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Jim D.
USA
63 Posts |
 Posted - 09/27/2004 : 14:34:22
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I guess I don't see addiction to exercise as a manifestation of TMS, since TMS involves pain, and whereas you sometimes have pain that appears to come from working out, it's not because you work out obsessively. The strength-training is helping you ignore what appear to be some self-hating tendencies. But I am no therapist.
If you are serious about giving me some advice on strength-training, my e-mail address is jtdutton@bu.edu (I get so much spam already that putting my e-mail address on one more public site isn't going to hurt). Who knows, maybe offering advice to someone else about something you know so well will help with those self-esteem issues.
Jim |
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Jim D.
USA
63 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 14:49:01
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quote:
Originally posted by Suz
The steroid was dexamethasone and apparently sits in your system for up to a year - gross! It made me really crazy and emotional - very disturbing drug.
Suz,
Just out of curiosity, I looked up that drug on the Web. What I found on one site was: "Dexamethasone is considered to be a long acting steroid, meaning that a dose lasts about two or two-and-a-half days." It seems very odd that a drug would sit in your system for a year. |
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Irish Jimmy
USA
52 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 20:51:44
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Shapiro, I used to weight train like you back when I was coming out of high school. It was my love. The bulk got me the nickname "Big Jimmy", another thing I liked. It was good for my self-esteem. Then I got my first symptoms of TMS, The knee pain started, the back pain, and elbow pain. I stopped lifting figuring I'd hurt myself. The physical therapists had me doing stretches, taking Ibproferin, it was awful.
The one thing I really enjoyed was gone. I was constantly scared I would hurt myself if I went back to any "hard" workouts. As time went on I realized there was more to life then throwing around iron. I had to find a replacement for lifting, that replacement was life, specifically living a balanced one.
Your symptoms sound like TMS, but you have to stop thinking structural and start with the thinking about why TMS is effecting you. Law school is alot of pressure, don't minimize that fact. TMS aside, try balancing your life, if YOU feel this is necessary. Go easy on yourself, I used to feel so guilty about missing workouts or what I ate. Everything in moderation. Good Luck and get a job as a prosecutor, you'll have no guilt..........P.S. since finding out about Sarno I'm back working out, I run, which I never really did, I play competitive flag football and just started Yoga. I do all of this when I have time- no guilt. The pain is still there and shifting like crazy, but I feel I got it on the ropes. Again good luck, go easy. |
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moose1
162 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2004 : 22:20:55
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TMS is the ultimate opportunist. it's an evil little beast that needs to be beaten down with the truth. if it sees an opening, like a minor injury, it will set up camp and never leave until you realize that it's just a scam to keep you from dealing with and acknowledging all the stress and junk that occurs in your life. unless you have a broken bone, which it sounds like you don't based on the x-ray, or you have recently thrown several hundred pitches at the major league level, my bet is that there's nothing wrong with your elbow.
also, steer clear of orthopaedists unless you really do have a broken bone. in the absence of a real injury for them to expain, they will invariably come up with some musculo-skeletal, arthritis, ligament, tendon disfunction/degeneration load-a-crap diagnosis that will just feed the TMS and make your life more miserable.
good luck.
moose |
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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 16:55:24
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Hi All,
I just wanted to give you guys an update. I had been doing really well until the other day. My workouts were going great and without a hitch until yesterday. I went up 5 pounds on my bench press but the pain today is the worst it has been in weeks. It's been two months since i fell, and it hasn't gotten much better at all. I know this doesn't make sense or rather it doesn't adhere to sarno's principals, but I can't get the idea of getting an MRI and possibly surgery out of my head. I know the x-ray showed no broken bones, it's just that it has been so long, and I'm scared. I still worry that I will hurt myself worse. I can't deal with this pain for the rest of my life, it is life consuming. I just want to be normal again.
I know that i have to fully accept the diagnosis for my elbow to get better. I keep thinking that I will get better on its own, regardless of TMS, but I am still afriad. I have stopped taking anti-inflammatories, partially because I found a page about how anti-inflammatories prevent healing. There is the problem, I still think there is healing to be done. I just can't get that out of my head. |
Edited by - Zshapiro32 on 10/11/2004 17:36:25 |
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menvert
Australia
133 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 20:12:57
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zahapiro32,
looks like you're not having a great time at it right now...
Pretty much most of what you said in that post says you are still having major trouble accepting TMS.
I assume you're not confusing the pain you get from going up 5 lbs.(the type of pain that will heal in a couple of days)with actual chronic pain?
If you are not mentally capable of pushing through the pain. I would then just do the next best thing which is to lay off just a little(ie go back down to less weight) but don't entirely stop again. At least in my case, that's how it works if I have overdone the typing and created a flareup sometimes I actually lay off for a week... this usually is only as effective as if the next day I just continue typing, but maybe just a little less.
Damn xrays/mri they cause no end of damage to TMS sufferers!!
BTW of all the TMS stories I've read yours does seem the one of the most cut and dry case of having absolutely nothing to do with physical. You bumped your elbow, so what? it is not a reason to get chronic pain! Especially when you happen to mention you would start law school three days after the incident!
Stopping anti-inflammatories is good, they will not help, TMS. Yes, there is healing to be done: healing the way that you think about your elbow pain :)
Anyway, keep at it, don't be discouraged that you may have to backtrack a little bit... I backtracked several times before I got a pretty good handle on TMS. And reading this site continually does help reinforce my knowing(not belief) that TMS is my only injury.
Good luck with it |
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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 20:30:47
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I agree, the timing seems almost too good to be true. It's almost too cut and dry, and that is why I am attributing it to coincidence. I am just having trouble accepting it. I know that that is the hardest and most important step, TMS just seems too easy.
quote:
Originally posted by menvert
zahapiro32,
looks like you're not having a great time at it right now...
