#cervical instability

[alanshee-keeper-of-realms]

Nothing like realizing one of these original projects that you're making could be released after the fact you're dead

And if you're worried about it being self-inflicted no I just have a condition called Elher's danlos syndrome and it's deteriorating a lot quicker than we had hoped in 10 years time I don't honestly know if I will be around to even see the chaos that happens with one of my works

This is why I hope to get a lot of my stories completed and why I work so hard while I can

I may need carpal tunnel surgery soon so if I do go on a two-week Hiatus that's why I have been having more pain in my right hand

The biggest issue I'm running into is my neck I wake up with days that I am heavily disassociated and not feeling myself at all they may have to do a Fusion of my neck which would take several months of recovery and would forever change my life.

But I do hope you know my mutuals and followers that I am grateful for all of your support extremely grateful as a disabled creator who doesn't know when the last chapter may be written and who doesn't even know if she will be able to complete her work it is a scary thought for me to leave the chapter half done

But while I can, I'm happy for the joy that I can bring and the stories I can tell.

[helenwhiteart-blog]

Cervical instability at the core of fibromyalgia?

I just want to pick up the thread of cervical instability and its relationship with chronic pain again, as written about just the other day in the context of covid (having found numerous suggestions that covid can aggravate or even instigate cervical instability). In particular, I want to look at how this one, often unnoticed, structural issue might very well be lurking there right at the very…

[longhaulerbear]

...cervical instability causes excessive motion of the spinal canal, whose primary job is to protect the spinal cord and nerve roots. When we first examine people as new patients, a message that we try to have them understand is that the word instability should draw a picture for them of the word destruction. Instability is causing the structure and function of the neck to deteriorate...

The complexity of symptoms and conditions that these people suffer from can be summed up as Cervical spine instability causing progressive destruction of the joint structures if not stopped.

When the soft tissue of the cervical spine is damaged, weakened, lax, loose, and degenerating, the bones of the neck wander around. With this wandering in the neck comes a narrowing of the intervertebral neural foramina space, the extent of which can reach the critical point at which the nerve is compressed (radiculopathy) or the spinal cord is compressed (myelopathy).

This narrowing can also decrease or compress the flow of fluid in the blood supply to (arterial) and from (venous) and around (cerebrospinal flow) the spinal cord and nerve roots that they need for proper health and functioning.

Cervical instability can cause the various parts of the spinal cord to be “touched” by bone and give various sensations to distant parts of the body. Indeed, herniated discs, bone spurs, and osteophyte complexes can also ‘touch’ the spinal cord, likewise, causing distant shooting, vibrating, buzzing, and electric shock-like sensations.

Dysesthesias or ‘unusual’ sensory symptoms may happen though no damage or disease can be found. It’s not that the nerve impulses are getting structurally impeded all the time but intermittently when the body is moved in a certain way until there is too much tension on it to carry nerve impulses normally.

In more advanced situations and certainly more frightening to this patient is the “drop attack,” where they would suddenly and for seemingly no reason at all, fall to the ground and then get up as if nothing had happened a few seconds later. (Of course to this patient “as if nothing happened,” is not what is going through their mind.)

...this group of patients can suffer both atherosclerosis and vertebrobasilar insufficiency. In this group of patients, it would not take much by way of neck rotation compression to cut off blood flow to the brain in arteries that are internally clogged.

The main advance in the understanding of blood flow to the structures in the brain, head, face, and neck including the cranial arteries has been in our opinion extracranial and transcranial doppler ultrasound, primarily because this can be done in a physician’s office by the physician or his trained staff.  A problem is, is that these tests are done with the patient in a standard or static position.

Most patients know the exact head position that gives them the symptoms of dizziness, “lack of oxygen to the brain,” and related problems. I can tell you that head position is almost always when they are standing or sitting upright, not when they are lying down, as when these vascular tests are almost always done.

For many years, I ordered these tests and wanted the technician to perform the test in the patient’s “vulnerable to symptoms” position, not in the lying down position. Our patients would relay to us that, unfortunately, their tests were not done the way I ordered them primarily because the technician simply tells the patient, “we don’t do the tests that way.”

Even when disruptions of blood flow were found on the test, the radiologist reading the test would call the test normal. Once when talking to a neurosurgeon colleague he explained “You have to learn to read the scans yourself. The radiologists don’t have experience in reading results from the craniocervical junction.” I was shocked actually when he told me this, but now I know it is true.

The nerves, veins, and arteries of the body are protected from harm because they run close to the bones. Often they are within a few millimeters of bone; thus, any excessive movement of the joints or bones can directly compress and stretch the nerves.

