Right Hip Pain

Hello,

I am a 29-year-old man and am writing to request your help and support regarding pain I have had for the past two months in the area of my right hip.

I am a healthy, fit individual, and I workout 5-6 times per week (mix of weights and cardio). I learned about TMS five years ago after struggling with debilitating bilateral chronic forearm pain for two a half years. Once I accepted the diagnosis, I regained the functionality in my arms in just a few weeks. Since healing, I have experienced a variety of different symptoms over the past few years, including knee pain, achilles pain, lower back pain, and frequent urination. I have understood these episodes to be examples of the symptom imperative, and simply by recognizing this, each of these symptoms has resolved in a matter of weeks. Each time I experience a symptom, I read another TMS book to deepen my understanding of the process. Thus far, I have read John Sarno’s four books, Mark Sopher’s "To Be or Not To Be... Pain-Free,” Steve Ozanich’s “The Great Pain Deception,” and Howard Schubiner's "Unlearn Your Pain."

This brings me to my hip pain. On Saturday, October 27, 2018, I helped a close friend of mine move a couple heavy birdhouses on his property. I remember feeling a twinge in my right hip while struggling to lift one of them, and even though there wasn’t much of any pain, I feared that I had hurt myself. I went to my weekly spinning class a couple days later and did not feel any pain. The following Saturday, I went to my first yoga class in a long time, and I did certain poses that required me to drastically flex my hips. My right hip hurt for several days after—I distinctly remember it hurting to hold my leg in place over the accelerator or brake pedal in the car. The pain subsided to a relatively low level after a few days and has pretty much persisted at this low level since early November. I have been able to drive, climb stairs (one of my cardio workouts), do squats, run, and swim. Throughout all these activities, the pain has remained at a low level (maybe 1 or 2 out of 10) or has not been noticeable at all. However, I remain fearful that I have hurt myself in some way.

Yesterday (12/25), I noticed some twinges of right hip pain when I was moving my mattress, and today (12/26) I had pain midway through my stair climbing workout (about 12 and a half minutes, or 800 steps in). This is the first time I have had to stop a stair climbing workout because of the pain. After leaving the gym, I scheduled an appointment with my primary care physician for tomorrow morning (12/27) to get the hip checked out.

Deep down, I think it’s TMS. For the past year or so, I have been very stressed about two things:

1. Finding a dating partner.
2. Finding a more fulfilling job.

Perhaps the hip pain is serving to distract me from these stressors? I worry that maybe I’ve torn the labrum, but from what I’ve read in the TMS books, tears do not necessarily cause pain. They are a natural part of aging.

I appreciate any perspective and/or guidance you can provide as I navigate this situation.

Thank you.

GardenOfFruit

 

MRI at your own peril. It's more grist for the worry-mill.

Are your doing any TMS work, like journaling and affirmations and outcome independence and everything else that helps reduce strain?

 

Thanks, Free of Fear, for your reply. Ever since my first episode of TMS pain (involving my forearms), I have journaled regularly about thoughts, feelings, stressors, etc. Are there any specific topics to journal on that are good for TMS treatment? Or templates to use?

I was not familiar with outcome independence, but I read the post at the link you shared. I'll give this new mindset a try.

I am familiar with affirmations and have used them to drastically improve areas of my life outside of my TMS symptoms. I will look into creating some affirmations for my pain.

 

Awesome. Someone might have said already to check out ACE1's tops, the complete version. It's fantastic.

For journaling you can check out Alan's SEP on the site here for the series of prompts. basically you make a list of all the personality factors, current stressors, and past events that could be contributing to TMS symptoms, and then go through and journal on them one by one. Not in an obsessive way of course! the goal is to systematically lower stress and strain. (side note that there are people here who have recovered completely without journaling, and you find journaling to increase stress)

 

The two things you list are actually BIG things in the TMS repertoire of rage inducers. Why am I here? what is my life for anyways? and age 30 is right around when most people have their big epiphany, life's work crisis (see Jesus, Buddha,etc). My Own Big meltdown started at 30 or so.

So you were out being a nice guy Helping someone move something .... Moving peoples personal possessions is like a TMS Petri dish. I am always the person people call to move stuff.. I am healthy and I own a van. I still help them. I just make sure I am 100% clear to myself that I would rather be doing something else with my Saturday.

The symptom train that brought me to Sarno began with 'back' pain that started in my butt cheek and hip. The pain didn't go into my back until after the Mri's and doctor visits. Sarno's explanation Of tms as a 'regional process' made a lot more sense than anything the Medical world explained to me.

You might want to look back at what was going on in your life and around you when the symptoms started. Not the Yoga and spinning, but situational stuff...work, dating, family etc.

 

@Free of Fear: Thanks for the additional information. I found ACE1's 29-item list as well as Alan Gordon's structured education program. I added both items to my to-do list.

