Need Help! Flareup after 2 years

Hello I have been following the TMS program for about 2 years with great success. Reading & re-reading Healing Back Pain and The Great Pain Deception and ournaling. I went from being effectively disabled to being able to bench press over 200 lbs, run 10 miles per week, and return to my passion of practicing yoga.

However, I have recently run into a problem. I bought a new pair of penny loafers a week ago, and while walking around in them twice, about 1 mile each time, I started getting this pinching feeling on the bottom of my foot around my heel. After the first time this happened, nothing occurred afterwards. I ran five miles the next day and felt fine. I figured it was a case of new shoes needing to be broken-in. Then after the second wearing (during which I noticed the same pinching feeling), I put on another pair of shoes and all of the sudden the sole of my left foot around the heel was very sensitive. And now I am getting weird and uncomfortable sensations all over the bottom of my left foot particularly around the heel. The next day though, things started to improve, and things feel like they are linearly getting better.

I feel like I am at a crossroads here- these new penny loafers didn't feel very good, and not wearing them seems to make my foot feel better, but I am worried about "yielding to the pain" and thus refuting the whole non-structural basis of TMS. And I have read that the majority of Plantar Fasciitis is TMS. But is it possible that some shoes, even though the right size, are just not meant to be worn by every foot?

Any suggestions please!

 

Hi, George! Great success story you have there! Very inspiring! (Since I’m “effectively disabled” at the moment- I’d love to hear more about your journey.)

With regard to the penny loafers— well, this might just be me, but I’ve never thought of new shoes (especially flat penny loafers) to be good for walking far in. Even one mile. But, I’d be more concerned that your TMS brain might be using the irritation from the shoes to taunt you with a new symptom. My current symptoms started in my feet—and for a lot of people they do. Just in case, I’d be extra careful to do some good journaling and rebuke that pain before it sets in.

Can you wear the penny loafers around the house and slowly break them in some more? If not, I’d just bag them. Give them to charity or maybe your cousin?

 

Hi George3767. It's tricky having an issue with shoes because some of them just don't fit right or suit your foot shape and that has nothing to do with TMS. On the other hand, if you revert back to an old pair or a new pair of the make/type you usually have and problems still occur, then that is more than likely due to TMS, always taking into account that you have not suffered a blow of any kind to your foot. Also, if you managed to run 5 miles with no problems in the penny loafers, I would say that you may have had a subconscious worry that you would develop pain and so you fell victim to TMS especially as I would have expected the pain to have emerged during or straight after your first run if the shoes were the true cause of the problem. You can't have done anything to injure yourself, so if the pain does not quickly subside then I would say you might have a case of TMS.
Perhaps rather than 'yielding' to the pain you could spend some days just wearing them round and about and work up to some short runs and take it from there.

 

One day in my late 30s this weird pain that would move around from my hands, to my feet, to my shoulders, and back decided to show up and not go away for about 5 years. I had had some random back spasms before that always resolved themselves after a few days. This pain was truely awful in that there was nothing I could do for it and was constant. I thought someone had a voodoo doll of me. I got Sarno's book on some advice from a relative at a dinner once. I read like 1/4 of it and thought it was fine, but since I didn't have any repressed anger, it wasn't for me. I picked it back up like 2 years later because I was starting to lose my mind, and was more open to the ideas in the book. I was particularly impressed with Sarno's success rates. I must have read Healing back pain six times in two months. I Also picked up the Great Pain Deception. And I stopped doing all the exercises & treatments I had been doing and started to focus on my feelings. I also gradually built up a weight lifting and running routine. The volume on the pain quickly went down. There was some sciatica that lingered for a while. But I was more or less pain free after about 18 months. Some issues here and there, but I kept up my routine and never believed the issues to be structural.
I appreciate your advice about gradually breaking in the penny loafers. I will give that a shot. I am also looking at giving my body more time to recover from my workouts. I am currently working out fairly strenuously six days a week. I am in my mid 40s and think I need more recovery time, meaning, not doing six strenuous workouts a week, maybe doing 3-4 stenuous ones and 2-3 gentle workouts to let my muscles recover better.

 

Thank you Solange. To clarify, I did not run 5 miles in the penny loafers. I walked about one mile in the brand new loafers and then the next day I ran in my regular running shoes. And I did that run without any problems. Then then two days later I walked another mile with occasional pinching feeling in the heel in the new loafers, and then the discomfort starts to show up all over my foot when I put an old broken-in pair of shoes on. It is so strange and makes no sense!

 

Thanks for this story! Great you read Healing Back Pain 6 times! Yeah, give yourself some recovery time between workouts.

 

That’s what TMS does. It picks a place that is hurting (sore feet from penny loafers), and latches on. Kick its butt while it’s new. Tell it to get lost before it settles in.