Looking for support on my sciatica/MRI diagnosis

I've had chronic low back pain for about 6 years but maintained a very active life and mostly just had to avoid sitting/standing too long, with some flareups and "pulled" muscles, often linked to deadlifts. However, it was still a real handicap in terms of how I treated myself and activities and I have been completely consumed with treating the physical symptoms for years (e.g. stretching and moving all day, constantly thinking about it and fearing a lifetime of this).

I finally discovered one of Dr. Sarno's books in mid January and was elated. I immediately put into practice the idea that sitting was benign and saw immediate success. About 1-2 weeks later however, I woke up with severe leg pain and tingling foot (not numb), textbook sciatica according to 2 doctors. I am in week 3 of this pain but have been improving a lot the last few days and doing lots of TMS treatment exercises and meditation. I did get an MRI yesterday to compare it to my MRI from 2 months ago when I had none of this shooting leg pain. The results came in today and there is some scary language that's really creating a lot of doubt around it being TMS. I'm hoping you guys can help me out and tell me if you had a similar report:

Feb 2019:
L5-S1 large right paracentral disc extrusion with inferiorly migrated/sequestered disc material causing severe effacement of the right lateral recess and compressions of descending S1 root. Inferior migration and possible sequestration of the extruded disc material behind the S1 segment. There is associated perineural inflammatory change around the descending S1 root. Mild central canal stenosis. Mild bilateral neuroforaminal stenosis.

Dec 2018 (no leg pain pain, just mild muscular feeling pain in low back right side or central/both sides):
L5-S1 Disc desiccation and mild disc space narrowing. Superimposed on a disc bulge is a broad-based central disc herniation contacting ventral thecal sac with narrowing of the lateral recesses and impingement on S1 nerve roots. There is right asymmetry with slight posterior and inferior extrusion of disc material.

 

Hi CoolRunnings,

I am sorry about the fear that is coming up for you right now.

I am not sure anyone here can answer your question. There are not any regular physicians who read and post here. I suggest that you contact a TMS physician to see if any of this really matters.

I will say this: Protrusions, herniations, and impingements have all been found to be benign by some TMS physicians, I believe.

A quick look at the Wiki:
Herniated Disc: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Herniated_Disc (Herniated Disc)
Here is a quick search in the Forum section:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/search/1274909/?q=herniated+disc&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=27 (Search Results for Query: herniated disc | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome))

I suggest you do the same with protrusions and impingements, search these terms in the Wiki and in the bar up above. In all likely hood the findings have nothing to do with your sciatica, but I don't have medical expertise!

The arrival of a new symptom, when old symptoms subside, as you experienced, is a common experience with TMS.

Sincerely,

Andy B

 

This could help

https://audioboom.com/posts/7173184-057-kevin-martillo-viner-phd?fbclid=IwAR1CxclQBTuxw9OumREHNhwRIcY_2wKTHcUQa5bW77_fiUvHT897Bv7T8NA (Audioboom / 057 - Kevin Martillo Viner, PhD)