First, don't do anything I suggest without researching it yourself and running it by, and with acknowledgment of, your own trusted doctor(s).

I read the entire thread, and got 3 impressions, most of which have already been expressed.

1. It sounds like it could be viral due to the changing symptoms and moving around. An oversimplified analogy would be a virus cold that begins in the sinuses with congestion/runny-nose, then moves down causing sore throat/laryngitis, and continues down into the chest where it lingers the longest with coughing & stuff in your lungs. Viruses can do really crazy things. Just out of curiosity, did this whole thing start during or just after your having a virus? Have you ever had Epstein-Barr virus (mononucleosis) even as a kid/teen?

Yes, the Vocal Fold Persis could have been caused by a virus but when this whole thing started I wasn’t aware of one.

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/s...d.php?t=830960

This is one of the threads that I had some input on. I probably had Post Viral Vagal neuropathy. I didn’t have cough but not everyone does.

The Doctor I was seeing at the time has a nice write up on PVVN.
http://www.chronic-cough.net/

Interesting you mention EBV. Yes I did have it. I had Mono when I was 17 . I had a lot of sore throats and was online antibiotics 6 times a year. The stuipd GP doctor I was going to didn’t think of sending me to an ENT. What did I know I was only 17. I just wanted to party, drink, and have fun. Thank goodness my mom brought me to an ENT. He took one look at my tonsils and said, "These need to come out right away" He told me your GP is a moron and should lose his license. He told us when he took them out the fell apart. Mono must have been infected in them. When I turned 25 I got really stressed out and felt sick like mono for 3 weeks. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me. I had low WBC, they thought I might of had leukemia. I was in bed with a low grade fever 100-101. It turns out it was EBV. Every time I got stressed out my EBV would act up and I felt weak for a day or so.

Once I cleaned up my diet my immune system got better and never had issues again.
2. I know your cervical MRI didn't show anything, but that area (c5-c7) is where a lot of my problems are, and some (the burning pain in the neck & between shoulder blades) are somewhat familiar. A lot of nerves branch out in that area (odd that c7 doesn't even show up on that dermatome chart) so I wouldn't be surprised if something there was missed, has changed (this has been going on for a couple/3 years now, right?), or just didn't show up at all for some reason.

I just got 2 MRI's of my cervical this year one in MAy and one in September. My Posture has been bad. I sit a lot infront of the computer. I probably have upper cross syndrome http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/m...e.php?id=52014

and that may have contributed to my Thoracic spine issue.

All these doctors say my neck is not causing what I have. I have had this posture ever since I can remeber.

3. I also have severe osteoarthritis and bone spurs throughout my spine, and again, the burning pain in the same regions (though I do not have the skin sensitivity). When I was in my mid 40s, they told me I had the spine of a man in his mid 90s.... whoopie. Do ant-inflammatories have any effect on your burning?


Not really. I got 2 Epidurals in my T-sPine and 1 in my cervical and they didnt really do much if not anything. I did also do 1 week of Predisone 40mg . It possible helped a little but again couldnt say for sure as my pain is bad some days and better other but never great.

You had some questions about RLA. I know it seems logical that you should take half of the ALA dosage, but for some reason, the ratio works out just as well with 1/6. I started taking 100 mg./day (RLA) almost a year ago for the burning (feet) of PN. My results were not typical, but the burning stopped virtually completely within 48 hrs., and hasn't returned (unless I do something stupid to aggravate it). A few months ago, when I began taking the pregnenolone, I added the pantothenic acid (B5) and got further improvement in the PN pain. I'll take it.

Since you're low on pregnenolone (like I was) and that's the mother hormone of all the others, it might make sense for you to start there like I did, along with B5 to fuel the process of turning pregnenolone into whatever in-between steps your body needs, all the way up to the testosterone.

