Day 1 My story and Expectations

I just finished Dr. Sarno's 'Mind Body Prescription', and I'm excited about getting better. I will post more below, but basically I brought it up to my doctor and we agreed there was a strong chance that my symptoms are caused by stress and anxiety. I kept looking into it more and more and finally came across Dr. Howard Schubiner, and then Dr. Sarno's books. I read here before that you have to believe the diagnosis, and I do. Then I read Dr. Sarno's Mind Body Prescription over the last two days. I must say that it pretty well describes me.

I still have a little worry, what if it's something like RA, but I have tried to not think about it as I think it's in my mind.
I can even give an example as to why I believe this is CMS.
--In 2022 I had a knot between my left shoulder blade and spine. Eventually I went to a neurosurgeon and had an MRI done, it shows a collapsed disk at C5 & C6. I was given high dose Gabapentin and pain killers. They didn't touch the pain but I hoped it would help eventually.
I went to pain management clinic and the doctor there reviewed my MRI with me and showed me there was no compression on the spine or any nerves, and he couldn't explain why I'd be hurting as bad as I was. He said many people have the same damage and no pain, but that he didn't doubt my pain either. He upped my Gabapentin and was going to discontinue my pain killer, which actually scared me some. I went home disappointed because I knew I hurt severely, to the point I wondered for the first time in my life how long it would be before I couldn't stand it anymore and 'wanted out'.

My lovely girlfriend, an RN, told me the gabapentin was making me cold to her and I was not myself. She cried and said that was often a side effect. I thought back about what the pain doc said about no compression on my nerves, so I quit the meds right then. I wondered if it could be stress, as I was under termedous pressure with several things in my life at once. I began to try to relax and to stretch each day. Over the next month my pain got less and less until finally it was gone as was the knot in my back. I was amazed.
It hasn't bothered me since except for my left index finger has been numb since I quit the meds. It is so numb that I can't feel temperature and I cut it two years ago and bled everywhere before noticing it.
I read Dr Sarno's book yesterday and about 3/4 through I noticed I had no numbness or pressure in my finger. I grabbed a cold drink and could feel the coldness, the wetness, and then ran my finger over my jeans and could feel the seam and texture of the denim for the first time in two years. I smiled bigly. It was about 75% improved, and it's numb again today, but that tells me that it may not be nerve damage and is likely TMS

Above is my answer to my first exercise, if that's all you are interested in. If you care to read what led me here, I'll post it below.

Leading up to now:
I have had Hyperparathyroidism in January '16 that almost killed me in three months, until I had surgery. I was supposed to get better within a few months but it took a year and a half. I had a positive Lyme Disease test in May '18 which went untreated for a year, and by the time I got treatment I was in bed for five months. I continued with holistic meds which helped me finish healing, but took another year and a half.

This year:
I was finally getting my life back in 2023, A two year old relationship was going good and we were planning to buy a house and move in together, I was going to start my construction business again much bigger than before, I had a $25k+ job to do for a family friend in November but it got moved to January. My dad, whom I idolize and was my construction mentor has stage four COPD and got dropped from therapy, my mom has agoraphobia due to an amnesia event a year ago. So huge stresses and major pressure for everything to work out. I usually deal with stress well, but some of these things are life-changing, especially after years of recovery from two illnesses that nearly killed me.
In January of '24 I got a bad cold or bacteria and my temperature got up to 103.6 for days, and two days I was essentially blacked out, my girlfriend (lives in another state) tried calling and I wouldn't answer. When I came out of it I went to the ER, and the doctor told me that I had pancitopenia, actually five blood levels were way off, and I needed outpatient monitoring until thry normalized. That took two weeks.
They went back to normal and I began feeling stronger. Then I found out the family friend knew I was sick and had given the $25k job to someone else, and I was really counting on that to start the business and help get a house for us. Within a week I felt awful and had a handful of symptoms.
Back at the best hospital in our state, thry did a major workup and found nothing. More symptoms followed and have been pretty consistent this year.
I wanted to include my symptoms:
Muscle pain, weakness, fatigue, muscle spasms, bone pain, hair loss, cloudy thinking, flushing, rash, short of breath, weight loss, serious constipation, bloodshot eyes & blurry vision, burning and numbness in limbs (mostly hands and feet), some skin flushing, circulation issues in hands and feet (redness mostly) which comes and goes. I have had some pain around my joints all over, but it goes away sometimes, in the last few months.

Despite numerous doctors visits with two different MDs, multiple ER visits, a few specialists, hundreds of tests, none of them can find anything glaringly wrong, and most have said my symptoms don't really all fit to point to any specific condition. I have had a Negative ANA , CMP, two types of Sed Rate test for inflammation and to identify most immune issues, even tested for mast cell activation. I have had my Rheumatoid Factor of 50 and an anti CCP of 62, both point to possible Rheumatoid Arthritis at some point, but my doctor said my joints aren't red and swollen, but those test numbers should be higher, and mymy other inflammation markers should be elevated more. He said I may get it someday, but likely isn't right now. He told me it might be fibromyalgia, but was likely just Stress and anxiety. Those last words stuck with me.
I did search for what else might be wrong, but I focused on the Autonomic Nervous System and Mind Body. I was actually amazed by Dr Sarno talking about those two things as well as others I'd researched including somataform and conversation disorder.
I have have felt increasingly awful this year and anxiety over the last month. I do have times where I don't hurt, or it's not as bad, I haven't gotten better, but no worse for several days or a week, then it comes back strong as ever. The pain has gotten to the point where I can't exercise in the last month and I'm worried if it continues I'll be invalid, or worse.
After reading Sarno's book my anxiety was significantly decreased, and my pain was much less. I will keep reading about CMS and following the exercise program here.

Thanks for reading.

 

My first post was long, it was supposed to be short. I guess I'm desperate to feel better and desperate to get some of this out.

 

I actually agree with you and after considerable though over several weeks I had already considered that stress (the mind) contributes to inflammation, and learning what I have about TMS reaffirms that even more imo.