debugging my CH


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Posted by lc bob (159.199.101.1) on August 20, 1999 at 17:03:03:

In Reply to: strange pains... posted by Boris on August 20, 1999 at 03:39:45:

Boris and all,


how topical this is for me. as BobP correctly observed, i am convinced that the neck pain is NOT a result of the CH (sorry, garyg), but THE cause. i admit to rookiedom with CH (formally chronic this week - one year with no remission - but only became a CHead 1 year ago ... i continue to be amazed at those who have suffered for decades ...) in any case, as recently as yesterday, evidence mounts in my portfolio for the source of my (note-mine, not necessarily yours ... no hate mail please) affliction being in my neck - towit:

1. i can destroy the monster with manipulation. i have essentially 3 exercises that i believe piss him off. i use a pillow and a shovel handle for 2 of them. first:the pillow
i place the pillow on a waist high countertop, then i put both elbows on the pillow as close together as i can, forarms vertical, and step away from the counter until my upper arms are almost parallel with the floor. then i place my head between my elbows on the pillow, and stretch stretch stretch my lats and shoulders. after this loosening, i try to cross my forarms horizontally on the pillow without raising my head - this stretched the shoulders, neck and lats to the max.second:the shovel handlei put the handle behind my neck and drape my arms over it (arms go up behind the bar and forward over it with the bar going from elbow to elbow behind my neck) and press forward with my arms. this puts pressure on my neck just under the base of my skull. it hurts like HELL on the CH side - and i gently twist at my waist and roll my head on the bar left and right. i believe this is massaging a cramped/cramping muscle - there are many back there - i have been told by 3 experts that pressing on a cramped muscle is the best way to get it to uncramp. third:just twistingi stand in the middle of the room, arms out like i'm gonna fly away, and twist left and right at the waist throwing my left arm to the right and then my right arm to the left to exaggerate the twist. as i twist right, i turn my head left and vice versa. really really stretching my neck muscles.

2. i can amplify the pain with manipulation (if i'm not careful). during these exercises, sometimes i get too enthusiastic - too impatient - too macho. when i do, i actually feel a "snap" right there just under the base of my skull on the CH side and there seems to be a line of pain that goes from there in my neckright to the nucleus of pain behind my eye. it's like an electric shock - and then i start over.

3. before, during and after, i'm drinking water - cold water. there is no reason i can find that water should be ameliorative for me or anyone else except that it is the recommended treatment for muscle cramping. i'm drinking 2 gallons a day. when i get up to dance or to pee, i always top myself off. my daytime HAs have practically disappeared (except when i'm lax on the water). at night, since i don't hook up an intravenous h2o line, i still get attacked - albeit less violently. the water helps, and i believe without a doubt the reason is muscle cramp relief.

a few words here. most ppl've had leg cramping at some point. normally, a calf cramp. why one calf and not the other? medical answer: medicine does not know. what they do know is if you get a cramp, the fix is hydration and oxygen. interesting combo. imagine getting a cramp in a calf in a leg that's in a cast. you can't rub it. you can't grab your toes and stretch it. you can't massage it. what would you do? you'd die from the pain!! now imagine it's not in your calf but in your neck. under your skull (or behind other structures) - effectively in a cast. that's what i think is going on with me. also, all my manipulation machinations work in delayed action. just as massaging/stretching that cramping calf does not relieve the pain immediately - it releases the cramp, but the leg continues to hurt for a few minutes after it releases - my exercises take 5 to 10 minutes to begin to reduce the CH pain. i'm often tempted to give up because i still hurt. i count to 300 during each exercise. just to keep me doing it even though it's not giving me immediate relief. i find that with time and patience and persistence, all of a sudden the pain is leaving ... it's working.

4. i think the sauna experience you and others have had is due to dehydration borne of the heat i have a jacuzzi. i can't use it during a CH even though it should relieve a muscle problem. indeed, if i get in to try to massage my neck during a CH, for 5 or 10 minutes it helps ... then i have what you described here, it makes me feel progressively worse. all the water i drank is streaming out of me in the heat. i think the positive effect of the jets is overcome by the detrimental effect of the heat. is there such a thing as a cold sauna? a "cold" tub? [smile]. guess not.

5. Dr. Goadsby found more brain "mass" on our CH side at the base of the skull pure speculation on my part, but i am convinced that what he saw was real ... but not more tissue - not more "gray matter" ... it was swelling. swelling caused by pressure exerted on that side of the lower brain by a malfunctioning muscle. you bump your head. it swells. a concussion is swelling of brain tissue from trauma. the brain matter swells when it's mistreated. i think what Dr. Goadsby found is perfectly in line with a muscle gone awry. We don't have bigger brains, we have damaged brains.

6. my CH started after 6 months of sleeping on a couch with shitty head support in december 1997 i decided to repaint/redo the interior of my house. i moved all my furniture into the garage except a futon/couch whereupon i slept (on my left, CH, side) for 6 months while i painted, carpeted, grouted, sanded, and otherwise destroyed the inside of my crib. it took 6 months cuz i spent 1/3 of my time fixing things i broke (i'm not a craftsman in any sense of the word). in august of 1998, the CH started. not an accident. not a violent head collision. not really head trauma. but i screwed up my neck on the wooden arm of the couch i slept in. the left side. my CH side. why would so many others get this in their 20s and i didn't get it until i was over 45? that was the immediately preceeding event. i believe it was cause and effect.

7. the KICKER: yesterday: i finally had an xray. i went to a new place, a private practice, a collaboration of a doctor, masseusses (sp?), chiropractor, and others who are apparently revolting against managed "care" (a.k.a. managed cost). excellent interview (i actually spent more than 5 minutes with the doc!), excellent discussion (they listened to me!!), and they took X-RAYS!! in 12 months, 3 HMO doctors, 2 dentists, and eye doctor and a chiropractor nobody took an x-ray or an MRI of me. well, they did. and i saw the pix. they specifically imaged my upper neck (cuz i thot thatz where the pain started?)... anyway get THIS -- my first vertibrae - the atlas - has a longer "wing" on my CH side than on the non-CH side. the doc speculated that this was due to the muscle that attaches to it and the base of my skull is somehow larger/stronger/pulling harder than the one on the other side of my head/atlas. i was jazzed. physical evidence of my suspicions. further, my neck is "streight" ... not curved like normal ppl. they hadda take more x-rays cuz the initial front-on pic didn't have the correct orientation. they shoot down thru your nose to the base of the neck because the atlas is supposed to be tilted up - mine isn't. it's practically horizontal. i think that's why bending my head back (the pillow thingie) feels good and works to ease my pain (i think). so many things make so much more sense to me now. those pix are sooo revealing. and right now i'm pretty excited to have some physical justification and collaboration of what i've been thinking and tinkering with a-capella. as this is real new, i'll hafta keep you posted on the progress with this. next, they're gonna MRI the neck (not the brain) and the muscles in there to see what might be causing the asymmetrical atlas in my stupid neck.

ok, i'm done. i don't post much anymore so i hafta get my gutz out on e-paper when i do. sorry for the length. these are my thoughts and my progress over the past few weeks. it was fitting in this thread. hope this helps someone else. itz working for me. and i'm avoiding the drugs so far. i do have the imitrex and i carry it everywhere as a failsafe in case all the other stuff doesn't work.

so, BobP, careful what you ask for ... :)
i am many
-lcb






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