot better than most.

Like yourself. Feel good about yourself. You're an okay guy just by working on your TMS.
I'm glad now that I got back pain a year ago. It led me to Dr. Sarno's and Steve's books
and to this TMSWiki forum where I've met some wonderful people and learned a lot
about myself, and about others.

Enjoy. Enjoy today. Enjoy every minute.