Thanks Chloe, that sounds interesting. The orthopedist I've seen today was very skeptical and told me whatever there is, will show in a good, standard MRI (which sounds counterintuitive to me. I've come to mistrust doctors, unfortunately). He just believes in his 3 Tesla machines. (My scan back in January was done probably with 1.5 Tesla). Anyway, I will call that center, which does those unconventional MRI's and ask them how they do it, and will have your description in mind. Thank you.
And if that somewhat arrogant MD I've seen today will not prescribe the positional MRI, I should get it from my genuinely sympathetic GP. I will need a doctor's letter to have it done, I believe.

I actually had mine ordered by my GP also.....after reading the report to me initially he said it was over his head and referred me to a neurosurgeon who basically said "not anything that could or should be addressed surgically and also said can't give you a new spine !!!, yea he was arrogant too!!."

Scary when they can't or won't think outside the box !! Patients have been known to be correct about their gut instincts....keep on pursuing yours !!

Best to you chloecasey

Dr Holman has put together a website on that topic. Looks very interesting. I've understood what they meant with "flexion and extension" looking at the pictures. All they need is a pillow and a normal MRI machine, plus something extraordinary: a good will and a bit of intelligence. I will see if I can find that here.

Guess what, I'm sending that link to both my GP and that arrogant MD. Here it is http://www.positionalcordcompression.com/

There is also another one, which I'll send them both also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3587072/

It's amazing how the doctors can't solve your problem, yet think high about themselves. If you can't solve my problem, you are just not good enough of a doctor, or you need to learn more, end of story. We should apply the same measure we do apply to call center workers: if you can't fix my problem, do a thorough search and educate yourself (I worked in various call centers for a few years, and the attitude "I can't help you, but I still know it all" was simply out of question).

Glad you were able to find that other link, as it is more current.....and thats great that you are taking the "bull by the horns", if you are not getting the answers from the ones that are supposed to be trained & educated & willing to "think outside the box" then yes you need to be our own advocate!

If you take the time to read any of my past posts, you can get the idea that I have dealt with more than 1 arrogant Doc who just wanted to pass me by....prior to 4 years ago or so I never had issues with my health.....after the 3 surgeries in 2011 it has been a struggle to be positive however now I am trying very hard to go "with the program" and follow this Docs advice.

Look forward to seeing if the info I relayed to you will be something your docs will be willing to investigate and if it may help in your diagnoses.

chloecaey

I will have that flexion&extension MRI done; I've also got a referral to a hand specialist, because the spine doctor doesn't think there is anything wrong at all with my spine, judging by the normal MRI, there is not a hint of anything abnormal. The hand specialist will most probably want to see my EMG also.

Has anyone here found any real help from a hand specialist? What can they do?

Hi,

I'm translating my diagnostic results from 2006 (as they are in German), and wonder if I could post them here, or send someone? I would love mrsD to have a look on them. Also, they have found a "Proportional disturbance of the blood-liquor-barrier", this is translated literally from German. I don't know if that's the same as blood-brain-barrier. And I don't know if that's significant. Can anyone help with that?

You can try... can't make too many promises however.

Things can be very different in Germany... they have lots of drugs there that we don't have here, for example.

I don't want to really convert all figures from SI units to conventional either...that can take a long time doing. But I'll glance over them. If there are ranges provided that would help.