trappedat20

Yeah the doctor who did it said he diagnosed several chiari's based off of catscans with people who didn't even have symptoms but it showed up. He said with my symptoms it would show up. I'm not going to rule it out, but I feel a little better about it now. At least it's not so bad that it's really obvious if it is there. I'm getting referred to the Vanderbilt Autonomic Center to sort all of this out. Now that I've developed seizures too my dysautonomia is obviously getting worse and we really have to sort out what's causing it. Everyone was right about the chiropractor. They are crooks. They are trying to screw us financially for stopping and even though we said the doctors ordered me to stop going they kept going on and on about how necessary it is and saying the reason I had a seizure was because I still need to go. Total **. The fact they told me to not listen to my doctors is horrible. My husband told them I've been in the hospital for three days because I had 2 seizures while going there and they were still trying to tell me I need to go back and that I need to do some sort of cleanse. I'm all for eating healthy, exercising, alternative medicine and stuff but I hate it when people act like it's the cure all. There's obviously something serious going on and they are telling me to ignore my doctor, not take the meds they want to give me, and keep going there. They kept saying how the x-rays were getting better and that means I'm getting better and my husband told them that I wasn't getting better though, I was getting worse so that's obviously not the cause. Apparently the doctors here told me that your spine can't even press against your brainstem and now I feel like a huge idiot for trusting them and spending a few grand on those idiots.

Thanks. I really hope they figure out what is going on too. I'm going to ask them if they can run a test on me with me going up the stairs although I highly doubt they will. They are more likely to find something if they put me in an environment that will make me sick, verses putting me on bed rest where I'm fine laying down. If I'm going to be stuck in the hospital I want them to find something and use the opportunity of being around medical care to further investigate what is going on in my body after these triggers (going up the stairs, exercise ect.) instead of just keeping me on bed rest so I won't get sick. I won't have that opportunity to stay on bed rest when I'm home so this is completely pointless.

I'm in the hospital atm. On Monday night I was going upstairs to my husband and I's bedroom (which normally makes me sick) but it felt more intense than normal. I felt really sick. Then the next thing I know my husband is carrying me down the stairs because I started having seizures. I don't remember them though and felt extremely confused as to what was going on. Between the stairs and the car my father in law said that my eyes started to roll back (don't remember this.) In the car I couldn't move my arms at all and I started shaking uncontrollably. By the time I was in the hospital I felt pretty confused and extremely slow until Tuesday. During the missed time my husband said I started making grunting noises and sounds like throwup was trying to come up (I woke up with a sore throat), my arms were completely stiff and I was clutching my fists, and he said my face and lips were turning very blue. I had one seizure on the floor and than he said I tried to get up and lay on the bed and I said I felt really sick, but that I just needed to lay down, and than I had another seizure on the bed. That's when he carried me downstairs cause he said I was turning blue. It was extremely scary. I felt really sick and blocks of time kept going by (because I don't remember the actual seizures.) Is this part of dysautonomia? This has never happened to me before. They said that instead of passing out I might have had a seizure from really low b/p or something. They checked me for epilepsy, which I'm going to find out the results today but it didn't make me have seizures and we both highly doubt it. This is getting serious though. I'm getting worse and nobody knows what is wrong with me. They did a cat scan and an MRI of just my brain and both came back fine. ***? How? How is there not something seriously wrong with me that is causing me to get worse and worse and develop new symptoms? I don't know what to do. They aren't helping me and just have me on bedrest. Deconditioning makes dysautonomia worse. They also keep trying to give me topamax which I said makes me extremely sick and they tried to give it to me three times. They aren't going to find out anything like this. Everyone's like oh look everything is fine, blood pressure is fine, she's not sick ect. I'M LAYING IN BED. Of course I'm not sick. Doesn't mean I'm better. They should take me up the stairs to make sure I don't get sick. When I do go home I'm terrified that I'll have another seizure going up the stairs. Normally I feel extremely sick going up the stairs, but after a few minutes it starts to disappear and nothing bad happens. Now something bad has happened, and I'm worried considering this is a trigger for me to get sick. I don't know what to do. Is seizures common in dysautonomia? Sorry this is so long. I'm in the hospital and I've been woken up several times and can't get back to sleep and am so upset because they aren't helping me and I'm forced to stay here or else my insurance won't cover it if I go against doctors orders. EDIT: I think it was extremely high blood pressure. Apparently that can cause seizures. I get extremely high blood pressure and the symptoms that come with it when I go up the stairs and that's why I get so sick. I got even more sick than usual Monday though. This REALLY worries me though. If I can get seizures from these extreme shifts in blood pressure than whats to stop things like stroke? I won't know when I'm having a stroke either because I always feel like i'm having a heart attack when I go up the stairs, only it goes away after 5 or so minutes. Seems like I got it from a hypertensive emergency. Only problem with that is it happens on a daily basis for a very short amount of time after certain triggers and I can't exactly just make it go away.

