Just returned from surgery with Prof. Aszmann

[Patty]

Your very luck Ezer which I'm sure your grateful for.

[nonsequitur]

Yes, I am lucky of course. It was preceded by 10 extremely unpleasant years where I went from having a successful career to being on disability and even bedridden for a few months. It is only when I realized that something did not jibe completely with the entrapment explanation that I finally improved. That the solution was not more medical procedures and more medical diagnosis.

Why did I have very short bouts of experiencing low pain when travelling for example? Why did almost everybody I talked to started to experience pain shortly after a stressful period (divorce, death in the family, fear)? Why did I experience almost no pudendal pain for 2-3 weeks after each of my PN surgeries (anesthesia is not a valid explanation, it is way too short acting)?

Patty, why wouldn't it apply to you? I remember that your were interested in Lorraine's mindbody program but you thought you could not afford it. Therefore you must think that at some level you could benefit from it and are open to the possibility.

I did not contact any practitioner or joined any mindbody structured program. It did not cost me a penny. You can really reverse chronic pain. Our fixation on finding tissue damage to explain pain is mentally toxic (once you have had a complete workup and known pathologies are discarded). Of course we all have pelvic floor dysfunction because the body tightens around a painful area. It doesn't mean that equates with an entrapment.

The pain is real and not imagined. My pudendal nerve was visibly inflamed on both a MRN and 3TMRI (not potter). If a doctor or PT poked my pudendal nerve I would jump.

But the body is kept in homeostasis by this terrible loop of tension-worrying-more pain-more tension etc. more medical diagnosis. More googling stuff. At the end chronic pain itself is the disease.

Ask yourself 3 things:

1. During or shortly prior to the onset of pain was I experiencing unusually high levels of stress?
2. Was the pain triggered by a small incident that should have healed quickly (fall, biking, routine medical procedure etc.)?
3. Am I an anxious person or prone to obsessive thoughts (even if my public persona shows the exact opposite and I express calm and confidence)?

That combination is a major telltale of a mind body syndrome.

[chronos]

Thanks to mindbody approach (Dr. Sarno's one) I almost completely got rid of my lumbar back pain. It was sometimes so severe (mostly after walking longer than 30-40 min) that shooting pain was making me completely immobile for the time of pain attack. I was 100% sure that some nerves arround my spine were pressed mechanically and caused this pain. MRI shows significant L5/S1 disc herniation and it was described by doctors as source of my pain.
BUT during reading of my 3rd Sarno's book this pain miraculously vanished for about 5 months. It was *completely* gone without any physical therapy/excercises/drugs etc. Then i started to do activites like hiking in mountains, sometimes even extreme half day routes without any pain! (before pain was killing me after about 30-40 min of regular walking on flat city's pavements during sightseeing, running errands etc).
Pain hit me again after about 5 months without any "mechanical" reason like lifting weights etc. But actually i was awaiting this pain and wondering when it hit me again because my pelvic problem (pain, loss of sensation in perineal area, reduced libido etc) twisted my mind hard and caused pretty bad mental condition - in general quite shitty depression. So I was wondering when some subconcious part of me evokes back pain again.
Two months later it vanished again completely after relaxation session. Next morning after I got deeply relaxed i woke up *completely* without any back pain. And this complete recovery from back pain lasted again several months.
Currenly i came back to sport and back pain almost doesn't affect my life at all (I have to be cautious of course not to strain this sensitive part of my body).

But unfortunately perusing dr. Sarno's approach did nothing to my pelvic condition:/

nonsequitur would you PM me your phone number? I'd like call you and maybe got some wise advice from somebody who got recovered from this pelvic nightmare.

[nonsequitur]

Sure, I'll contact you via PM.

Your story reminds me of an event that happened a year ago. I had just restarted work after being away from the work force for more than 4 years and was stressed about it. I went for a long walk. A day later, I woke up with my feet on fire.

I started to panic as the back of my feet close to the heel bone was red and inflamed. That evening, I remembered Sarno and his theory of symptoms imperative. I laughed about the situation. After 30mn the pain just went away. The next day there was no more inflammation.

What would have happened if I had googled for my symptoms and rushed to see a neurologist? I am sure that I would have been diagnosed with Erythromelalgia and/or RSD/CRPS and/or fibromyalgia. And then again on yet another wild goose chase.