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Cervical Neck Instability

Spine Health | Last Active: Mar 1, 2023 | Replies (48)

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@jenniferhunter

@slw18 It might be time for an opinion somewhere else, and not from an emergency room. They pretty much treat whatever is an acute problem and tell you to follow up with another doctor. They won't be looking deeper for causes of issues. Has anyone checked how your blood pressure changes between sitting, standing and laying down? Your body is supposed to compensate for changing position, and blood pressure and dehydration do affect heart rate. Make sure you get enough water. Do you think this is anxiety because of not knowing what is wrong? I re-read your first post and you have reported a lot of symptoms that can be spine injury related in your discussion about your chiropractor. Do you want to consider seeing a spine specialist? I know it is easy to get overwhelmed when you are seeing a lot of doctors and no one is figuring things out and you don't feel like they are listening to you.

Don't loose hope. I went through 2 years of this of having a cervical stenosis with cord compression and being refused surgery and doctors making up excuses like perhaps I had MS (no I didn't), the central nervous system doesn't feel pain (yes it does feel funicular pain), go to a rehab specialist and fix that problem in your legs, and then you can come back to me for spine surgery ( and the leg problem was caused by the compression of the cervical spinal cord). I know your neurologist doesn't see an issue, but is this neurologist one who specializes in spine problems? That is why I recommend starting with a spine specialist who then refers to the neurologist who they like to work with in a spine center. That is really why you should come to a place like Mayo or Clevland Clinic where they have a lot more experience with difficult spine cases and an interdisciplinary team that works efficiently to figure it out.

The beginning of your symptoms from the chiropractor session is a big clue to what may be wrong now which you need to tell your specialist. It helps to have family support, and if you don't have that, you may need to reach out to your friends. It's a lot to go through when you have spine issues and recovery from spine surgery takes awhile. Everything involves ruling out other possible causes of overlapping symptoms. I had overlapping nerve pain symptoms being generated from carpal tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, in addition to an old spine injury with cord compression. That made me a complex case that was misunderstood, and that surgeons didn't want to mess with. You have to advocate for yourself and keep looking until you find a good specialist who will look for the causes of your symptoms. I know this is hard, but you are the only one who can advocate for yourself. Keep a chart of dates, times and when you have symptoms and what you were doing at the time, for example body positions, etc. Keep records of heart rate and blood pressure and time of day, etc. You can also try sinking your palm into your chest below the collar bone and pushing toward the arm pit and holding it. Use a ball in your hand or something to help if you need it or someone else can do that for you. That will help open up chest tightness and that is how myofascial release works. You might have to hold that 15 minutes before is starts to release. Do both sides. Start working on the anxiety with relaxing music and slow deep breathing in time to the music. I did a lot of that and it really helps. I could lower my blood pressure 15 points on the top number by doing that, and lower my heart rate. Make that a daily habit. Set a goal, measure your blood pressure and heart rate before you start and after you have listened to music for an hour doing deep breathing. When you make progress, celebrate that small victory. That might be enough to build confidence as you navigate among doctors, and you will build a habit and a safe place you can return to any time you need it.

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Replies to "@slw18 It might be time for an opinion somewhere else, and not from an emergency room...."

im suppose to get a ultrasou d of the heart and a heart monitor to wear but its just a long drawn out process. ive just had a mri of the cervical spine and they didnt find anything. i dont know what else to do. the more i try drs the more i get ocd and anxious.