Surgical Menopause and Arthralgia (Joint pain)

I recovered from a year of back pain hell last year from reading Dr Sarno's (and others) books and from the wealth of info and wonderful support I got here. Had surgery 3 weeks ago and went into surgical menopause (no hotflashes or other symptoms). A week after my surgery my TMS attacked my spine again. I managed to get that under control but right away it went into my knee. I wasnt going to fall for that so again it moved into my ankle. I couldnt walk for 3 days and it swelled up like a balloon. I won that battle then I started to get pain in both shoulders. I thought to myself, Aha! Its you again huh? Well Im not having it and applied the careless attitude as I have done several times before. But....this time it got worse and worse until both shoulders were almost completely frozen. Excruciating to lift my arms even an inch. Can't dress myself or drive or sleep or move without intense pain. Even tried morphine and muscle relaxants to no avail.

Went to Dr to get it checked, everything else ruled out (as TMS Dr's recommend) even though it does not seem at all logical to me that I could injure both shoulders at the same time from doing absolutely nothing (resting at home recovering from abdominal surgery for 3 weeks) Dr sent me for blood work to check for inflammation. She mentioned possible but unlikely auto immune disorder (I will get the results next week). She also said she wondered if it had anything to do with me going into surgical menopause. Estrogen was abruptly cut off and my levels would have dropped to zero. She said if my tests are clear then I should start hormone replacement therapy to see if that helps (Estrogen) I really did not want to do that. I have no other menopause symptoms and am not thrilled about taking hormones as they come with a long list of possible side effects...some are dangerous. I started to google it and have been reading all about Menopausal Arthralgia (Joint pain) There are lots of women online describing similar symptoms to me (involving frozen shoulder like pain in menopause) They all recovered from Estrogen therapy, claiming its the WD40 for menopausal women's joints. Placebo???? So the trickery and battle in my mind continues...just when I think Im onto it, TMS transforms into something that I fall for....or is it TMS at all???

Im wondering if anyone else has ever experienced the symptoms of excruciating pain in both shoulders at the same time, out of nowhere as a TMS symptom (I could not find anything like that online (or on TMS wiki), mostly people talk about just one shoulder). Thank you everyone again for your support!

 

Yes it is funny you are saying this. I have always had back pain (4 years) and my mother passed away from cancer 3 weeks ago and sure enough the day she passed away my muscles in my neck and both shoulders locked up like they were "frozen"

 

Brendan537 I am so sorry to hear about your Mother. Losing a loved one is one of the toughest things to go through. My sister passed away 3 years ago, my back pain began shortly after. Thank you for sharing this, its comforting to know others have the same symptoms without any injury. Its also extremely reassuring that this must be TMS that we are dealing with, and that is good news. There is hope for both of us to be pain free. I did it once and so will you. I hope you have support and someone you can talk to that can help you through this. The SEP program here was very helpful for me the first time around as were Dr Sarno's books. I am now reading Steve Ozanich's The Great Pain Deception which is fantastic. Sending positive thoughts your way....

 

Thank you for sharing this. Yes it is comfortable to see other people with similar symptoms. I am 21 years old and played hockey, weight lifted and did what ever I wanted how ever I wanted my entire life. My pain started at 17 after 10 years of physical, and mental abuse by my parents and step parents. There is no way my whole body is breaking down at this age... It has to be of emotional phenomena. My symptoms include crippling back pain both sides usually one at a time (they switch off every few days), neck pain both sides that switch off and same as shoulder pain, rashes out of no where, heart arythmia, frequent urination (20 times a day) since I was 17, wrist pain, acne ( when I'm stressed). All of these symptoms at 21 years of age? I don't think so. It's not structural. Sarno is the only reason I wake up in the morning that man gave me hope. Yes we will someday be pain free. Thank you for your kind words.

 

Brendan537 I am sorry to hear of your rough upbringing. All of your symptoms are definitely textbook TMS. You are young with a whole lifetime ahead of you.I am Happy that you discovered Dr. Sarno now and not 30 years down the road. The fact that we know what is ailing us is half the battle. This site is such a great support and is what led me to my recovery the first time around. Im just going to get out and enjoy life again and try to truly be grateful for each day. With or without pain. The more I do that, the less I notice the pain. As long as I'm breathing there is always hope