So I had 2 seizures Monday night and went to the ER and they admitted me [i'm still here ] and they ran a CAT scan and a regular MRI on just my brain. They said they didn't see any Chiari and that if there was any the tests would have shown it? Is this correct? I don't know what to do anymore. I'm getting worse and apparently now I'm having seizures too and I feel like we're never going to figure out what my primary cause is.

Thanks guys for all of the specifications. If it is Chiari I don't want the MRI to miss it. I will keep all this in mind when I'm asking my doctor for an MRI. I'm lucky that my doctor never treats me like a hypochondriac, but instead always says "it could be" and let's me get tests for things. It's a breath of fresh air to have a doctor that believes you. With the exception of an x-ray I haven't asked for tests for anything else though lol. I really feel like this is it. It explains everything. I've been complaining of a painful pressure (where the worst the pressure is the worst my neurological symptoms are) since the dysautonomia started. At first I thought this was for all of the reasons the chiropractor said. Now I think it has to do with this. At first the chiropractor gave me some relief, but all of the things that gave me relief are coming back and now I'm getting worse again for no reason :'( So my husband is calling today and stopping the adjustments and trying to get them to stop charging us. Whenever I do any of the things frequently mentioned it puts more pressure on it. For some reason when I cry it hurts a lot more. I looked that up because I found that weird and haven't heard anyone mention that but apparently that is common. What causes this? My mom was in labor with me for 42 hours and I was sunnyside up (that's what she says), and part of the way through the birth canal but than they had to do a c section. I had a bad cone head for months because of this (it eventually went away.) Could this be related? I'm really confused as to what causes it. I wonder what sets off the symptoms. I cracked my head open about 7 months before I started getting dysautonomia symptoms but I don't know if there's a relation. I had the neverending, everyday horrible headaches all throughout highschool but the other dysautonomia bs didn't start til about a year ago.

I don't think they were necessarily trying to screw me over, but I do wonder if a lot of what I'm actually experiencing is chiari. So much of what they were telling me overlaps with Chiari only the adjustments really aren't helping me anymore. Everything that started to go away started back up again which makes no sense considering my neck is slowly going back in place. It feels like I should be getting better than, unless something like a Chiari Malformation is going on. I think chiropractors should run MRI's too. It's too risky to do chiropractor adjustments when you don't know what else could be going on. Tomorrow my husband is going up there to cancel my adjustments. I'm calling my doctor tomorrow because he's been on board this whole time with the dysautonomia stuff and am gonna get an appointment so I can get an MRI done. Do you know if I need a neurologist for part of the diagnosis? Or if it comes back as Chiari on the MRI will I just go straight to seeing a neurosurgeon? I went against my better judgement by getting adjustments before an MRI. I really should have with all of the nervous system involvement going on, just to make sure it was safe.

I thought so at first but now every time I go it makes my migraines come back. With the exception of less neck pain, and no nerve pain I'm just as sick as I was 3 months ago now that the migraines have come back. I feel like the short term benefits I started to get are starting to come back too (like the migraines going away.) We decided to stop the adjustments because we're strapped for money and it's not even helping me, and if there's a possibility of chiari It could be dangerous to go. Right where I feel the pressure is where the herniated tonsils are in chiari (I looked up pictures and diagrams.) Thank you. I will look up those Chiari boards.

Please someone. Give me anything. I am soooo freaked out right now. I'm debating whether or not to stop the chiropractor until I know for sure. I don't want to make things worse,but I don't know if I'm just overreacting

I was just curious if there was a correlation between that and my neck or if they are completely unrelated. I know that a chiari can cause pressure to be put on the brainstem (which I have) but I don't know if that's a chiari malformation or if that's just my neck like they were saying. Thankyou for telling me about the MRI stuff though. I will def. keep that in mind if my doctor asks for an MRI for that.

