New Symptom

I've had TMS for about a year now, but it's been mostly in my arms/shoulder blades, particularly in my elbow (I thought I had tendonitis at first). I read Healing Back Pain in June, and started the program then. I finished the program a little while ago. I still have pain in my arms, but it's been manageable and (I hope) fading.

Recently, I developed a new symptom: pain in my mid-lower back. It started in the night; early Friday morning my back hurt on my right side (I usually sleep on my right side) and I had to turn to my other side. I couldn't sleep on that side anymore. During the day, it hurt, and I found I couldn't take a deep breath without a spasm of pain. Laughing hurt, sneezing, etc. I had not done anything particularly strange on Thursday, I was mostly sitting around, playing video games, knitting, hanging out with my boyfriend, etc. Friday night, I was laying down trying to sleep and it hurt a lot, I couldn't find a comfortable position. I felt like I was having trouble breathing and I worried that something was wrong with my lungs. I talked to my boyfriend about it for a while, and we googled symptoms (I know that's bad, but we stuck to webmd), and we decided to go to the emergency room. I was still in a lot of pain. At ER, I was triaged and told to wait. Because I'm in Canada, it's free to go to ER, but the wait is really long. We waited for 3.5 hours. I felt stable, but in pain with trouble breathing. We finally gave up when it was 20 to 4, I couldn't stand waiting anymore, and just went home. I was able to sleep a little bit. Next day I had pain, tried to go for a walk, and last night I was able to sleep okay, but still not on that side. Today, Sunday, pain is still there, but I think a little better.

So the entire time this has been going on, I was wondering, is this TMS? I had not had it in my back before, but I know that symptoms move around, especially when it starts to get better. The spasms are pretty intense, but that's what a lot of people with TMS feel, right? How should I approach this?

I have also had a LOT of stress recently. I lost my job at the end of June (and it was a very stressful job, but I needed the money, and I liked it except for one person there who had power over me and treated me badly), then my boyfriend and I moved the next day (to a more expensive, bigger apartment, which we got because I thought I was safe in my job. The termination was really sudden and unexpected), and there's been a lot of little problems with the apartment. Nothing major, but the power suddenly being cut off because there was a misunderstanding, and the lack of screens in two of our windows, etc. I've been looking for a job, and so has my boyfriend, and a former boss said she'd try to hire me but had to get approval. Well the funny thing is on Friday, AFTER the pain started, I got an email saying that I got the job and will have contract work for the next 4 months (I start next week) so I'll have a job for a while.

Does that mean, though, that anytime I start to have stress, the pain is going to come? I felt like I was dealing with everything, being in tune with my emotions, but maybe not. It's very frustrating. Is this still TMS?

 

I went for a run today (well, walk/jog intervals, the first day of the C25K program) it felt good, though I still have that little spasm sometimes with a deep breath. It's like it catches. Hopefully it will go away.