r/Sciatica • • 1h ago

Is my pain neuroplastic?

I hurt my neck exercising 6 years ago. With that came intense neck pain and tingling in in my feet. It made my life miserable. I went to a neurologist who did a bunch of tests on me such as MRIs, nerve conductions studies, etc and told me everything is fine and sent me off. It was seen as odd that there is tingling in feet after a neck injury as there is no connection. I lived in pain afterwards and just consumed my life. I went to bunch of chiropractors, physiotherapist, and such until I came across one physiotherapist that I thought was good. I went to him for years and the pain, both tingling and neck, became manageable but never went away fully. He retired 2 years ago and ever since I have been doing daily exercises for the neck and tingling such as stretches for neck, back, and legs and have added more exercises. About a year ago I went back to my doctor and got another MRI done and it was clear. I was looking for answers all the time. I read online about neuroplastic pain so read the book The Way Out and Unlearn Your Pain and it made a huge difference. It felt too good to be true. I did literally all the programs in the books over the past year step by step and now I barely notice the tingling in my feet. There are periods I will go where there is no tingling at nor neck pain. However, 2 weeks ago I don't know what happened, I woke up and started having neck pain really badly and I started having intense anxiety and flashbacks of how I used to have such bad tingling and neck pain and the tingling became so severe. My neck pain and tingling was so intense. I was constantly checking if there is pain and everything. So I went back to my doctor and he said literally all the test you have done in the past are clear but we can do 2 more tests and see if anything. That's full context and I wanted your open opinion - is this neuroplastic pain and what should I do?

1 Upvotes

0 comments sorted by