Background:

25+ years of Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Pain, Restless Leg.

prior to my injury, i was slowed substantially by the fibro, and lost a business and 2 homes due to financial difficulties being unable to work thru it all...

we moved to Mexico 5 years ago to a tropical, beautiful, gorgeous place we visited on vacation...we visited 4 times before the move and i always feel better when i am on the island. i want to go back home.

while there, i am able to work online and work at our vacation rental we purchased...and i continued to struggle with neck & shoulder pain as well as over most of my body...but much better than the harsh climate in the US...

a friend of mine visited - a chiro - and offered an adjustment which i gladly accepted...there were no disclaimers, no paperwork...she did the adjustment at the house...

i recall feeling crummy that day, then a lot better then next, and then a downward spiral started, and i was unaware of what was happening to me...

over the course of the next 12-18 months, as she visited the island and i rec'd mroe adjustments, i felt worse and worse by the day...not knowing that each adjustment gave me a slightly worse concussion on my brain stem than the one before...always with the same result: complete crash that day, better the next, then horrid the day after...

the chiro adjusted my upper cervical vertebrae 12-15 times…adjustments were done using the risky and controversial Blair Technique that adjusts the ‘axis’ using blunt force to the side of the neck, just under the ear. The result was a series of increasingly significant concussions to my brain stem.

that diagnosis has been hard to come by, but it has been verified that over the course of 12-18 months i rec'd 12-15 increasingly significant concussions to my brain stem.

i have come to find out that the risk involved with this adjustment is well documented even though many chiro's refuse to do this adjustment.

since i am new to this board, i am unable to post a link to site that has info on this, but the risks associated with this adjustment have been validated by neurologists and others...i will post it if i can soon...

i feel so ashamed that i actually ASKED for the adjustments because even tough i felt horrid when done, i would always feel better temporarily, even if it was only for a day.

i would strongly recommend that anyone thinking of having this done reconsider such a risky adjustment.

What happened:

The last adjustment occurred May 10, 2013. i rec'd an adjustment on May 9 and since the chiro was to leave the island, again on May 10...

the final blow was like a knock out punch in a heavyweight fight...i instantly felt horrid...no balance, as nauseated as one can be without puking, unable to stop the pain in my head, zero focus and zero concentration...

i laid in bed helpless for 7 days until we flew back to the US to seek treatment...

that flight was the worst flight of my life, and up until that day, the worst day in my life...since then, i have had many, many more days that were far worse...

one of them came the next day after the flight where my wife and father took me to the emergency room and i just do not recall much of that day except feeling like i was going to die...

since then i have been to see more health care professionals than i thought i ever would...some have been ok, some have been absolutely cruel...

i have not been able to return to my home in mexico, although there are some serious legal and business ramifications if we do not return soon, and we are trying to decide if we should go take care of that, then return back to the US...

i have had such a hard time fighting my HMO that i even had an injury at all, and care is so very expensive and time consuming...sometimes i just want to try and do this on my own...no one seems to be able to help me...it is such a nightmare...

of course, the flight there is horrifying to me...and i do not wish to spend any amount of time in a mexican emergency room...

as of today, i continue to experience almost all of the symptoms, although some are improved, but some are not...

vestibularly, i am messed up...i cannot handle motion, most especially horizontally...

i cannot read, drive, watch tv or movies and have absolutely zero social life...i spend 24/7 in a dark, quiet room and i move very, very slowly at everything i do...

i eat, sleep, work as little as possible (4-6 hours total in day, spread out over 12-14 hours, but i have no choice, i must work)...that is all i do...it is all i can do...and most days, that is way too much for me...

any time i get into a car, i get extremely nauseated and a huge headache that will last for days...even if it is 5 minutes in the car...it is just unbearable...

Symptoms:

Cognitive dysfunction

Very emotional / crying all the time

I speak, work and move and do everything very, very slowly

I crave dark, quiet and slow

Unable to drive, unable to ride in car

Unable to read, watch TV, movies or any visual stimulation

Unable to go for walks longer than 4-5 minutes.

Immediate, short term & long term memory problems

Difficulty finding...um...how do you say it...um...oh ya: words!

Quick to anger and quick for all emotional responses.

No physical work is possible at all...no dishes, no food prep...

I can only work online via e-mails…I can read them slowly and respond slowly, and when I cannot think of a word, I can come back to it or ask…I can control the pace of work much better this way. i must work or i will lose all i have soon...it is a very precarious situation financially...

i sleep about 10-12 hours a day...any time not spent on a computer (which i try very hard to avoid) i spend praying for help and guidance from God.

zero alcohol, 2 cups of coffee each morning (starting at 3:00 AM until around 10:00 AM each day), no soda, no other caffeine, only water and juice all day.

Questions (the first of many):

Ritalin. i have tried more medicine in my life than everyone i know combined. for fibro, nothing worked except fresh air, sunshine, warm climate and a slow pace...which i found plenty of on the island.

Ritalin seems to be the only thing that has helped me at all...and i recently was prescribed a small amount to assist me...

please bear in mind, due to the fibro, my central nervous systems was shot to begin all this...and medicine to me is not like medicine for anyone else...i am hyper sensitive to all medicine, and i always have been like that...a little goes a long way...

i usually take 1/2 of a child's dose of most medications and such is the case with Ritalin.

i currently take:

5 mg of Ritalin, although i am only prescribed 2.5 by my very uncaring and ignorant neurologist at my completely inept HMO. i may not be correct, but i believe children are generally prescribed around 10-20 mg a day.

1 mg of Valium (down from 5, which did not help me at all, very counterproductive.)

250 mg of divalproex (which i am unsure why i even take it since it is such a small dose and i feel nothing from it)

3 mg of melatonin at night for sleep (up from 1 mg after 15 years)

Lisinopril for high blood pressure ( i cannot recall the amount, but very little).

my HMO doc wrote to me yesterday and told me this exactly:

"1. I think that a higher dose of ritalin is not a great idea unless it were to bridge you to a different medication to elevate the mood. This was intended as a short term medication as well."

so 1/2 of a child's dose is too much according to him. as far as i know, and i could be wrong, that a normal dose for an adult male would be 50-60 mg a day. 100 mg is not abnormal...high, but not unheard of...i would like to know what others know about dosage...

"2. We do not have a specialist in traumatic brain injury but I am very experienced in taking care of it. I do not think that you had a traumatic brain injury. You are always welcome to a second opinion. I do think that your symptoms are somatization, however I have not put this diagnosis in your problem list."

yes. seriously. i rec'd that exact e-mail from him yesterday.

the ONLY med that has helped me to function (i have taken it for only the last 2 weeks) will soon be unavailable to me. he will not renew the prescription.

with it, i can function...barely...

without it, i am non-functional, and that is not possible for me at this point in my life, i mist be able to do at least a few hours each day running my businesses or they will fail...

please Lord, help me.

give me strength to get through all this.

Brainstemmed