It should be noted that the symptoms are often different when the nervous tissue involved is in the peripheral nervous system versus the autonomic nervous system versus the central nervous system. Central nervous system nerve tension is typically from upper cervical instability and not only affects the cervical spinal cord but can involve the brainstem and brain. When the brainstem and/or brain nerve impulses are altered, the effects can be far-reaching and more dramatic.

Nervous tissue, like the other tissues of the body, depends on nutrient flow into it and toxin flow out. If the flow of nutrient blood flow into the nerve is deficient, the nerve cell function will be impaired and likewise, if the neuron (nerve) cells can not get rid of waste products (toxins) out, it will swell and again nerve impulses will be abnormal. If the fluid flow into or out of individual neurons and collectively (nerves themselves) is compromised so is nerve function.

When one understands the anatomy at the craniocervical junction, it is easy to see how upper cervical instability could cause a blockage of CSF or arterial flow and/or venous drainage causing neurologic-like symptoms. Even if it is just the CSF that is increased, eventually this will lead to an increase in intracranial pressure which can cause reduced blood flow to the nervous tissue in the brain and spinal cord, potentially causing damage.

...anyone with unusual neurological symptoms that go undiagnosed or unexplained by traditional medical means should consider a motion scan of the cervical spine looking for instability. Cervical instability is very reversible cause of many neurological symptoms and syndromes.

When cervical myelopathy patients lay prone – everything calms down – a test where you are laying down is probably not a good test if you are looking for active blood flow problems.

“When it gets bad, I lay down and things calm down for me.”

Often people in their pre-patient interview will tell us that their brain fog and related problems reduce in severity if they lay down. Simply they say things like:

I have neck pain, cognitive problems, insomnia, headache, dizziness, fatigue, and brain fog. When it gets bad, I lay down and things calm down for me. The problem is I am now spending days laying in bed.

Conclusion? Prone positions and non-prone positions create a different [pattern of] blood flow.

...Our testing and treatment center is equipped with x-ray diagnostics with digital motion x-ray because the traditional scans missed so many instabilities.

If the blood flow is intermittently compromised, such as only when the neck is in certain positions, it will be difficult to catch and diagnose. To assess proper blood flow to the body’s most important nerves and nervous tissue (the brain), especially with head and neck motions, we perform transcranial doppler (TCD) and extracranial Doppler (ECD) ultrasound examinations.

It is through dynamic transcranial doppler (TCD) and extracranial Doppler (ECD) ultrasound analysis that this decrease in blood supply can be documented with its root cause being compression of the arteries as they run through the cervical spine.

The problems of Atlantoaxial instability are not problems that sit in isolation. A patient that suffers from Atlantoaxial instability will likely be seen to suffer from many problems as they all relate to upper cervical neck ligament damage and cervical instability. As demonstrated below this includes cervical subluxation, (misalignment of the cervical vertabrae). One of the causes of Vertebrobasilar insufficiency is this cervical misalignment and its “pinching,” or “herniation,” not of a disc, but of the arteries themselves as we suggested above. This creates the situation of ischemia.

When the cervical spine ligaments are weakened, they cannot hold the cervical spine in proper alignment or in its proper anatomical curve. Your head begins to move in a destructive, degenerative manner on top of your neck. This is when cervical artery compression can occur.

In our 2014 research led by Danielle R. Steilen-Matias, MMS, PA-C, published in The Open Orthopaedics Journal, we demonstrated that when the neck ligaments are injured, they become elongated and loose, which causes excessive movement of the cervical vertebrae. In the upper cervical spine (C0-C2), this can cause a number of other symptoms including, but not limited to, nerve irritation, vertebrobasilar insufficiency with associated vertigo and dizziness, tinnitus, facial pain, arm pain, and migraine headaches.

Treating and stabilizing the cervical ligaments can alleviate these problems by preventing excessive abnormal vertebrae movement, the development or advancing of cervical osteoarthritis, and the myriad of problematic symptoms they cause including nerve and arterial compression.

Through extensive research and patient data analysis, it became clear that in order for patients to obtain long-term cures (approximately 90% relief of symptoms) the re-establishment of some lordosis, (the natural cervical spinal curve) in their cervical spine is necessary. Once spinal stabilization is achieved and the normalization of cervical forces by restoring some lordosis, lasting relief of symptoms was highly probable.

[superspoonie24]

Date: hey im here! You ready?

