Hi Alan... What you describe as symptoms makes me curious about a few things... they sound eerily familiar!
So, if you don't mind: 1) What diagnosis for the pain, weakness, etc, did the ER give you? 2) How did you become a C-5 Q? (i.e. broken neck or some other physical trauma? Or disease/genetic abnormality? Something else?) 3) And lastly, was there surgery to address the C-5 vertebral or spinal cord area? If so, what did they do? I'm a C5-6 from a broken neck and had a C-4/5/6 fusion with 13 weeks wearing a halo while the bone healed. About 10-12 years after my accident I started getting pains like you described and similar weakness. After a few MRIs and being referred to one of the best neurologists/neurosurgeons in the state, we started talking to a doc at Craig in (near) Denver. Just from the symptoms he was "95% sure he knew the problem." We sent the MRI films and he confirmed it... a tethered cord. After the initial trauma as the cord was "healing" it attached to the dura (the tough sheath surrounding the cord and brain and holding the cerebral spinal fluid). Because the cord was attached, each time I moved certain directions it pulled and/or stretched the cord causing a syrinx (a separation of the cord fibers with a pocket of fluid inside). The other docs saw the syrinx but not the cause of it. A doc I saw in Phoenix did a couple lower spine procedures to fix the pain issues from syrinxs in non-paralyzed individuals but no cervical ones, none for function and strength and no quads/paras. At the time (mid-90s) only 2 docs in the US had the experience needed... Dr. Scott Falci at Craig in Denver and Dr. Barth Green at the Miami Project in Fla. I had a very good neurosurgeon at home that pressed my insurance company (hard!!) to approve getting it done in Denver -- they paid for all but my flight. So I flew to Denver and the doc did surgery called "duraplasty" to untether the cord allowing it to move like it should and added a bit more tissue to the dura that increased the space between the cord and the surrounding sheath. At the time they used what they described as "freezed-dried" bovine peritineum -- the tough tissue that surrounds the heart, lung, etc. in the chest/abdominal cavity. (bovine = from cows) Immediate relief from the time I woke up!! I hope some of that is helpful and/or hopeful. Best regards, -- Tod ---- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Back in January, I had to go to the ER, because I was developing numbness, > weakness, and losing ability to move my arms (I'm C-5 complete.) I was on > a six sleepless night stretch. I've been under a lot of stress - my mom > has health problems, and the only future I see for me is a nursing home > for a few decades. > > Anyway, at the ER, they gave my 2 mg Dilaudid and 1 mg. Ativan IV. I > immediately felt my head get heavy, and my eyes falllng shut. I fell > asleep for an hour and a half. When I woke up, some of my newer and newly > more intense pain sensations (worse scraping off of skin, increased > throbbing, extra intense tingling, etc.) had been reduced a bit, the first > time any med had caused relief of any kind, and the relief lasted a few > days. So, my doc arranged for me to get the meds IV at home every few > days. For some reason, the meds at home do not work like they did in the > ER, and we don't know why. Started with the same dose as the ER. No > heavy head, no heavy eyes after the shot, no relief like the ER shots. > We've upped the dosages slowly (today, 4 mg. Dilaudid, 3 mg. Ativan - > might as well have injected sugar water), but still haven't even gotten > the same brain and eye effects, let alone the relief. We were hoping > higher doses would reduce some of the other sensations (bones through > skin, ripping skin and muscles with movement, to name two), but we can't > even get what we got at 2 mg. and 1 mg. Any ideas what the problem could > be? Unless the pharmacy sent saline instead of dilaudid, or mislabeled > the vials (2 ml./mg. instead of 2 mg./ml, which is what the label says), > what could be going on? Doctor and pharmacists say I couldn't develop > tolerance taking the meds every third day (sometimes longer in between), > but they're stumped as to why I have no effect from the shots. > > All input appreciated. > > Alan > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Posted by alanh77[at]comcast.net using MR/2 ICE Newsreader #564 > > Proudly using eComstation 1.2R (OEM OS/2) > > BBS - The Nerve Center Telnet FidoNet 261/1000 tncbbs.no-ip.com > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