Read Dr. Tennant's (4) articles:
http://www.practicalpainmanagement.c...-pain-patients

http://www.practicalpainmanagement.c...tractable-pain

http://www.practicalpainmanagement.c...in-update-2010

http://www.prescription2000.com/Inte...ranscript.html

then go on to NIH, Mayo, and any others you can find (sorry I don't have URLs handy...)

As I mentioned early in this thread, most doctors aren't accepting the idea of adrenal fatigue/exhaustion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenal_fatigue
but since your cortisol levels look ok, I wouldn't even go there. You're somewhat low in pregnenolone and testosterone (though not critically so) run those by your doctor with the articles (if he'll read them or look into it) and see if s/he'll help guide you through trying this for a few months. You might need to see an endocrinologist, who may do some more/different testing with some different ideas.

There are articles that caution about taking pregnenolone, and they're right. I found the dosage recommended by Dr. Tennant too high for me, so I started much lower and titrated up. As it turns out, this is pretty easy to do because this stuff converts in only a matter of hours (and is gone quickly too). Also, the articles I saw that cautioned against it were talking about people with normal levels taking it for "fountain of youth" purposes - not people who were deficient and supplementing/replacing very low levels. Big difference.

Doctors usually want about 3 months between tests for a lot of bloodwork to see if (whatever) is working, and that should be about right here to. If it's going to help, you'll probably know within the first week or two (though things will taper off as your levels come up).

In your other thread you wrote:


These words could have been written by me or countless others I've met on my journey. I once dubbed the feeling as "guinea pig complex" - being bounced from specialist to specialist, test to test, treatment/therapy to treatment/therapy... you feel like nobody knows squat and you're just their latest lab rat (sometimes we are; that's how they learn). Then I looked it up online, and found out about a dozen other folks had all thought they came up with it too... There's some truth to it; there's more that doctors/medicine don't know than they do know, but they still know more now than ever before, so what else can we do?

I've found this enlightening too; maybe you've seen it in another post:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Blogs/21266?

Google: stages of grief and read a few articles, cuz that's what we're all going through here. Life-changing events we never expected, would never want in a zillion years, but we're stuck with them. Bleah. :vomit:

I'm a little at the stage you want to be in in the second paragraph; I was preaching/practicing "pay it forward" decades before that movie came out. But I still get depressed and scared for the same reasons as you. Doing what I can - whatever I can - is one of the ways I distract myself from the dark side, and deal/cope with it all.

Some of the posture symptoms sound familiar too. My last business kept me slouched over the terminal for 8-16 hours a day for ten years. Not good, and it sneaks up on you all at once. Seated chin tucks have helped quite a bit, though they hurt like the dickens at first (as the PT warned me). After several weeks though, things got quite a bit better. I do them more easily now, and monitor my seated posture more closely.

I've had quite a bit of Myofascial Triggerpoint Therapy; eventually the therapist taught us to do it at home, we bought the workbook, and now we use it whenever applicable.

Thanks for the link on UCS; I'll look into that further, though there's no question of my cervical spine being the main issue in my case. Osteoarthritis is known to cause Degenerative Disc Disease.

Doc

This was an interesting article I found that talks about a link between Fibro and Cervical Trauma. It's intriguing as they discuss the link between neurological central pain and the C5-6 area. They also go into talking about cortisol and other levels that chronic pain taxes.

They were able to take that pain away by microcurrent therapy. I am wondering if that was similiar to calamare. Talk of people on the forums about TCDS working well is hopefull, which I may infact give a try next week.

Retraining the brain or at least tell the brain to block or dull pain through electrical stiulation maybe the future on how pain doctors treat pain. I guess only time will tell.


http://fibrofreenow.com/PDFs/Fibromy...raumapaper.pdf

Update from Post #4
 

It's been about 4-1/2 months now. My first restesting got pushed back due to an unexpected change in insurance - had to pay entirely out-of-pocket. Got the results back today, and they were mixed:

Two of my adrenal hormone levels are now up within normal levels, which I am pleased with. The other took another dive - almost half of what it was the last time (which was well below the minimum reference range to begin with). This has me somewhat devastated, and at a loss for the negative change.