Me: yeah I'm almost ready! Just gotta put my collar on :/

Date: oooo cant wait to see 😏

*what they expect*

*What they get*

[permanently-exhausted-pigeon2]

Any ideas on treatment for worsening chronic pain? I’m already maxed on motrin and Tylenol. I have voltaren gel and a lidocaine patch. Looking for further suggestions that can also be work friendly

[spoonielivingfree]

On going undiagnosed

The NHS has a really nasty habit of dismissing and gaslighting EDS patients. Not seeing beyond the norm and thinking further. The NHS has a habit of not properly diagnosing EDS and the various issues that arise as a result. Today I went to a specialist physio about my EDS head to toe body. She decided due to the extent of my neck and neurological symptoms + head pain that should be the priority…

[gon-and-killuas-mother]

do you ever learn about another medical condition, look it up, and want to lay face down on the floor bc?? another one?? another, much more specific thing possibly explaining a lot of my problems???

it's cervical cranial instability btw. which is something EDS folks are predisposed to.

what makes me even more annoyed is that an orthopod LITERALLY NOTICED MY NECK WAS UNUSUALLY STRAIGHT a few years ago. he said i had a "military neck". but he was a hand specialist and DIDN'T think to send me to the NECK specialist in the same goddamn building

why have i been brushing this neck pain off??? no wait i know why. it's because every fucking time i was in immense pain, everyone, including my PCP, told me it was stress.

i don't think stress alone makes it unbearable to lift your fucking head.

and the reason i was looking into it was bc when i was rubbing my C1 vertebrae, i noticed it felt. off-center? a little bit. enough for me to wonder.

idk who the fuck is gonna believe me after i've been to so many doctors. god i'm tired of this process. but if that's what the problem is, it's a more concrete thing to treat. i think. at least i can show it to dad and other folks like "see!?!?! SEE???!?! YOU TRY LIVING WITH THIS"

[harrows-bones]

my head is in so much pain and all of the PT we’ve tried for weeks has made it hurt worse, I could barely sleep because of the neck/head pain from PT that morning. my x-rays are perfectly normal. we hoped PT would improve it. but it still hurts and it’s all i can focus on most of the time and I’m going to have to get an MRI and I am terrified of those results

[thrive-x-strive]

Part 1 of Dr. Hilary Merry’s Journey with EDS: Navigating the Healthcare System as a Veterinarian

In this episode of Occult Awareness, we explore the personal and professional life of Dr. Hilary Murray, a veterinarian who has bravely faced the challenges of living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and multiple comorbidities. In part one, Dr. Merry shares her journey from experiencing early symptoms as a child to receiving a formal diagnosis at the age of 27. She opens up about the struggles and triumphs of navigating a healthcare system that often overlooks complex conditions, offering listeners a rare glimpse into the realities faced by those with invisible illnesses.

Additionally, Dr. Murray provides unique insights from her veterinary profession, highlighting parallels and contrasts between diagnosing complex conditions in animals versus humans.

Introduction to Dr. Hilary Merry and her medical background

Early symptoms and childhood experiences with undiagnosed EDS

The long path to diagnosis and the impact on her personal and professional life

Navigating the healthcare system: struggles with being heard and believed

The role of comorbidities in complicating diagnosis and treatment

The psychological toll of living with a chronic, invisible illness

Advocacy and the importance of self-education and persistence in seeking care

The intersection of veterinary and human medicine in understanding complex conditions

Advice for others facing similar health journeys and the significance of support networks

How veterinary medicine approaches diagnostic challenges

Comparisons between veterinary and human diagnostic processes

Insights from veterinary practice that could benefit human healthcare

Tune in to hear Dr. Murray's inspiring story and gain insights into the intricacies of managing life with EDS and other complex health conditions, enriched by her dual perspective as both a patient and a veterinary professional.

Please follow us on social media @Occult_Awareness, and join us on Facebook. Sign up newsletterhttp://occultawareness.com/ & watch the video format on Youtube @OccultAwareness Please leave your review. Your feedback is so valuable to us! And it will help us reach more listeners like you. Support Us on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/occultawareness

If you found this episode valuable, please consider supporting us on Ko-fi. Your donations help us continue to raise awareness and share important stories.

[helenwhiteart-blog]

Central heating as a potential trigger of vagus nerve atrophy?

I’ve written a great deal about the vagus nerve lately and that’s because its such a key player in the matter of autonomic dysfunction as well as cervical instability (see my other posts on these). So here’s today’s topic on the subject. I’ve had a long love-hate relationship with modern household heating systems because, whilst I am no lover of the cold (being somebody who is especially…

[cripplemagics]

jay spicy hc - head positions

if jay's straddling someone during sex they tend to lean forward. their head tends to drop forward when they moan too. they also flush really easily in general so if your muse is someone who likes their partner to be flushed and red like that, they're the one for your muse. lol.

edit: i forgot! when they're on their back, they tend to let their head flop to one side. if your muse wants them to look at your muse, then they might do that to be extra bratty. they like when their partner grabs their chin to make them look.