@Baseball65: Thanks for sharing your experience with back and hip pain. I hope that you were able to find relief via Dr. Sarno's work or other methods. To answer your question regarding what was going on at the time of the birdhouse incident, I have identified two events in my life, one relating to finding a new job and the other to finding a partner:

1. On October 4 (23 days before the birdhouse incident), I had an appointment with my therapist. There was a woman who pursued me for about 6 months this year, and even though I was attracted to her, I held myself back from dating her because I noticed some things about her that I believed could lead to problems in a relationship over time. After speaking with my therapist at length about this woman on October 4, I changed my mind and decided that this woman would be OK to date. However, at this point, she had entered into a relationship with another man. I remember leaving the therapy appointment in a panic and skipping the gym to go home and journal. I was overwhelmed by feelings of panic, rage, and self-loathing. Perhaps these feelings are what the groin/hip pain has been distracting me from.
2. On October 18 (9 days before the birdhouse incident), I accepted a new position in my company. I was bored and depressed in my previous position, and while my goal is still to find a new job outside of my company, this new position was definitely a step in the right direction. It did not even cross my mind at the time, but maybe I had unconscious rage about the job transition. Rage about moving to a new building away from the network of friends I had built over the past few years. Rage about not knowing what to expect with regard to my new boss, expectations, work demands, work hours, traffic, etc. Perhaps my groin/hip pain was distracting me from these feelings.

Here is all the evidence I have accumulated to this point that suggests my groin/hip pain is TMS:

1. Today, my primary care physician ruled out a joint problem or anything else that might be serious. He did not even think I needed to get an MRI. (He recommended stretching and/or PT, and I understand that I need to fully reject both in order to accept the TMS diagnosis).
2. As I documented above, there were a couple incidents in October (one pertaining to finding a new partner and the other to finding a new job) that could have fueled my reservoir of unconscious rage and led to the TMS groin/hip pain.
3. The pain is regional. It shifts around the area of my hips and groin and is unpredictable where it will be at a given time or during a given activity.
4. On a few occasions since the birdhouse incident, I have experienced similar hip/groin pain on the opposite (left) side of my body, which I know is healthy!
5. TMS is known to impact the L1 and L2 spinal nerves, which innverate the areas in which I am experiencing pain. The L1 innervate’s the adductor muscles in the groin area, and the L2 innervates the flexor muscles in the hip.
6. While it is certainly possible that I overextended an adductor or flexor muscle while lifting the birdhouse, causing initial pain, it should be noted that a lifting motion does not really involve the muscles that have been painful for me. My understanding is the gluteus maximus is primarily responsible for hip extension required for lifting something, and I have not had any pain in the gluteus maximus. This makes me question whether the birdhouse incident could even cause any structural damage to the areas in which I have been feeling pain. Maybe the birdhouse incident was a TMS trigger.
7. On a few occasions since the birdhouse incident, I have noticed the pain appear when I am not using my groin/hip muscles but am thinking about something stressful.
8. I have experienced a variety of TMS symptoms over the past several years (i.e. the symptom imperative), and I understand that the brain never gives up its strategy.
9. There was no major trauma during the birdhouse incident, and nearly nine weeks have passed. My understanding is that muscle and tendon strains and ligament sprains heal within six to eight weeks, and often more quickly.
10. My fear of the pain is more powerful than the pain itself in getting my attention.
11. A few days after the birdhouse incident, I went to a party hosted by a friend (of similar age as me) who mentioned she had a hip replacement. Perhaps this made chronic hip pain seem “in vogue” for me.

 

Good news from the PCP.

As for the list of evidence suggesting TMS, you left out one of the most important ones: your personality type which highly predisposes you to TMS symptoms!!

 

Classic. Beautiful statement. I hear it as "I may not be changing my life to not give myself away, but I understand the ramifications, and by my understanding there is nothing to fear. My understanding itself prevents symptoms." I think this is the way many of us "deal with life" as TMS veterans, and it works. Others need life changes. For many here awareness, knowledge, practice penetrates... Understanding is the cure.

 

That's a great list that ACE1 put together. Several items resonated with me, and the one that stood out the most was the fixation on the thought that "I should be doing something more productive right now." I am a very productive person--I get up early on the weekends, and in my free time, I workout, read, & take online courses--and I get angry at myself when I feel like I am not being productive. I will try to be more mindful of these angry thoughts and treat them as just thoughts without getting carried away by them (the mindful approach).

Also, after having to stop my stairclimber workout last Wednesday due to the pain, I set a personal best time (19 mins) for my stairclimber workout today (1600 steps ≈ 1 Empire State Building). There were just a couple moments during the workout when I felt twinges of pain. This to me is additional evidence that my pain is TMS.

 

Great!

Food for thought, because I hold myself to high standards and also like to work out, as well: how do you balance wanting to perform well while not increasing mental and physical strain to the point that it causes symptoms? (This is an important question for me right now.)