Day 1_HL1018

Hey everyone, Jack here. 33-year old male living in the U.S.

To skip right to it, I read Sarno's book 3 weeks ago and was blown away. Cried. Laughed. The whole deal. Then I came down with a brutal cough for 2 weeks, during which my back pain (always the lower RIGHT) was 80-90% reduced. I even went on a run for the first time in 3 years.

Then, once my cough subsided, the back pain came back with a vengeance. I tried to run through it one day. I actually did manage a couple of 50-100 yard sprints. Afterward, I was in agony on my lower LEFT back. In all my years of back pain, it never hurt on the left side. I'm grateful that it is proof of TMS, but having still been in tremendous fear and anxiety. The past 4-5 days I've been reading and re-reading, but am still terribly obsessed with the pain and constantly re-evaluating it every 5 minutes to see if its going away. And my number #1 fear right now is bending forward. I can run in place, do jumping jacks, even do planks/burpees/some squats. But bending forward to touch my toes feels like the equivalent of trying to fall flat on your face without bracing for impact. It goes against every single instinct I have.

Anyway - I do believe the diagnosis (maybe not 100% yet, but I'll get there) and know I'm on the right path. I had been procrastinating writing a post/doing more journaling. So this is me taking the first step toward being a "good student" and just following the program and letting the results take care of themselves.