Cervical issues and PCS
 

Hello all, I recently joined and still learning about my PCS friend that has decided to hang around for a while. A little about me.. 48-year-old male with a concussion when I was 5 and possible shearing (no symptoms) from a head on in 2010 that led to my neck issues below. My experience started in early Nov 2017 two weeks after I had spinal fusion surgery on my neck C5-C6. Everything was progressing well after the surgery but one night I got up after coughing for hours (they move your esophagus to get to the spine) and had a Syncope event fainting when I walked into the bathroom. When I came to, had a damaged front tooth, mild cut on top right side of the head and lacerations to neck area... A trip to the ER and CT scan showed neck hardware good and no issues in the head.

Took two more trips to the ER over three weeks (another CT with contrast) and a primary care visit with being dazed, out of body feeling/ vision off before they called it a concussion. Symptoms came in a week apart... Anxiety, tinnitus, no sleep for three days, vision blurry somewhat pixelated, extreme fatigue, cognitive issues, visual stimulation issues and hearing sensitivities. Neck issues causing muscle spasms and being extremely tight with cramping pains possibly from whiplash due to the fall.

The good news.. At almost 4 months, I have improvements in cognitive function, I’m able to sleep without psychotic drugs or sedatives any longer even though I do wake up 5-6 times a night, fatigue has gotten a lot better, and visual input overload from TV/passing cars has settled down. I have a lot of good folks praying for me! I am able to go back to work but recent dizziness keeps me from full duties. Not seeing much or possibly any vision improvements (may just be getting used to everything looking strange) but I am engaging back into life where I can.

Feel like I have read the entire internet about PCS. I have finally stopped obsessing and started reading things that don’t give me anxiety and are more fun! I do keep thinking the neck may be a big part of my remaining symptoms of intermittent dizziness, vision, and hearing issues as I saw something in an article I read. I get strange looks from the doc when I mention it but neck being extremely tight with pain and causing muscle burn in upper back, I still wonder if this could be a culprit.
I had a Facet injection procedure two weeks ago but I actually fainted on the table and they only got one level done with some improvement. Dr. was intense, pain was pretty bad and I had a lot of anxiety about the procedure as neck facet injections are known to be brutal. If I can get this done and the nerves settle causing muscles to chill out hoping for improvement.

I am very grateful for the progress I have had. However, it is just slow and I have accepted that throttling back on life is required which I learned can be quite nice! Just being type A personality as my wife calls it, keeps me on the path of trying to get repaired but being that type, also makes recovery harder as I was warned by the Neuropsychologist.

Wanted to ask your thoughts and see if anyone has had any experience with c3-c7 cervical issues causing concussion symptoms or in your opinion, am I reaching here and just have a good old concussion needing time to heal? I do appreciate any thoughts you have on this.


David

Have you had any really good /advanced PT evaluation of your neck & those nearby muscles?
A very good chiro may do that also if they are multi modality based, and not only adjusting..
Some trigger point info- might be worth looking into-
https://www.neurotalk.org/thoracic-o...rps-short.html

As Jo*mar said, there may be a PT or chiro or osteopath who knows how to help you. Myofacial release, trigger point therapy, Specific Release Therapy (some chiros do this rather than spinal manipulations ) or osteopathic therapy may help with muscle spasms and imbalance. A PT or other who has broad skills with TOS (Thoracis Outlet Syndrome at C-6 to T-2 or T-3) may be helpful. Finding somebody willing to help with your spinal fusion may be a challenge.

Upper neck inflammation can cause a myriad of concussion like symptoms. Icing and other anti-inflammatory treatments can be worthwhile.

Omega 3 fish oil can help with inflammation. Read the Vitamins sticky at the top. Check the link to the updated post for more information. Helping the brain with good brain nutrition and anti-inflammatory supplements has helped many.

Jo*mar /Mark,
Do appreciate your suggestions and will look into it. I haven't been able to find a PT or chiropractor in my area yet that can help. I went to PT for my neck after the surgery and they really only want to show improvement in rotation to sign off as a success of the PT. I find it is difficult to get help with this in the medical field. My vision issues are the most problematic for me. I've had the eyes scanned and everything looks good as far as convergence, retina, and blood vessels. I went to two different eye doctors. I now use prescription glasses for distance where before I only needed readers for up close stuff. Even with prescription glasses, everything just looks way off and I am hoping it comes back in time.

When I am talking to someone, it trips me out as I feel really detached from myself and have to remind to just roll with it and not get freaked out. I don't understand what is wrong but it could be a trigger point causing muscle binding restrictions leading to blood flow issues in the brain is that the thought?