Does anyone on here have that? Can someone explain some of it to me. I've done the research but I'm really not sure if it applies to my situation. On my other thread I explained how I had reverse cervical lordosis (my neck lost it's natural curve and than started to curve the opposite way), I had a degenerative disc, I had two torn ligaments in my neck that healed from chiropractor adjustments, arthritis in my neck, pinched nerves, and (the part that is giving me the dysautonomia) my spinal cord is putting a lot of pressure on my brainstem/ medulla oblongata and this is not allowing it to function properly. I've been going to the chiropractor for 2.5 months and it got rid of my migraines at first but now they come back sometimes after an adjustment. It got rid of my sensitivity to light and sound, nerve pain, and relieved a lot of neck pain for me, but that's it. I'm not getting better.Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got the adjustments because it has got rid of my pain (both the awful neck pain I was in and the awful nerve pain I was experiencing and for the most part the migraines don't show themselves like they use to.) My nervous system didn't all of a sudden start working again though. Anyways what do you think of a chiari malformation. I have almost all of the symptoms (although some overlap with dysautonomia.) How do I know what could be a chiari malformation and what is just my neck being screwed up. Is there any connection with the condition my neck is in and a chiari malformation and x-rays don't show it correct? Do I need to get an MRI? I know there is information on here about it but I want to specifically know if there's a chance that could be my situation or if I'm just freaking myself out. I don't know the connection between my neck being the way it is, my dysautonomia, and a chiari malformation. I do know that the pressure on my medulla oblongata/ brain stem is responsible for about 85% of my symptoms ( I don't know where the other 15% is) but I don't know if part of that pressure could be related to a chiari malformation. Please explain. I probably sound like an idiot because there's really not that much information on it and everyone knows with dysautonomia that we have a laundry list of symptoms that can fit many things. Any advice would be appreciated. Thankyou.

It actually already got rid of a few things completely. It got rid of my nerve pain, migraines, and sensitivity to light and sound. My blood pressure/heart rate is a lot more stable now than it used to be also. While it's not working at the rate I want it to be, it IS working.

I appreciate peoples honesty. I'm not even sure anymore. I had another evaluation and it's going back into place slowly but it's starting from the bottom up, meaning it will take a while to take all of the pressure off. I will say on my good days when I don't feel the pressure on my brainstem I feel about 90% better (that's also when I'm on my adderall too btw though). When I feel the pressure on my brainstem is when I'm really sick. So when the pressure is finally off of my brainstem I should be at least 90% better, but for some reason even when I don't feel the pressure the fatigue is the one symptom that won't go away. It's the most disabling, horrendous fatigue that only people with chronic illness understand. I can't even describe it but for some reason that hasn't lightened up at all even on my good days. I'm wondering if the fatigue is caused by something else. I get enough sleep, great nutrition, my thyroids fine, no anemia, no depression, and so I don't know what would warrant such horrible fatigue where walking anywhere feels like too much. I'm wondering if the fatigue wasn't part of the dysautonomia because I have had a few good days where that was my only symptom and even my bp was checking out normal. So, I don't think it's a placebo. It makes sense that pressure on my medulla oblongata (which I can feel) would make me sick, but I don't understand this fatigue. It feels unrelated now which is confusing considering how bad it is.

Thanks guys. I asked about the second part because I'm getting treatment for my primary condition and I always figured if you fixed the primary condition than the dysautonomia will go away. It has helped me a lot but there are a few symptoms I'm wondering if they are ever going to go away. I would be happy to get to functioning at this point. My doctor signed the thing for me to have a handicapped parking permit like 3 months ago but since I knew I would be starting treatment I didn't think I'd need it for long and didn't turn it in. I also have been debating a medic alert bracelet for fear of getting sick when I'm by myself and nobody knowing what to do. I haven't though because I'm hoping I will get better and not even consider myself sick. I guess I will probably always have to say I have it though. Thanks, I was wondering why I felt so awful this week. I was doing really good with my treatment and then I got a cold and feel like I went backwards fifty steps. Glad to know it's normal. Hopefully it goes back to my new usual very soon.

Well, I don't know how many people were following my other thread but I have been getting treated for my primary cause and had slowly been getting better. I recently got a cold/sorethroat (that is almost entirely gone now with the exception of a stuffy nose) and my dysautonomia is way worse. I'm having trouble with little things again. I can't even walk from my car to inside the house without my heart feeling like it's going to beat through my chest and feeling like I'm going to faint. I can't even walk to the bathroom for that matter. Everything is getting worse again now. Is this because I got sick? When will it go back to normal? I have been getting better and I'm really upset to be back tracking like this. I also had another question. At what point do you consider yourself cured (I'm not near that btw jw)? Or do you still consider yourself as having dysautonomia even when you're "cured"? I've always wondered that. At what point do I not tell doctors, or people I have dysautonomia?

Update: 5 weeks complete and 17/72 adjustments completed. I don't know how much I'm going to update anymore. Maybe just when something interesting happens. I lost my doctor and am looking for a new doctor and so I am out of my adderall. It unfortunately takes forever to try to get a doctor to prescribe you adderall here because I guess in Tennessee they think everyone's a druggie. It's extremely annoying to me how hard it is to get on my medication because it's a controlled substance. I wish that something helped me that wasn't a controlled substance so I didn't have to jump through hoops to get it. It was a lifesaver for me for helping my ADHD-Combined type, but then we realized it was helping my dysautonomia too. Now I feel like I'm going through a lot of unnecessary ** while waiting forever to get into my appointment to get on medication. It's really hard trying to find another doctor to prescribe it here so I'm having to go through a psychiatrist. Which made me go to an intake appointment and now I have a month wait to get into another appointment that's going to have a drug test and stuff (and I still might not get my medicine that day) to get back on my medication. Completely ridiculous. I need that medication to function and I'm feeling pretty useless right now waiting to get back on it. Granted I'm feeling better than I was before when I didn't have my adderall. Before the adjustments when I didn't have my adderall I was completely on bed rest and unable to get out of bed without passing out. I'm nowhere near that now, but still pretty useless. I'm very upset because things were looking up for me and I was trying to work myself up to doing new things and now everything's all screwed up because I can't see my old doctor anymore. Sorry that I have no news on the adjustments. It's really hard to measure progress now when I'm not on my medicine.I'm thinking my next update will be the 2 month mark and I'll update monthly for now on. There's not enough happening on a weekly basis to keep updating weekly, and without my medicine it's really hard to tell anyways.

