What To Do?

I've had Bilateral wrist pain since August. I suspect it was RSI or possibly carpal tunnel. I went for tests and no carpal tunnel was found by a hand expert Orthopedist. My pain is in the Ulnar region along my wrists and pinky side of my hand, but only in the ball region below my pinky not in the pinky or anything. X Ray was normal and they didn't want me to get an MRI. I do meditation daily with 20 minute body scans and I go walk for 15 minutes everyday. I've tried to cut out stress in a splint for 6 months and only barely improved. Now I can sleep at night but that's it, using the computer, even typing this, can cause my hand great pain. Playing video games makes me left thumb hurt all night. It's worst when I lay down or rest, that's when the pain comes. I've tried doing little to nothing for so long and I'm starting to think perhaps it is a mental problem. Where do I start and what do I do? I want my life back, I want to play instruments and be able to work. To me this is not living, I feel as though I'm already dying and I'm 30 years old. Please help me. If anyone wants more information about my medical history or anything I can supply it. I have a giant chronicle of my pain and non-recovery. Thanks in advance.

 

Move your wrists around to get the blood flowing. Just don't tense up and don't pay as much attention to it.

 

Clues that it's TMS:
- It gets worse when you're resting
- You haven't seen improvement with an extended period of rest
- A physical examination revealed nothing

The above being said, I totally get the sense of hopelessness that RSI issues can instill. I think a good first step is seeing if your personality/psychology aligns with that of a typical TMSer. Also, have you read up on the RSI manifestations of TMS? Some of them can be really extreme, and yet people still recover.

 

I'm not completely hopeless but I haven't ruled out the possibility of it being mental or stress related. I'm not wearing the splints anymore (as recommended by the hand specialist). I've been trying to do light exercise to try and regain strength in my arms, not doing anything for 6 months left me very weak. I heard some people just start exercising and that's the cure for their issues. However, I want to also pursue this possibility in case it isn't physical and instead mental.

I read the long introduction and I started watching the videos and posts by Alan Gordon about the pain recovery program.

 

The pain you describe (bilateral wrist pain, ulnar side) is exactly what I experienced for over a year before finding Dr. Sarno and the TMS diagnosis. I'm a programmer (also a musician and a casual gamer), so I use my hands a lot. I was initially diagnosed with tendonitis and sent to physical therapy, but that did nothing to improve it and, some days, made the pain worse. I had x-rays and an MRI. All tests came back essentially negative, though one surgeon tried to convince me that my ulna was longer than normal and that a surgery to shorten the bone (!) was necessary. That's when I started to explore less traditional medicine.

Exploring TMS and the mental side of things has been quite a journey and it still has its ups and downs, but currently I'd say my wrists are pain free 90% of the time, regardless of activity. It has most definitely been a successful path for me. I can work all day and play guitar in the evening with little to no pain at all. And I still feel like I have a lot to learn and uncover with TMS, so I definitely feel like there's plenty of room for improvement and increased awareness of my mental triggers.

So, what to do for you? You said you "haven't ruled out the possibility of it being mental or stress related". That's good, but you might think about taking that a step further and actively embracing the idea that your pain is mental or stress related. My journey started with devouring Sarno's Mindbody Prescription and that opened up a lot of doors and new ways of thinking. I was skeptical at first, but once I started to see results, I became convinced. It was just too much of a coincidence that my wrist pain was bilateral. I knew the problem had to be originating somewhere else in my body to have the pain appear at the same time in two opposite sides of my body. I hold a lot of tension in my upper back and neck, and that seems to be directly dependent on the amount of stress I'm feeling and amount of anger and repressed emotions that I'm holding in. Taking steps to reduce my stress and address my repressed emotions has led to less tension in my neck and less pain in my wrists. Everyone's symptoms and journeys are different, but best of luck in yours! Seems like you're already taking some good first steps.

 

Thank you for replying. Yes I'm practicing body scan meditation 20 minutes every day and I'm trying to get into the non-traditional path. Unfortunately, I'm not a faithful person. I need to see results to really commit or believe. Taking that step farther as you say is, for me, a journey I'm not sure I can make. I'm going to keep trying and I've tried dissociating the pain with my wrists and try to remember the pain lies in my brain that's causing it. I also took an hour to just self examine my stress and tell myself that it was okay to feel bad about these things and I don't need to be perfect, etc. I think it will take a long time but the body scans alone have reduced my stressed a little. I'm hoping it gets better as I do it everyday, but I'm a skeptic at heart. I wish I wasn't but I don't take to things easily without feeling reservations and constantly questioning them.