I do take Omega 3 Krill fish oil and 5000iu D3(Tested D3 was low last year) daily but need to read up on levels I should take and what else I should take in the Vitamin sticky. My PC doc ran a full blood panel on me a few weeks ago and everything was good except low T and that goes with my age. Quick question if the body is at normal levels, is it ok to take supplements or does it just get rid of the extra as waste?

Thanks again!
David

You D3 dose is fine. Not worth adjusting. Excess is just excreted.

The blood test 'normal' levels are not accurate in every case. B-12 is commonly 'normal' from 360 pcgm/ml to 970 pcgm/ml. Somebody with a B-12 of 400 is considered normal. But, the stressed brain needs to be at the high end so targeting 1000 is good.

Folate should be above 20.

Plus, a full blood panel can mean lots of things. T would not be normally part of a full blood panel but good he checked it. A single T test is not accurate. It needs 3 separate blood draws over a week or so.

You may need to be assessed by a behavioral optometrist. They use different protocols than vision and eye health diagnostics. Home

When you are talking to someone, you could be struggling with ambient sounds that compete with your desire to focus on the other person. It can be like standing up in a small rocking boat to take a photo. Your upper body adjust but your brain still has this other thing (rocking movement) going on that gets in the way. When you try to talk to them, your brain may be trying to process the ambient sounds. The injured brain commonly is weak when it tries to filter out background sounds.

Thanks Mark. I will look into a behavioral optometrist. The two Eye docs I saw said they wouldn't have any problems sending me to one but felt the tests they ran with eye coordination and the rest looked good.

I did do some balance testing two weeks ago and up till then, I didn't have much dizziness. They put goggles on me and reclined me back moving the head slowly from left to right looking at the eyes in the goggles. Passed that test and the other was an eye chart where they put hands on my ears and move head rapidly back and forth in small motion while I read. Did good on that as well. The next day I had three major dizzy spells and now it happens often but not as bad. 1 week after the injury, I had one spell but nothing since in almost 4 months which really upset me as I feel I brought on this problem. I was on Clonazepam for anxiety one month and that drug made me sway which is the reason I went for the testing. Stopping it definitely helped.

So we have sound room at my employer that blocks all noise in the plant. I just spent some time in it and I can hear the tinnitus ringing away but the visual problems are worse today being very strange almost like I would imagine a bad drug trip is. I feel fairly normal otherwise today. Some discomfort at the base of the skull as well as some dizziness today (but tolerable) and it seems connected to me.

Thanks for listening to my story. I really feel isolated where I live in southern Colorado as the medical help is lacking and it is hard trying to figure out what to do next. You really have to be your own advocate but electrical is my skill not medical so it's a steep learning curve. This forum has been very helpful. Getting Anxiety under control was the best step forward for me and that decision was based on what I read here. It had a huge impact and several symptoms disappeared very quickly and sleep improved a lot.

Be careful you don't get caught looking for symptoms. The stress caused when we look for symptoms and think, "Oh, that may be xyz" rather than moderating our day and moving forward can be detrimental to getting better. The issue of balance and dizziness is still important as that can cause a fall. But thinking "Do I have tinnitus?" or "Is my neck sore" vs just ignoring the tinnitus and dealing with the soreness and moving forward is an issue to consider.

I have lived with tinnitus for decades. The best way to deal with it is to learn to ignore it. It is tough at first. Sometimes, a masking sound such as music or other recognized sounds can help distract away from the ringing. Grey noise or white noise, whatever it is called is not helpful in my experience.

It is great they have a quiet room. Experiment with distraction sounds and see if you do better.

I know the issue of distraction sounds very well. I have a hard time falling asleep in a quiet room. A quiet room can actually be an anxiety trigger as my brain tries to make sense of and focus on the ambient sounds, heater noise, clock ticking, etc. Put a TV dialogue on and I can go right to sleep. My brain recognizes the voices and decides to not pay attention to them. But, those voices mask the other sounds.

Background sounds are often best when they are something you have heard before but not overly repetitive. Your brain knows what to expect so it can ignore them. New sounds can stimulate attention as your brain waits to hear what is next. I can listen to foreign language singing and drift to sleep because I know the repeated beat and words, even if I do not understand them.

Hope this helps.

My best to you.

Mark, thank you thoughts and suggestions. You make some good points. Just ordered a bunch of supplements based off the vitamin sticky. I lost a lot of extra weight after the injury from not drinking any beer and cutting most sugars out plus adding daily walks. See, some good things come from all of this :D
Take care and thanks again.