Health question please

I posted this question on the Program Forum, I have the feeling that I should have posted it here so I apologize about the redundancy.​

The question is: I have been diagnosed with a double left hip femoro-acetabular impingement of the cam and pincer type and bursitis on the left hip too. Is this attributed to TMS? To understand how this injury came about you have to read what happened to me 22 months ago. The story is below with the advice of my surgeon.​

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I had a mighty fall in 2010 on icy polish concrete which caused a labral tear in my right hip, busted my menisci in my right knee and affected my right shoulder and neck and my low back. The internal injuries were not diagnosed until 11 months later, I was treated with physio without success. Finally the pressure on the right hand side of my body sustained for over a year and the pain forced me to change my walking gait. I developed a form of acute arthritis which wore the cartilage in my right MTP joint (big toe). I had bone against bone and it was excruciating. Within7 months I ended with 4 operations. In September 2011 I had repair of a large labrum tear and a large cyst that developed in the right hip joint and repair of menisci in the right knee. All done via arthroscopy.​

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By February 2012 the pain returned to my right hip, an x ray showed that I had a right hip femoro-acetabular impingement of the Cam type (ostephites/spurs on the head of the femur), the result of the initial injury. My MTP joint was affecting my ability to walk. Just last April 2012 I ended having 2 operations via arthroscopy to repair the right hip femoro-acetabular impingement and I also had a fusion of the MTP joint. I have a titanium plate and 7 screws in my right toe. I must say that the latter has been a success. The problem is that ever since last February, my left hip started to ache, just like the right one did when I had the tear. Granted that my left hip now has been carrying the brunt of the work for over 21 months. On examination the left hip appeared to have an impingement. I had an x ray of my left hip last week and voila` I have a double femoro-acetabular impingement now in the left hip of the cam and pincer type. I was advised by my surgeon that this is the result of the pressure that my left hip carried for so long.​

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What the orthopaedic surgeon advised: Needless to mention that my surgeon is concerned about the amount of surgery I had within 6 months. He is suggesting that I wait to see if the symptoms of impingement settle down now that my walk maybe going back to normal. My surgeon also said that he would not recommend to have any kind of surgery in my low back because surgery does not seem to repair pain in the low back in my situation. If not then I will have to go back to surgery to repair the impingement. I want to avoid the latter.​

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What the spinal neurosurgeon advised: He looked at an MRI of my low back and said that although I had some degeneration in my lumbar spine, I was not going to become paraplegic. I thought...thank God! He sent me to have a scan but by then, having heard what my orthopedic surgeon said (about poor outcomes in back surgery) and having read Dr Sarno's books I knew that my low back symptoms are the result of TMS. So I let this one go.​

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My question for anyone knowing in the forum is: What happens in the case of my left hip having a double impingement? Is this also attributed to TMS? Because of the right hip operation, I feel a tad stiff (granted that this operation was done only a month ago). But now the left feels stiff too and I was told that I have bursitis on my left hip. I do Pilates and swimming 3 times a week to help my joint stability. Thank you everyone for your feedback.​

Quasar731

 

Quasar: In 1989/90 (a New Year's present) I broke my left heel in what the doctors described as 600 places after taking a fall off a boulder problem and landing on hard rock. It hurt like heck and took over a year until I could walk a mile. But I did heal up and return to a full range of activities including bicycling, running, and rock climbing, all without any pain. However, six months after my mother's death in 2001, while out running incidentally, I had a so-called herniated disk that was the climax of sciatic symptoms that had been building for six months. All my pain was on the left side, back, hip, knee, forearm etc. etc. etc. Sure, my left leg was deformed permanently. However, it seems to me that the psychological "trigger" of my mother's death was what initiated the pain cycle that climaxed in my herniated disk.

Of course, I'm not at liberty to diagnose or treat your condition caused by those "impingements" brought on by your fall, but if I were you, I'd certainly examine any psychological events that might have coincided with the onset of your pain. I had a deformed foot and atrophied calf muscle for ten years without any pain symptoms. Those began shortly after my mom's death and a little while after I walked on a big contract at a telecom test company. Looking back now, I realize that I was probably very, very depressed following my mother's death during which time I'd been working two jobs, selling my books, and managing a series of wrongful death lawsuits associated with my father's death from mesothelioma. It was as if I could put myself through hell as long as my mother's life was threatened. But the minute she died, the mechanism of repression started to break down and I started having physical pain symptoms. Just sayin'!

 

Hi MorComm!

It was so comforting reading your story, thank you for sharing it with me. You have certainly endured some psycho-emotional and physical grief. I see some parallels in your story and mine.

