Our mind plays tricks on us

A lumbar fusion is good at getting rid of leg pain, but it gives you more back pain. The fusion shifts stress onto the joint above and below it as well as onto the sacroiliac (SI) joint. I was having more thigh pain, which comes from the level above my fusion, which was suspect before we did the fusion. My friend suggested I get an MRI just to see what was going on, and I thought more information would help me make a better decision so what the heck? The MRI showed the opening for my spine had narrowed significantly, to the point I needed surgery.

I knew that was what it was going to show based on what I was feeling.

The interesting thing to me was seeing the image changed my symptoms. I got in with my neurosurgeon the next day, and set a surgery date. The pain in the legs got much worse. I couldn't walk as far. I took it easy for two days to let my pain calm down, something I almost never do. The problem was the same as before the MRI, but my symptoms got worse for a while. Why?

I saw the MRI and I knew what it meant, so my pain got worse. It made me think of a passage from the book I am working on that teaches how to live with chronic pain:

A construction worker in the United Kingdom jumped down from a wall only to see a large nail sticking through his foot. He had worked construction for years, so he knew what it meant, and he immediately had severe pain. He was taken to the Emergency Department by ambulance where two shots of morphine didn’t lessen his discomfort or screams when they tried to take off his boot. Doctors finally it off and saw the nail had gone between his toes without leaving a scratch! He had pain without damage.

I was having an increase in pain entirely based on my beliefs about what I should be feeling with this kind of a problem. Knowing the anatomy was worse made my pain worse. OK. I realized how my thinking had worsened my pain. I named it and tamed it. It allowed me to feel what I was going to feel without letting it overwhelm me.

When your pain increases, even if there is a medical explanation, don't forget to work on your internal factors to help turn down your pain.