i am very glad to have found this site, what appears to be a great forum to find answers to the unanswerable...

i've had a host of neurological conditions but i am currently focused on my recent diagnosis of tarlov's cysts in L2 & L3, above the area i'd thought i would have gotten them (L4/L5/S1) since i ruptured those disks in 1986. a bit confused how they could have occured above the site of severe trauma.

i have had only the basic diagnosis thru the university of washington medical center in seattle. my internal medicine practioner has referred me to neurosurgery, but i have since lost my insurance.

this issue, which has developed with extreme severity in the last 2 years, with the worst of it within the last year. i am doing my best to keep it from interfering with my life, but it has since become nearly impossible; affecting everything from sleep to intimacy.

the worst pain is from twisting or lowering my legs onto a flat surface while trying to lay down.

where i live, there are almost no options except surgical and even the neurologists that i've seen have expressed the same disenchantment that i have found in my own research -- as great a chance to make it worse than to have any improvement whatsoever.

my neurologists have not realized that headaches are a big side effect of these cysts, which i get often enough to be an irritant if i take opiates for pain, (which is actually gives the only effective relief) and the practitioners are back to the old fall-back position of going to a "pain clinic" (sheesh!) rather than actually seeing the headaches as a symptom involved from the cyst and making it a stand-alone symptom.

i am currently in europe and i have discovered an over the counter pain killer which is not legal in the states. it has 500 mg of tylenol and just 12.5 mg of codeine. i find it far more effective than larger doses of opioids, just 1 tab 3 times a day takes a great deal of the edge off, but as usual, in the states, they are reticent to prescribe them at all, even in the mildest doses. naturally, it has upset my bowel routine.

i have also tried alternative healing measures such as shiatsu and alphabiotics but have been advised not to ever pursue chiropractic (and i quite agree!)

having had a genius for a osteopath in the early 90's, i am utterly averse to back surgery, and feel that i would have to be very close to being in a wheelchair before i let anyone cut into my spine.

however, i'm a firm believer in the mind's ability to heal the body and i am looking for people of like "mind" to discuss non-surgical interventions.

i'm looking for cameraderie rather than people to exchange complaints with.

i would also like to hear if anyone has more information than i have gotten.

thanks for reading!!
Kori
Seattle/UK