My doctor said he was more concerned with how I feel rather than what the actual/particular number was, but I can't help but think that these numbers, and the prospect of feeling better by getting them back into normal ranges, were the reason I embarked upon this quest, and that if I feel somewhat better now, how much better still might I feel by raising this other crucial level?

I can think of a couple of possibilities for the nosedive. One is that I discontinued the pregnenolone for 3 days prior to the test. I wasn't able to get an answer from anyone on whether I should or not, but it seemed like it might throw the test off by taking supplemental hormones just before the testing, so I timed it to coincide with the end of the weekly break.

I asked about increasing my current dosage, or supplementing it with another further along the adrenal chain. He said to continue with what I'm doing and get retested again in another 6 months. Adding the other supplement is up to me. I've decided to research it further (more homework) and decide then.

How I'm feeling is still better than before I began all this, but it feels like some of the improvement may have tapered off - not as vibrant as it was at first. I just don't know...

Doc

Sorry to hear that. If you are feeling better overall it’s still a good thing.

I cannot string together more than 2 days of feeling decent, so whatever I am doing is not working. I have become to learn pain is a pain. It's hard to find a pattern and its just so darn complex. I hope you can solve this puzzle.

My testosterone is low so I will be trying that soon. I hope it helps with my pain. As soon as I go on androgel I will let you know my progress.

I am dealing with a irritation/pimples from a rash in the areas where eI have the pain due to a cream I was trying rx from pain doctor. DMSO ingredient must have caused irritation so it’s making my pain worse. I also know testosterone can cause acne which I can’t afford if it happens on my back but I will have to wait for this to clear up before I start the androgel.

Are you charting? It may help find patterns if any are to be found. At the least it can help memory ("Did ABC happen before or after XYZ?")

I don't feel I'm looking at a puzzle; I think I just need to make an adjustment someplace.

Doc

Update from Post #14
 

After reviewing Dr. Tennant's articles again, doing more homework online, and discussions with family & other patients, I've decided to add DHEA to my regimen. I began today. Again, I'm taking it slowly, titrating to find a good level, and will be taking regular breaks every week.

I've been off the pantothenic acid (B5) for a few weeks due to a foul-up in re-ordering. I've noticed a slight difference in how I feel in general (not as good as I did) and perhaps more significant, I've had a flare of cystic acne, which hasn't happened since I began the B5. If for nothing else, it's worth taking just for that.

Got all my fingers & toes crossed - I'm due for retesting in July.

Doc

Doc. I have a diagnosis of adrenal fatique caused by Hashimotos. Give me a few to look at your info, very intersting :)

Joann

Also, when reading hormone test results remember that you generally need to be in the upper 10% range of the test (at least above 90% of the range). For instance healthy male testosterone is in the 500's, morning cortisol levels should be above 15.. etc..

When trying to heal the adrenals you may want to try Ashwaghanda, it worked miracles for me but I cured the unlaying reason I had adrenal fatique, so with continued pain medication use maybe continued adrenal support is required. Something like licorce extract and sea salt. If you can't get a Dr. to help support your adrenals with hydrocortisone, you can use Isocort, it's OTC.

There is a pretty good book on it called "Adrenal Fatgue: the 21st Century Stress Syndrome" but Dr. Wilson. But the specific heling techniques are really learned through others feedback on what works.

Hope I can give you some ideas, let me know.

joann

:confused: Why? Where do you get that information/idea from?

Ashwaghanda? :Thats-Funneh:
:ROTFLMAO: !!! I'm already my dog's best friend. Smelling like that stuff, I'd never get a moment of peace! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

The underlying reason for my low adrenal levels is chronic pain, and my doctors tell me that's not likely to change barring some new breakthrough in spine replacement à la Star Trek: TNG

The supplements I'm taking are working pretty well, both in raising the deficient levels and in how I feel. Even better than expected in some respects.

Doc