My ear and jaw pain was gone for two days. I say 'was', because right after going to p.t. the other day, the pain was back. Seven hours later, the feeling of a knife in my ear, head, and upper trap is still there. Add to that a discussion about nerve gliding and working on the stiffness in my neck/spine leading up to eventually doing the arm bike (which I loathe from previous experience) and the rowing machine to gain strength. A wall went up in my mind as soon as p.t. mentioned this, even though he tried to talk me through it."I wouldn't take you through what we've been working on to calm and normalize things just to throw you on a machine for you to flareup, we're going easy. But still, we are headed that direction."
I'm so nervous about that. I'm sure it showed on my face.
He patted me, said the return of the pain was just temporary.
He talked to me about the pain cycle a bit. Using E-stim is supposed to help temporarily break that pain cycle, hopefully long enough to give me a chance to be more active, gain some strength.
My assessment of p.t. at this point-
Sometimes I leave p.t. in more pain than I went in with, which is a downer.
Having that pain several hours later, and the next day- is a bummer.
Feeling like I'm at the mercy of the pain is depressing.
I want to believe things will get better.
Wondering if maybe it -"just is what it is", and I should stop torturing myself.
And then...I wake up one day without pain, and that is a good day!
Plus, I have to admit, my ear, jaw, head pain is not constant like it was for a long time. Since starting p.t., the pain comes and goes now-with no predictability, but its not all the time--a definite improvement.
So I'll keep doing all the exercises and stick with p.t.
I hope my experience with therapy will be helpful and give some hope to my fellow TOSers...because we TOSers need hope.
Gentle hugs~
