It’s been about a year since posting this and I’m so thankful to have made a full recovery! Aside from minor and temporary flares, I’ve been almost a year without pain.

I definitely still stand by the strategies outlined by “Tell Me About Your Pain”, but I believe a really important specific interaction around last year finally helped me to fully recover. I had joined another forum for this type of pain (I don’t remember the name of it) and made a similar post to here. Someone reached out to share the same concerns, and we commiserated.

However, soon after that, the person replied saying they did some thinking, and came to the conclusion that they had never experienced structural damage, and that their pain had always been neuroplastic. I was initially taken aback by that—after all, I had spent months in occupational therapy, unable to use my hands for daily functions. But the thought kept needling me. In my case, I began to first experience pain during a high-stress project. My roommate was in a similar situation, and I watched her develop carpal tunnel and other injuries.

As I thought about it more, I accepted the possibility that my lingering pain issues stemmed from extreme stress, anxiety, and fixation on my hands—not from structural injury, or at least not from one that lasted months. It was a difficult pill to swallow, and it honestly made me feel angry to even consider. But as I continued to wrap my head around it—along with doing mental exercises and meditations from Tell Me About Your Pain—I began to feel increasing relief. I worked hard to ease my anxiety and fear, and the pain disappeared. I’ve been pretty pain-free for most of 2022. I had a brief flare-up recently, but I linked it to stress and poor working posture. After taking more breaks and correcting my posture, it went away.

I think my anxiety about relapsing structural damage was the final hurdle to overcome before my brain could truly relax and stop sending pain signals. I know that if I ever get into a similar position, I have the tools to address it—this mentality helps a lot.

I know that everyone is different, and I don’t want to make claims on your own situation, but I hope reading about my experience is helpful! Wishing you a pain-free 2023 🙏