Hey Kamden!

I feel like such a pest sometimes. You are always so gracious about answering all of my questions. I have yet another one. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

I am not getting relief after 3 visits with the PT. She's wondering what your PT did that made a difference for you. I am doing upper cervical and inferior oblique exercises at home and she is doing pressure therapy and some stretching when I visit. I told her about you and she's just curious what worked for you.

I'm a little discouraged, but we'll see. Thank you again and again!!

Sincerely,
nate

Nate,

Hope you don't mind me putting my 2 cents in but I saw your post and had to respond. It sounds like your therapist is doing similar treatment to what I received. They called it myotherapy and it involved a form of deep tissue massage combined with stretching. After the massage I was then plugged into a kind of shock treatment machine that was supposed to stimulate blood flow to the area. It's critical that you do the daily stretching on your own. Check your routine against the one I posted here called dizzy stretches. They should be similar.

I don't know how long it should take to see results, we are all different with different degrees of muscular disfunction. I actually felt much worse by my third treatment and didn't see results until about my 8th or 9th treatment. For me it was gradual relief and not like I woke up on the 3rd day saying I feel great. The other component to this is a process called dry needling which is done by a neurologist. They take little needles and push them into the muscles until they find the knots (you'll know when they do, it hurts like hell). Once the trigger point is located they jab it back and forth until the knot releases. I had it done to 8 locations my first time and 10 my second time. This is not accupuncture, extremely painful but it helped.

I also found that getting back into some type of exercise program is a must. I started doing yoga about 3 weeks ago and haven't felt better for over a year. Between the additional stretching, re-centering of the body and mind relaxation, it seems to have gotten me over the hump. I hope some of this helps and that you find relif soon.

Hi guys. I just wanted to ask a few questions, because I have had trouble w/ many of the same symptoms for the past 3 years, pretty much exactly the ones you describe, Nate. I just wanted to know if you ever really noticed your neck, upper back or jaw bothering you at all. I don't really have any severe neck or jaw pain, or anything like that. I do feel a sense of pressure at the base of my head, like where the skull meets the neck, and also kind of on the top of my head. And what do you mean by eye problems? I have eye problems also, the most bothersome is the feeling that things look like they're moving, like I can't tell whether or not my head is moving, even when I'm sure I'm not moving it. Actually I was and am still having pain in the eyes (mostly the right), and they always seem to be bloodshot.

One good thing to find out is that you and I are not alone in this. It's been so long that I've had this that I really don't remember what it feels like to not have it...to feel normal. I have this dream that one day someone will find out what it is and the relief will be better than I could ever have imagined. The dark cloud lifted. But I think an ailment this mysterious will have no easy solution, but I do know there is one out there. No one I know has anything like this, so actually finding someone who does is somewhat of a relief. Hang in there. I know all too well that hope is hard to keep up. Anyway, I did have some questions somewhere back in that mess of a post, so don't forget about those! Keep me posted, and good luck!

Ryan

Hey rgraf8!!

Your input is definitely worth more than two cents! Thanks for giving me some insight on what's happened with you. I'm going to talk with my PT about the shock treatment. I'll also find out about the needle
therapy from the neuro. I'm glad to hear that you are better. Would you say your symptoms were pretty similiar to mine? The whole spacy, woozy feeling all of the time? Among all of the other wonderful things that come with this.

Rhino83- my eye symptoms are strange. First of all, I had my eyes checked by an opthamologist and I have great vision. But, I have tightness and tension behind my eyes right in the corners. When I read, the words move around a bit and I get pretty loopy, dizzy after reading for even a short while. I also have sensitivity to light. I have this constant heaviness in my head, especially behind my forehead.

I don't have neck or jaw pain, but I do have alot of clicking in my right ear when I open my mouth and my neck is extremely tight and full of balls.

In one way it's nice to know we're not alone in this strange disorder, but it also sucks to think that others have to deal with the discomfort too.

Take care of yourselves!!

Sincerely,
nate

Nate, When you say you are not getting relief, do you mean from the dizzy spells etc.? Also, how are you feeling at these therapy sessions and after them? When you have strained muscles, you should be really feeling these treatments, because releasing the tension in muscles can be pretty painfull and the therapist needs to be very aggressive when working on them. I sufferred at the therapy treatments, and in the evenings, from sore muscles that had been worked on. Here is what was done on me at physical therapy. Ultra sound on my back and neck, heat packs for 20 minutes, then the therapist came in and asked me many questions about my symptoms. He did deep soft tissue massage on certain areas where he found horrible knots. The main problem areas were in my upper back right next to the shoulder blade, and on up into my neck and head. He would find a knot, ( next to my shoulder blade was one ) and put intense pressure on it, with his elbow, and leaning into it. It was horribly painfull, ( I could barely take it ) and he would stay in that position untill it released, for a minute or two. When I was no longer feeling any pain in that area, or feeling any symptoms from the pressure he was putting on it ( such as pressure in my face, aching where he was working ), he would slowly let up, and start on another area. Sometimes, if it was not as hard a knot, he would use his hand to massage the knot out. All I know is he needed alot of strength and stamina to work on me because I was in such bad shape and had so many areas to work on. And if you have some bad areas, you should be feeling alot of pressure and pain when these are worked on, no pain no gain. It is common to actually feel worse at first, because loosening up one area causes the other muscles connected to it to then tense up, and bring on other symptoms. They tend to move around at first. Make sure you are checked around your shoulder blades, as this is a main area that pulls the neck muscles taught, putting pressure on the blood vessels leading to lack of blood flow to the brain. I got way more relief from the deep tissue massage, than exercises. If you have any more questions, I will be back Sunday or Monday, as I am leaving for a few days. Hope I have helped you.

[This message has been edited by Kamden (edited 01-23-2003).]