Fear of Walking

I agree Jan and Forest, every day coming to this website is like drawing from a fountain of healing. I have done so much emotional and physical healing just sharing with all of you. I am oh! so thankful!

Blessings for a good day!

 

How timely. This reminds me of a visit to Paris many years ago. We had just arrived in an area where we were searching for our hotel. My husband was carrying the suitcases. We were both getting flustered. All of a sudden my husband felt a sharp pain in his back, dropped the cases and fell down. He had fainted. I panicked. I couldn't remember a single word of French. One passerby stopped and was taking my husband's pulse. I asked him something in English and he shook his head. I took this to mean he was feeling no pulse. I freaked. Shortly thereafter my husband revived. He had heard an ambulance was on its way and he was determined not to be admitted to a French hospital. I picked up the cases and we fled. Husband was okay after this but his back was in spasm. I know now, of course, this was TMS. We got to our hotel and he rested that night. The next day while walking around the city I started to experience foot pain. I blamed it on my boots. They had no arch support. I recall hobbling through the Louvre determined that no matter what I was going to see the Mona Lisa. My foot was killing me. I know now this foot pain was also TMS.

Fast forward a few weeks ago. We were on vacation. I was wearing new shoes. They were perfectly comfortable and well fitting. However my foot started to ache. We did A LOT of walking during this trip. Some nights I was in agony and the pain would disturb my sleep. Yet I would get up the next day and do whatever we had planned. A few times I thought about what might be troubling me. I would make a mental list of possible triggers. This was all it took to see the pain reduce. This in addition to noting the pain would shift. Sometimes it would be in my heel, sometimes the arch. It would move from my right foot to my left.

I still have a bit of pain now that I have returned but I am paying it very little attention apart from the odd chuckle.

 

These stories were so good to read! Isn't it wonderful when a spouse can call an episode TMS before we even realize it?!
I'm recovering from 2 years of severe plantar fasciitis. I was in a wheelchair last Fall. I feel bad that it took so long for me to recognize this as TMS. I had recovered from back pain after reading Sarno's book in 1996.
My dilemma is whether to renounce the orthotics. At first, I thought I had to get rid of them since this wasn't an organic problem. I have already tossed the other unnecessary "aids." However, my feet do pronate quite badly without the orthotics. I'm wondering if I should keep them in my tennis shoes. I have had some success in going without orthotics for 8 hours or so, so I've proved to myself that they aren't absolutely necessary. However, they are more comfortable to walk in!

 

Hmmm, that's a tough one. If they are truly more comfortable I would say keep them. I am always in favor of comfort! But I think this would go against Sarno's ideas. (Orthotics didn't help me so I had no trouble tossing them.)

 

Yeah, I use these too. I don't see them as "correcting" my "problem" feet, but as providing extra cushiony comfort.

 

Thanks, Jan and Gail! I really value this forum, the collective wisdom, and the companionship of people on the same journey.

I'll have to get a hold of Sarno's other books, such as The Divided Mind. I've only read Healing Back Pain. Fred Amir's book was really helpful to me in the past week. It gave me the tools to finally break the migraine cycle. I'm a librarian so of course I turn to books!

 

Wow...I just read this and thought I'm not the only person with this . I had a small meniscus tear on R knee so........I used myL knee to compensate.....Oh wrong thing to do...I've been to PT now for x3 weeks and I've been told that I must rest my whole side of my Left body if I want to calm it down and that it's my L4-5 nerve ok...I still have to work I still have to take a cab to work which is a drain monetary wise. Usually my self talk and calming down the inner child and having a lot of compassion really tones it down. I need some support and really buck taking anyone's advice due to lack of trust. thanks again

 

12 years ago I was using a wheelchair as I got so much pain walking/standing. But after getting my thyroid sorted, I actually had some energy back - so I used it to start walking our coast path in south devon. (I had walked about 40 miles of it years before - when healthy) I started with a half mile walk - which exhausted me - but I was so glad to be out in nature and fresh air. So next time I went a bit further, and so on. Within 2 years I was able to walk up to 9 miles, but still had lots of pain and exhaustion afterwards.
Now - I will take my first proper walk since realising I have TMS, on sunday. I will walk 7 miles of a local pilgrimage trail and then have a lovely pint of real ale in the pub at the end. I do not expect ANY pain. If any dares surface it shall get short shrift!

 

I bought a new pair of tennis shoes this week, and wore them for a day. No pain while wearing them, but for 4 days after my feet have hurt! Guess I should have broken them in gradually, but it's hard to know when they don't hurt while I have them on.
So now I'm left with "Is TMS rearing its ugly head?" or "Is this just the kind of stuff normal folks deal with?"
Sometimes you just gotta laugh!!

 

Gigi, I once read in a book by L. Moseley (understanding pain) that pain kicking in hours or even days or weeks after an "incident" is mostly psychological in origin (did you mean your pain kicked in 4 days after you wore your new shoes or it hurt four days long?). Seems logical to me. I often suffer from "delayed" pain in my tendons (like you wearing new shoes without any pain) and waking up the next day with pain in my knees or archilles tendon or plantar fascia or where else I have tendons which can hurt . My husband has very unproblematic feet and when he wears new shoes for a long time it may happen that he has a kind of muscle ache. But he doesn't obsess about it and it goes away within a couple of days without taking care of which shoes he wears. It's really a thing about obsessing. Years ago he dislocated his shoulder when he tried to play golf and injured his shoulder capsule . It took several weeks to heal and with some movements there're twinges here and there but he doesn't think or obsess about it and his shoulder never caused problems. I have severe shoulder pain since one year and did not injure my shoulder but am very obsessed with it...so it hurts. I can see the difference in how to deal with daily and normal pain nearly every week...it's such a huge difference between him and me.
So Gigi I guess it may be "just the kind of stuff normal folks deal with" but obsessing about it may prolong or aggravate the pain very TMS-like. That's often the case in me with "normal" and daily pains and twinges!
Oh I just read what Forest wrote and that's an important point: just knowing about wearing new shoes may be enough to trigger some TMS-pain if feetpain is something one is afraight of! New shoes often cause me problems even if they should not...!

 

Thanks, Forest for confirming what I'd suspected! Woke up today and gave my subC a stern talking to. I expect to have things under control soon!

 

My walk went brilliantly! Despite much pain at the beginning - told it the walk was happening anyway, so it might as well not bother. Despite getting lost on a boggy overgrown hillside, despite being chased by a herd of cows (my they are big!) and despite it being the hottest day of the year. The worst bit was finding the pub closed at the end! The best bit was not being kept awake all night with leg pain later, and not suffering days of pain after. Every time a pain starts, I just call it out and then steadfastly ignore it. It is working for about 90% of the pain. The other 10% is easy to ignore after so many years of pain. I am starting to see correlation between my emotions during the day and my pain/fatigue too, so I can just 'catch' myself and either change my emotional response or go and journal if that's not possible. And i'm learning o say 'no' too...