[superspoonie24]

Shout out to my disabled ass being on time to TWO appointments in a ROW TODAY. IM A FUCKING GOD.

[whump-4-ever]

I have written this post partially to vent but also to try and show others out there that have chronic illness, no matter what illnesses they may be, that they’re not alone.

-

This post is from me personally. It’s not in the perspective of any of my characters, and it’s not fiction or a prompt.

Often times I have to explain to people why I’ve never had a job or finished high school or learned how to drive. Sometimes when I tell them how I don’t work or go to school and that I spend most of my time sleeping, they will respond with ‘oh, you’re so lucky you get to sleep all the time! I wish I could sleep all day every day and not do anything’, or something along those lines and it’s infuriating to hear that. People think that I’m choosing to sleep, that I want to do nothing all day every single day. Let me make this very clear: I don’t get to sleep all the time. I have to sleep all the time. If I don’t, I can’t function. I can hardly function at all as it is. Chronic illness of ANY KIND is not a choice, and there’s nothing ‘lucky’ about it. I want nothing more than to just have my life back. I’ve been mostly bed-ridden since I was just 16 years old. I haven’t graduated high school, I haven’t gotten a driver’s license, I haven’t had my first kiss (haven’t even liked a guy who has liked me back), I don’t even know how to cook or use a fucking bank account or write a check. I’m so fatigued and physically weak that I can barely walk up and down the stairs in my house. Just the simple task of being awake drains my internal battery to the point where I’m so drowsy that I struggle to talk and think. Often times I stumble over my words because I’m so exhausted that they just get twisted up. Im also frequently forgetting shit, even if it happened two minutes beforehand. My point is that nobody who truly suffers from CFS/ME (chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis) MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome), POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), and CCI (cranio-cervical instability/cranial cervical instability) would ever choose to live like this. And it’s sure as hell not as easy as just ‘pushing through it’ or ‘maybe if you just try hard enough’, or ‘if you had enough willpower to do it, you could do it’. That isn’t how it works. That’s like telling someone who’s paralyzed that they can walk if they ‘just try hard enough’. An ex internet friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that ‘being tired is no excuse’. It’s not an ‘excuse’, and it’s much more than ‘being tired’. This fatigue is fucking debilitating and when people like him say shit like that, it really belittles the condition and undermines what sufferers have to go through every damn day. The same guy also said to me directly that: ‘there are so many people who are so much worse than you and do a lot more than you do’, and that’s when he told me if I he’d enough willpower, I could do things like getting a job or getting a driver’s license. That ‘willpower’ that he speaks of? If I didn’t have it, I would never even get out of my bed, so don’t fucking imply that I’m just not willing to get better and that’s why I’m still sick

[luciferspartner]

got “cervicomedullary kinking” somehow. this is NOT the kind of kink I meant to experiment with

[thebibliosphere]

You know yesterday was absolutely fucked because I've got zero guilt about not bouncing back and doing work today.

Normally, after I lose a day to a migraine, I'm furious about the lost time and force myself to do stuff. Yesterday was so bad, though. With hindsight, I probably should have gone to the ER, but the thought of getting in the car and dealing with the bill was just... I couldn't do it.

Unfortunately, that does mean I'm now dealing with the consequences of severe dehydration and my cervical instability being extremely unstable because I spent 12+ hours throwing up, so now I'm POTSy and bobble-headed because all my neck muscles are fucked and I'm just... I'm just going to lay here for a while.

Maybe the rest of the week.

[cerealisafunbath]

guys we should talk about the mechanisms having health impacts both mental and physical bc of their mechanisms more

it's so fun and funky

like ivy realistically either has a REALLY STRONG NECK or cervical instability bc of metal brain

Jonny has got to have some *weird* chest pains including the fact that his veins and arteries are somehow connected to a metal heart????? imagine how fucked up having to fix said heart would be

Brian has a very obvious mental impact but like. I imagine he's also constantly understimulated physically bc of the whole metal thing- it's very unclear if he even has nerves

god nastyas mechanism would fuck up so many different things in her body it would be so cool. shes constantly dying from mercury poisoning? or at least mercury overdose even if mercury isn't fatal to her. blood is in every single part of your body. mercury does not transport oxygen well. it's so cool but so completely unfunctional

tldr I am autistic and hyperfixated on mechs and science

would love to hear others thoughts