Shoulder and thoracic pain

I've been having pretty severe shoulder pain and limited range of motion since end of January. I thought I could work with it, but then decided to go to ortho. Xray was fine and he said I had frozen shoulder and that it would get better in time with steady movement. Of course he ordered PT so contrary to tms approach, I did start PT. Yesterday while putting a bandaid on my toe (yes it's true) I got the worst spasm in my thoracic spine - same side as the shoulder pain. I thought the muscle spasm would go away but it has not. Sometimes its a 10/10. Hard to take a deep breath. PT said because I was leaning forward and twisting it might be a thoracic disc. Not what I wanted to hear. I can see some slight improvement in the way I am dealing with this as far as fear and panic. But I am still very discouraged and yes scared. Things have been stressful lately. I just get one problem after another within a matter of days. If this is extinction outburst, all I can say is I hope there is extinction of something! PT wanted me to go to the Er and I refused. I hate to start down that path of more docs and tests. I dont have a lot of experience with thoracic pain...mine has been lumbar and cervical. Anyone got any suggestions or experince with this ? Thanks.

 

Hey, @Timbercat, see my reply to your second post!
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/thoracic-pain.18083/ (Thoracic pain)

 

Jan, I was able to get in to see my doctor today. She ordered a chest xray and thoracic spine xrays. I am waiting for those results. She gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxant. Her impression is that this is a muscle. I know she will call me if there is something I need to know tonight. In the meantime this set back has put me right back in that dreadful place of not being able to do things...just in the house with pain...debilitating pain. I had a cardiac appointment last week. After wearing a 30 day monitor and sweating thru 6 weeks, I went back and got the good news I didnt need a pacemaker. Doc also decreased my med even further. I was so relieved. I never get more than a few days or maybe weeks before the next crisis. That has been my life for months and months. Right now my back is just on fire with pain. Thanks for responding. I dont know how the Beloved Grand Eagles and others do it and get past this.

 

I got the results: chest xray is normal. Spinal xray shows degenerative changes and "exaggerated kyphosis" thoracic spine. No fractures. I am glad I took the first step today. Dont know what to do next exactly. I guess I will take as deep a breath as I can for now and look for more inspiration. It's hard to "float" through this pain.

 

That's a big relief, girl - women have to pay extra attention to such symptoms, because they can be deceiving.

Recovery for me is a combination of so many things, it's really hard to pin down one coherent strategy. And I believe that it's going to be this way for every individual, partly because the reasons we are here are so different, and partly because we are going to respond to things so differently.

I recovered thanks to a combination of techniques that I learned doing the SEP and going to other sources that I discovered on this forum, including some early webinars by the wonderful Alan Gordon, who is absolutely brilliant at the emotional component of this work. And I believe that the emotional component is essential. I was able to go back to my childhood and experience myself as a small and anxious child, getting in touch with my need to be nurtured by my mother who might have been too busy with three other kids to really do so. I overcame anxiety thanks to Claire Weekes, and I overcame the signs of emerging depression thanks to learning how recognize when my negative primitive brain was taking over and dragging me down. Fighting back was not easy, but it can be done - and I truly had to have faith that it was possible.

 

Just letting u know I just got back from PT and had a different therapist today. She was very caring and I was much more relaxed with her. My back pain decreased a lot just in the time I was with her. So much so that I changed a couple upcoming appointments so I can have her again instead of the guy. He says stuff that either irritates me (like contradicting the doctor's diagnosis) or he scares me by saying maybe the thoracic pain is a disc. Talk about norcebo. I dont care if some of this is placebo right now, I just know the pain level is down somewhat. Thank you Jan for being there for me. My doctor also called me today with xray results and said she thinks its a muscle issue. This all gives me hope to move forward with tms.