Pretty much most of what you said in that post says you are still having major trouble accepting TMS.
I assume you're not confusing the pain you get from going up 5 lbs.(the type of pain that will heal in a couple of days)with actual chronic pain?
If you are not mentally capable of pushing through the pain. I would then just do the next best thing which is to lay off just a little(ie go back down to less weight) but don't entirely stop again. At least in my case, that's how it works if I have overdone the typing and created a flareup sometimes I actually lay off for a week... this usually is only as effective as if the next day I just continue typing, but maybe just a little less.
Damn xrays/mri they cause no end of damage to TMS sufferers!!
BTW of all the TMS stories I've read yours does seem the one of the most cut and dry case of having absolutely nothing to do with physical. You bumped your elbow, so what? it is not a reason to get chronic pain! Especially when you happen to mention you would start law school three days after the incident!
Stopping anti-inflammatories is good, they will not help, TMS. Yes, there is healing to be done: healing the way that you think about your elbow pain :)
Anyway, keep at it, don't be discouraged that you may have to backtrack a little bit... I backtracked several times before I got a pretty good handle on TMS. And reading this site continually does help reinforce my knowing(not belief) that TMS is my only injury.
Good luck with it
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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2004 : 10:16:44
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Here is what the orthopod said happened.
When I fell on my elbow, I moved my arm so quickly to brace myself that the tendon tore. He equated it to a string or piece of fishing line. It is much harder to break a piece of fishing line when you move it slowly and much easier to break it if you yank it quickly.
This diagnosis just doesn't make sense to me, but I can't seem to get the idea out of my head. How is it possible to move my arm so quickly to do this? I lift heavy weights all the time, how can moving my arm quickly have done so much damage and cause so much pain? My head tells me that this is TMS, but for whatever reason I am scared. I also attribute not being able to understand how such an injury could occur due to the fact that I am not a doctor.
How come athletes always get surgical operations to repair tendons and ligaments?
I saw a thread earlier on Kevin Brown, what about Sheffield? He has been dealing with a shoulder injury for months and months and it hasn't gotten better. Do you think that is TMS as well?
This board is very helpful, but it seems like a lot of you have been dealing with this pain for years, and that kind of depresses me. I can't imagine dealing with this for the rest of my life. I catch myself watching people do things on t.v. with their left arms, and I envy them. |
Edited by - Zshapiro32 on 10/12/2004 10:46:09 |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2004 : 11:05:16
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Did they do an MRI? Did the orthopedist say you need surgery, or that it would heal on its own?
Many tendon "injuries" suffered by atheletes are really just normal changes that do not cause pain. A tendon can show up as a small tear on an MRI when in reality it is just normal structural changes in the tendon. I believe there are a lot of unnecessary surgeries in atheletes, especially arthroscopic.
That said, it is of course possible to suffer a real injury that does real physical damage to a tendon, beyond the body's natural ability to heal itself. In those cases surgery may be required. Maybe you should get that MRI and see what it shows. If they still say that you don't need surgery, then you have nothing to lose by treating it as TMS (which is likely is).
Sheffield has such a violent swing that I would not be surprised if his shoulder is truly damaged. Also he has not had a career filled with chronic injuries, and he has no problem playing through the pain (unlike Brown who uses every TMS symptom as an excuse for his performance or inability to get on the field). |
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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2004 : 11:21:40
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Thanks for the response Dave,
No i didn't have an MRI, the orthopod didn't seem to think it was necessary. He prescribed physical therapy and said that it would get better on its own in 4 or so weeks. He prescribed physical therapy but I didn't do it for various reasons. Anyway, that was about 7 weeks ago.
I asked him if I could workout through the pain and he said that he wouldn't recommend it but it would still eventually heal on its own and that most likely i wouldn't hurt it.
After he told me that, the symptoms got much better the next day. I was relieved that it would get better in a relatively short amount of time, but once I realised that i was unable to get physical therapy, the pain got worse and didn't appear to be getting better.
On this past Sunday, I worked out probably the hardest I have since I fell. The TMS pain was pretty bad yesterday so I didn't workout. Instead I spent that time reading over Sarnos books, this page and journaling. The pain today (tuesday) feels much much better. I don't know wheter to attribute it to the day of rest or the journaling.
Sheffield had said that it hurts the worst when swings and misses. That seemed strange to me. I would think it would hurt just as much if not more as when he makes contact since the force required to swing the bat is the same and the follow-through doesn't change. I remember that the Physician told him that it might not get better with surgery and rest and that he couldn't hurt it any worse by playing.
quote:
Originally posted by Dave
Did they do an MRI? Did the orthopedist say you need surgery, or that it would heal on its own?
Many tendon "injuries" suffered by atheletes are really just normal changes that do not cause pain. A tendon can show up as a small tear on an MRI when in reality it is just normal structural changes in the tendon. I believe there are a lot of unnecessary surgeries in atheletes, especially arthroscopic.
That said, it is of course possible to suffer a real injury that does real physical damage to a tendon, beyond the body's natural ability to heal itself. In those cases surgery may be required. Maybe you should get that MRI and see what it shows. If they still say that you don't need surgery, then you have nothing to lose by treating it as TMS (which is likely is).
Sheffield has such a violent swing that I would not be surprised if his shoulder is truly damaged. Also he has not had a career filled with chronic injuries, and he has no problem playing through the pain (unlike Brown who uses every TMS symptom as an excuse for his performance or inability to get on the field).
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Edited by - Zshapiro32 on 10/12/2004 11:31:52 |
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tms and the elbow
