Pain on top of foot like charlie horse?

60 year old Mom has severe lower leg pain 6+ months.Says it feels like Charlie Horse. Also experiences swelling and what feels like "pebbles?

• "Pebbles" in the bottom of her foot. She had Dopplers, MRI, etc. But other than the first test she had, when the technician said she had a Baker's Cyst, none of the ...show more

• Answer:

  I had something similar to your Mom's and it turned out to be TMS---Tension Myositis Syndrome—I believe that the work of Dr. John E. Sarno, MD can help your mother, too, as it helped me. You only need to go online to youtube.com and look him up Sarno tonight, and start watching some of the videos on his work. [Also search for “Juliet Archdale” on youtube and listen to her story]. Although most of the online information about TMS focuses on back pain, migraines and headaches in general (along with chronic fatigue, etc.) have also been found to be forms of TMS. It ties in with stress and anxiety. Emotions. What's happening in conventional medicine these dayis almost criminal. Physicians are still clinging to the antiquated belief that chronic pain is structural in nature, and that simply isn't true. That's even already been proven not to be true! X-rays and MRIs have their value, but unfortunately when it comes to long-standing chronic pain of any kind, X-rays and MRIs, etc., also can mislead both patients and doctors in the wrong direction. Set aside everything that you've been told by your doctors for the next couple of days and instead get the book entitled, "The Great Pain Deception: Faulty Medical Advice is Making Us Worse" by Steven Ozanich. Also go on Youtube.com and search for Dr. John Sarno 20/20--never mind that it talks primarily about back pain--Sarno's work applies to a lot of other diagnoses, too. Also for quick information, go to Amazon.com and search under 'books' for Dr. John E. Sarno, MDs. books (also Ozanich's book) and READ THE 100'S OF GLOWING REVIEWS, testimonials by people who are so happy that they found Dr. Sarno's work and whose lives have changed. Don't be surprised if your family doctor pooh poohs Sarno's work or doesn't know who Sarno is, or what TMS is--because conventional medicine, which has developed a huge industry around 'chronic pain,' still holds to the antiquated belief that structural problems cause pain. This means that many/most orthopedic surgeons are still quick to say 'your pain is caused by a disc problem in your back because it shows up on your X-ray'-- when in truth there are NO studies which conclusively prove that disc problems cause back pain (back pain being muscular in nature and not due to bones) But there IS a study which found that about 1/3 of people involved in the study, NONE of whom had back pain, showed disc abnormalities on their X-rays-- meaning that skeletal problems like this are really "normal abnormalities." Same thing holds true for knee pain—studies have shown that there is NO correlation between “osteoarthritis,” which shows up on xrays, and “knee pain.” I'm not a physician, so I defer to Sarno's advice that everyone should get a full medical exam if they are having health problems such as yours. But Dr. Sarno’s work has helped over 10,000 people (including myself) who were suffering pain when all other treatment methods had failed. I believe that it will help your mom, too. .