Possible Nerve Damage?

I'm new to TMS and have just finished Dr. Sarno's books.....I am suffering from Sciatica and am feeling much better, but I feel like it's slow process. I've stopped all my treatments from Physical Therapy and started to feel much better, I then stopped all medication and noticed that it didn't make any difference so I was even more convinced what I'm experiencing is TMS. Last night I felt good enough to resume physical activity which for me was Kickboxing. I wasn't scared that I would injure myself but I was very fearful of the pain I would experience. To my surprise the pain went away completely during my workout but what I was left with was extreme weakness in my left leg. I know Dr. Sarno said I would not have any nerve damage, but the weakness scared me a bit. As anyone else experienced this after resuming physical activity? Did the weakness go away? Is it just because I haven't worked out in 4 months, because I feel like it was beyond that. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Hi Marissa,
Yep, my left leg has a tendency to become weak, especially from walking on a hard surface (conditioned!). It is very much related to stress/fear. When I walk and feel relaxed, it is much better, especially when I don't give it any attention. It also has a tendency to increase right before something that gives stress, like a social event. Or when it is cold outside.
Give it time... If you are scared, visit your doctor to rule out anything serious and then go on with whatever you want to do. Mine said literally: "I think it is psychologically induced". He looked surprised when I bought his theory...
take care

 

Thank you Gigalos! This makes total sense because even though I wasn't feeling pain during my workout I was becoming very focused on the weakness in my leg and that caused me to be scared. Today when I woke up and had to walk up the stairs to work I felt like my leg was stronger! I was associating the weakness with a physical reason instead of it being another TMS symptom!

 

Good for you

 

This sounds like a perfect example of the "symptom imperative" that Dr. Sarno describes that happens when you finally get your TMS on the run. Your mind tries to gets it's control over your attention back by rapidly cycling symptoms. It tries to sneak in variations of the original pain or discomfort to make you think that maybe there is really something wrong this time because it feels a little different. I have had this happen to me so many times I can't count. I just handle it like the original pain, live my life in spite of it and try to figure out what is bothering me psychologically. What am I angry or frightened about??

 

Yes, chickenbone, what you say is absolutely correct. But it's when TMS begins cycling symptom modes that you get fooled. For example, your sciatica goes away and is replaced with muscle weakness (I get that all the time, incidentally), but sometimes the symptom imperative can shift to something like a rash or a strange little persistent cough or IBS or allergies. That's where you can begin chasing your tail going to different medical specialists for individual apparently unrelated complaints. I've developed a rule though, you might call it the "left hand rule". Since my lower back pain and sciatica is on the left hand side of my body, any new symptom that occurs on the left side I begin to regard as a variation on the original theme. In other words, if I get a rash on my left forehead or CTS in my left wrist, or pain in my left knee or hip, I treat it like another TMS distraction and, sure enough, since it doesn't fulfill its psychological purpose, it soon disappears. It seems to me that my left side rule points to right brain involvement in the operation of my central nervous system. Just a guess based on a hunch, but it has played out that way. Of course, it goes without saying that if a new symptom is really serious, check it out with a orthodox physician to rule out anything genuinely life threatening. Just my two bits based on my own experience, but I'll bet a dollar to a donut that others will confirm my experience.

 

Right, Bruce. I often go from back sciatica to allergies to back pain and then on to headaches, etc. It is interesting that your TMS symptoms seem to be on one side more than the other. Most of my symptoms occur on the right side of my body - right leg, right arm, right nostril, etc. It must be my left brain that is the problem.

 

From what I understand from the neuroscientists, the left-brain analytical/right-brain intuitive dichotomy is really overly simplistic because the prefrontal cortex is simultaneously interacting with both spheres. Lot's of room for subtle variations in symptoms in that can of worms I'd say! Perhaps, someone with a more solid grounding in brain topology could weigh in on this. Of course, I shattered my heel in a traumatic accident back in 1990 that also fracture the right occipital lobe of my skull and broke my nose. It could be that the pain pathways for the left side of my body still retain pain memories from then and predispose me to have sciatica and lower back pain on the left side when traumatic life events reactivate them. Or like my late father used to say, "Don't get to serious, it's all too mysterious!" That may well be the case though because emotions and memories are stored in the same area of the brain. But as far as TMS healing is concerned, chilling out and self-soothing are the best ways of eliminating the stress animating the whole process I'd opine.

 

Thanks everyone this was extremely helpful! I didn't even think about it but as soon as my sciatica started to feel better I developed a cough out of nowhere! I've also been having random headaches too! I should have known it was symptom imperative because my sciatic pain has been so inconsistent itself. Now that I know the muscle weakness is just another distraction I can move on to recovery!

 

I am so glad you asked this question Marissa.



I am really self conscious about going on and on about my tms.
To avoid staying in the same rut (after all like Einstein said ---definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result). Therefore I have to affirm that I am just going keep on writing about it until I can my psyche to shut the fudge up. I have been having a very similar experience. I have am having symptom substitution going on that is very similar. I have pain in my lower back pain which is currently in a state of flux:

1. sometimes the pain is amplified in a nerve in my quad.
2. I have been going to the gym every day. I went to a kick your ass spin class and was able to get through it but my leg was weak to the point
where i could not support myself. I keep exercising and symptoms are not getting worse overall.
3. Then I have sharp pain on my left lower back which nullifies 1 and 2.

Took me a while to accept #2 as a symptom. 1 and 3 are old friends that keep cropping up but number 2 is like a new unwelcome guest.