I was just saying to one of our forum peers that last night before I went to sleep I was going through the 4th day in the TMS program. And boy! didn't it caught up with me at an unearthly hour like never before . I was woken up with an excruciating pain going from my left hip, inner leg, outer leg, right down the knee, behind the patella. The pain was so deep that it was like a metal rod put through my jolly left hand side to the calf and the ankle. It was hideous!!! I did not know what to do, how to lie in bed. I took a very powerful pain killer and it took so long before it work, close to one hour. I could not figure out what the heck got me!

I was in such agony that I woke up my dearest husband who being a saint was trying anything and everything under 'the moon' (it was 02:00 am) to help me managed this harrowing pain. I have never had such thing happening in the middle of the night. I will post this story less abridged in the forum to share with others because someone may experience this degree of pain in the middle of the night. The amount of reading I have done and the postings in the program gave me the tools to work through it. They helped me to uncover the culprit this morning (through an image in meditation) what was behind such an uncalled for assault. And then...I get your message, as well as from other forum members which further helped me to identify many aspects of my experience. Thank you so much! I am so thankful to walk along so many forum members who understand this journey. Despite the tough experiences, it is a wonderful journey of healing. I believe God (the universal life force for some) has rounded the people in this forum to transform pain into the beauty and personal and spiritual growth.
Great to meet you!

 

Luckily, my pain never comes on at night, Quasar. I'm in the kind of TMS cycle that Dr. Sarno describes in HBP where the pain is gone at night, starts to come on gradually as the day progresses, and then mysteriously retreats just before I go to sleep at night. That whole injury and pain on the right side mirrors my own, which is on the left, same side as the broken heel. I think that the physical injury leaves "pain memories" in the hypothalamus and amygdala that are then triggered by some psychological factor in your life that rekindles them. Remember that the amygdala and the hypothalamus store emotions and memory. This is my take on it - and I'm sure a conventional medical doctor would disagree - but I'd say that the emotional pain of losing my mother "triggered" pain memories left over from my accident that resulted in my feeling the symptoms of a so-called "herniated disk". Sort of like that "ghost limb" phenomenon in amputees who've had an arm or leg removed. They still feel pain in missing limb, only the arm or leg isn't there any more. The pain is in the brain. Take a look too and what Peter A. Levine has to say in Waking the Tiger about the process of traumatic reenactment, where an injury or traumatic incident in childhood is repeated again as an adult. Mysterious stuff! More like poetry than physiology! Thanks for your praise too. I just find it interesting how many similarities repeat in TMS patients. It's good in a way too because it helps us learn how this stuff can be eliminated from your life by study and understanding.

 

Thank you Morcomm for your further reflections on my experience last night. I am still writing the post on a word document so I can abridge it.

Isnt it amazing that you mentioned Levine's book. You would not believe how I came across the Peter A Levine 'Walking the Tiger'. I was visiting my kids in Perth Western Australia. That day I was in pain. I went to Fremantle (a locality in Perth) and somehow I was compelled to get into a second hand book store. So I started looking through the shelves. This particular shelf was crowded with books, pulling one would result on the falling of some.Before I saw a beautiful leather-bound small Bible. Being a priest I was very attracted to it. As I pull it, a book falls on the floor. Guess which one? Walking the Tiger by Levine. I picked it up curious by the tiger picture (I adore animals) and so I opened it to check the index. I am an ex-nurse and later did a double degree in Psychology and Theology. So I am drawn to explanations that fit evidence based medicine. Not withstanding the fact that much that happens to us unfortunately cannot be measured. I am still trying to understand how come the mind (via TMS) renders muscles with what appears to be a case of hypoxia (lack of oxygen).

Apology, I digressed! Going back to Levine's book, when I read the index content it captured my imagination so I bought it. Have you heard the expression 'the book jumped out at me?' The Levine book did so! And yes, that was one of the beginnings of the profuse reading I did on the physiology of trauma and pain. Later I went onto Professor Bruce Lipton, Professor Candence pert, Dr John Sarno and Dr Schubiner, Dr David D Clarke, the psychologist Mario Martinez, Ram Dass and the list goes on. These writers transformed my consciousness in terms of opening a realm that led me to this forum. So I agree with you, that we heal through understanding the complexities that are hidden in the deep recesses of our subconscious.

Thank you again for dropping by. This forum is such a joy!

 

"Waking the Tiger", definitely not "Walking the Tiger"! I'm definitely not taking my Tiger out for a walk!

 

Oh my goodness, apology! so much for posting in a hurry without checking up what I was writing. I think I had the tiger running all over me last night . After posting the note to you I went to check where the P. A. Levine book was. I could not find it anywhere, low and behold I remembered that I lent it to my counsellor since she deals with PTSD cases. That book is excellent for cases of PTSD. One of the memorable passages was the illustration of the gazelle in the African savanah and the cheetah stalking it. I was surprised to learn that animals are able to shake the adrenalin rush after a stressful event, whereas us human beings, we just stay with it.
Thank you for mention the Levine book. I almost forgot that I had it on loan. I was reminded that I have to get it back.

I wish you a healing week!