You’re welcome. I’m sorry this is happening to you. It gets so hard when it feels like life gets smaller and smaller. Have you tried PT yet?

I have had the most benefit from the right PT (I had incorrect diagnoses for years, and/or they were giving me exercises that were too aggressive when I need to go really slowly and build up because of chronic pain), graded motor imagery (my PT told me some of the original research was originally done on chronic back pain—there is an app called Recognise that I use for right/left discrimination), and what’s now being called “a pain neuroscience approach.”

I mentioned the app Curable, because one of my Mayo PTs recommended it to me. It’s a paid subscription (as most things are nowadays of course, sigh), but they have a lot of good free content and a podcast if you just want to find out what it’s about. I found their online and introductory info about how the brain and central nervous system processes pain really well done and much better than the handouts I was originally given years ago lol.

I haven’t personally tried it yet, but my PCP said she’s had patients who had very positive experiences with it. It’s based on research and founded by a team of healthcare providers who actually have chronic pain. So it might be worth checking out as an intro.

My one gripe so far about it is that it sometimes gets a bit much on the positivity and really emphasizing, “If you just can redirect your thinking about pain, it’ll all get better!” I understand well that damage on imaging doesn’t always correlate to pain, but they Really emphasize it. I found it so upsetting I talked to my doctor about it because it was starting to make me feel bad about myself that I’m still in pain.

She assured me that as they say, pain is multifactorial, so it’s not an either/or thing: biomedical causes vs. pain neuroscience, we need to consider both. But activities like those in Curable can help add drops to the ocean to lift the ship just like medication or surgery might.

A different doctor recommended the book, “Unlearn your Pain,” if that may be of interest.

Anyway just thought I’d mention that since at least with Curable, the way they explain central sensitization can sound a little “woo woo” if you’re not expecting it.

Wishing you all the best.