Treating Medically vs. TMS

Hey everyone,

I have a bit of an odd situation and I'm not 100% sure how to move forward. Short story is that back in the spring I had an MRI and it revealed a small tear in one of my outer ankle tendons. The MRI wasn't testing for this issue and the finding was purely coincidental. The doctor asked if I had pain and pressed in a few spots - I told him no pain at all and he said ok, don't worry about it. Apparently there are many people that have tears in that location and are completely asymptomatic.

Fast forward a week or so and guess what, I started to have pain in that outer ankle tendon. So either magically the MRI predicted the pain of an injury that could have been there for days, weeks, months or years...or this newfound awareness triggered TMS pain. In the coming months I would also develop new pains around other parts of my ankle that I think are likely TMS.

I did several months of PT for the original issue that did not help. Now my next medical option is to do a PRP injection, which would use platelets from my own blood to try to spark a healing response. That would be following with a week or so in a boot and then more PT. There's no guarantee it will fix the tear, but its a non-invasive procedure and could potentially address the issue.

I'm torn on whether to do the PRP or not. On the one hand, I think the pain is TMS because it was previously asymptomatic and many people have asymptomatic tears there. My understanding with TMS is that you really have to accept the issue as TMS and move away from medical treatments - you have to be all in on TMS 100%. However, I do have a small tear there whether it was previously asymptomatic or not.

If anybody has ever been in a similar situation, I'm curious as to how you approached it. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

About 6 weeks ago I noticed , out of nowhere a Giant Lump on my wrist. It didn't happen slowly OR I just never looked.
I was also under Monster pressure from myself....I had the best long job I'd had in awhile and was finally getting caught up with the economic downturn that was stripping away my life last winter/spring... I felt the pressure to excel deeply.

I googled it and it came back 'Ganglion Cyst'...totally harmless.

So I tried to ignore it and kept on working and playing guitar, lifting weights, etc. No Problems

THEN...I showed it to my Dr. when I was there for something else. He told it was NOT a ganglion cyst, but one of four different conditions...not nearly as benign. That was THEE day my OTHER wrist started hurting. The one that has NO visible issue.

Why? TMS. I have been fighting manifestations of it for 25 years,but whenever it is an 'obvious' one like back, foot, hip , shoulder pain it goes away in days...this time it scared me. My Brain picked that spot because it probably thought...
"Ooooooh. Dja see how spooked he got from the doctor NOT agreeing it was totally benign> maybe that will distract him from all of the scary things he is having to juggle right now?"

How do I know it's TMS? It almost never bugs me when I am working. Also:

When I was fingerpicking, it hurt my THUMB...when I was flatpicking it hurt my wrist...It had to keep moving around to keep me distracted. It was almost gone and then I just got an unexpected old tax bill...and it's back !!(LOL)

My brain chose that because of its ability to distract and that is probably what's going on with yall....I felt it the second I read your post.
There is just no way you would start feeling it unless your mind and unconscious conspired to make it the 'problem' and Sarno called TMS a 'regional process'..I remember when I had back pain it moved everywhere and even went into the other side though I had no 'injury' on that side.

The most important thing is to look into WHY you might need a distraction. Buying a copy of one of Sarno's books would be a good place to start..I have been reviewing every morning and I played guitar 9 or 10 hours yesterday pain free....until I go the Tax bill (LOL)

 

I know this sounds really strange but back probably 15 yrs ago I was seeing a Doc for my leg pain. I showed him the lump on my hand that came up from no where. His response was nothing to worry about, it's just a ganglion cyst that I could release right now but it might hurt for a min. I asked him what he had to do and he said it's very simple If you put your hand on a level area all I have to do is slam it hard with a heavy book. I looked at him like he had three eyes and then said just don't break anything. He did it and sure enough cyst was gone within a few days. just went away and never returned. Crazy I know but true. That was the only problem I had that wasn't TMS! Didn't really hurt either. Best of luck Baseball65.

 

I had forgotten after reading about this that it could cause tissue damage so please just forget what I wrote. I has no problem but wouldn't want to cause you any anguish, Sorry!

 

Lol. Understood. Two weeks ago, I was holding my 90-pound dog around the waist (normally super chill) for the umpteenth time while his nails were being trimmed. He pulled back suddenly, and I felt a pop in a rib. Just assumed it was a cartilage tear and avoided lifting heavy things overhead but went about my physically active life.

Got an x-ray yesterday just for a little more info and got a call from the doctor's office early this morning while I was trimming hedges in my yard. The rib is fractured. For the next few hours, I've been feeling more rib pain...ha, and it's not from the hedge trimming, it's TMS.

So I'm working on relaxing my trickster brain. Things aren't what they are. Things are what we think they are.

 

Appreciate the replies everyone - it helps me as I think thru this. I agree with Baseball65 that I need to do more soul searching as to what might have driven the need for a distraction when the pain started. I've read multiple TMS books, know my personality type matches, I've had what I now recognize as TMS issues in the past, and I've been through a lot personally in recent years. All those match up with TMS. Side note: it's incredible how the brain can target certain areas of the body as you've all mentioned.

What's tough is I have pain with almost every step. It's small, but it's there. I tried going back to running too and I do that multiple times a week despite the pain, but the pain is there and hasn't eased. The pain with almost every step causes me to think about it constantly and obviously that isn't helping. Even if there is a medical component to this, the fear cycle is making the pain worse. It's been really challenging for me to break that cycle. The added stress from the pain & fear cycle started to cause anxiety symptoms about a month and a half ago (pins & needles, sensitivity to cold, etc), which is TMS related. The near constant issues are just wearing me down.

With where I'm at now, I'm looking to fully rule out a medical issue since that's the right starting point. I'm working on that. I'm leaning toward doing the PRP since there is a tear, whether the pain is TMS or not. It's non-invasive and if I can spark healing with that and a short boot time, it's worth it (the tear could theoretically worsen at some point, and then it becomes a real issue). I'll also be able to work remote while in a boot for a week and a half, which should help me focus on bringing my stress / anxiety symptoms down and give me more time to focus on the psychological aspects of this. Once out of the boot, I can fully focus on TMS and hopefully get on with my life.

I know that's not a perfect plan. I know I need to have full conviction in TMS to get out of this. I'm just trying to put myself in a position to do that.

 

I broke my a vertebrae in my spine they didn't find for a couple years, but I had plenty of other TMS symptoms try to invade during that two year period.(teeth, jaw, forearm) Odd, none of them were back related.
I guess TMS is a lot like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. I used to believe in both, and I got affirmations....money under my pillow and presents under the tree.
I stopped believing back pain so it rarely tries there...always looking for a new angle when new pressures arise

 

3 months ago I sprained my ankle and fractured a bone. A fracture was minor, and I started walking, hiking and mostly got on with my life because it wasn't hurting much. I used a brace for most strenuous hikes but never felt pain, EXCEPT when a very stressful week came and I started feeling quite serious pain, but only at night when my foot rested peacefully in bed. Do you get the idea? Now stress is gone, and so is pain. At least my TMS was dumb enough to bother me at night, it was easy to call it's bluff.