Off to See the Wizard

On Monday, I went back for more torture...cervical manipulation part two.  It was quite a different experience than what I had last week, unfortunately...the results were still similar.  I saw the female physician, who was much more conservative in her approach.  I explained to her the extreme discomfort I had after my last appointment, and the fact that the treatment threw me into a debilitating migraine attack.  She explained that soreness was probable...and that I will most likely feel worse before I felt better...but that the amount of pain I did experience was way too much.  She did some simple stretching of my neck and adjusted a couple places in my mid back.  However, she was also able to palpate multiple muscle spasms and decided to stop immediately.  Her opinion was simliar to her partner's about my hyper-flexibility.  She said my spine moves much too easily.  While it is helpful for the actual adjustement...it also means that it easily moves back to where it is not supposed to be.

Either way...yesterday sucked pain wise...and I may have even had quite the melt down....and/or temper tantrum.  But...I won't even go there.

Today I had my appointment with the Neurologist that Dr. Feelgood recommended to me a month ago.  Well, I do not want to get my hopes up...but I think I just might have found the right guy!  One bonus is that he & Dr. Feelgood are "buddy-buddy" and are actually in agreement with alot of things.  Whew!  That makes it so much easier for the patient! 

We went through the normal, lengthy medical history together.  I was smart enough to bring in a list I had compiled weeks ago of all my info, so as to not forget anything and to make it go quickly and smoothly.  He then did the expected neuro exam.  He was very thorough.  There were apparently quite a few deficits in my examination, according to him.  He is concerned about the significant difference in strength & sensation between my right & left side. 

So...for the time being, I am going to decrease the doasge of Prozac, until I can wean completely off of it, as for me it has been useless in pain control.  Continue Bystolic for the time being.  He gave me samples of Migranal for acute migraine attacks...as in the hospital DHE was effective.  His opinion is that I may in fact be having some Basilar artery involvement and possibly something amiss with my carotids...so he is scheduling for me to have an MRA, I am going to have another round of Botox for the chronic muscular aspect of my head pain, and he is obtaining all of my images of my brain and cervical spine to review himself.

And guess what else he said....AVOID cervical manipulation!  Uh-oh.  At least until I have the vascular studies done.