I take adderall for ADHD and my doctor noticed that it was also helping my dysautonomia and so he increased my dose to 15mg 3x a day so that I didn't crash at 7 like I was before but would instead make it til around bedtime. I unfortunately am having to get a new doctor and so I'm out of my medication and am feeling horrible because of it. I really miss being on adderall. Not only did it help me mentally but it helped with the dysautonomia and so now I feel completely defenseless while waiting to get into an appointment to see a new doctor. Btw it helps me with the brain fog from dysautonomia, the severe fatigue, I stand longer, and I don't feel like I'm going to have a heartattack going up/down the stairs in my house except during the mornings and at night. It takes a lot of the edge off of the dysautonomia so that I'm able to walk around the house and stuff instead of being bed bound without it.

@BeforeTheMorning Thank you Yeah after the first week I got a little too hopeful and thought it would be smooth sailing from there. Than the second week I felt crappy but my chiropractor told me it would be a rollercoaster the first 3 months and so that made me feel better. Than the third week I still felt crappy and started to lose hope. So glad I started to feel better again this week. I guess he was right that it would be a rollercoaster with good weeks and bad weeks during the first 3 months.

Update: I started to feel a little bit better again this week. Yay. It is a rollercoaster I guess. So, apparently it's a 12 adjustment evaluation and not a 16 adjustment evaluation like I thought. So we took my x-rays again and I got a 9/10 on their progression scale. The arthritis and degenerative disc is still there (it's only been 3.5 weeks.) The torn ligaments healed though I'm excited about this because I've been waiting for this so that I could do shoulders at the gym. I haven't been able to do things that work the shoulders because they also put too much pressure on the neck and it would hurt too much, and then I found out it was torn so I had to stay away, but now I can do all forms of weightlifting at the gym. The curve in my lower back is now as straight as an arrow, and the curve in my upper back is still there but almost straight. So it looks like by my next evaluation my back should actually be fine Now on to my neck. They said it moved a lot although it didn't look like a lot to me, although I guess they meant a lot for only 3.5 weeks. I could see that my neck moved but it's no where near where it's suppose to be yet. I have 8 more months though so I guess that's explainable. Something nice though is that it's starting to curve a little bit (in the right direction) up where my brainstem is, which I'm guessing is why I feel a little bit better. The migraines and blood pressure issues were caused by the pressure on the medulla oblongata and now it's taken some pressure off of it, so that's probably why those are almost stable. I got my at home kit yesterday which includes about an hour of stuff I'm suppose to do a day and it's suppose to make a big difference. I'm regaining hope again. Last week my hope started to disappear, but this gave me some hope I do feel back to how I felt the first week again which is nice, like he said, a rollercoaster. I'm not even sure if anyone is still reading my updates anymore, but here ya go. This is close enough to the 1 month mark. I have one more adjustment this week (it will be 13/72) and that will be about 1 month through treatment (4 weeks.) and I had my first evaluation. My husband and I are giving it 3 months to see if I have significant improvement. I really hope I do!!

Update: No good news 3 weeks out of 9 months down (11/72 adjustments) and I don't feel better. The first week I started to feel a little bit better, but the past 2 weeks I've felt almost as bad as I normally do. I know it will take 3 months to see a significant difference, but I feel like i'm starting to lose hope. Money's tight and since I'm suppose to get better I was looking at jobs I can get that require an AA, and looking at going back to college to get my AA. I need to apply really soon if I want to make it for fall semester, but I can't do that if I don't know if I'll get better or not. It's hard to even re-evaluate my life and see what I want to do when I don't know if I'll be able to get a job that requires standing or not. Feeling really frustrated. Wish me luck that next week provides better news. My migraines and sensitivity to light and sounds went away for the most part, and my blood pressure/heart rate seem to have stabilized somewhat so I don't even know what gives. The disabling fatigue is still there though and I still get dizzy and feel like I'm going to pass out, and sometimes do. I still feel like I'm going to have a heart attack coming up the stairs, my vision is still off. There's more symptoms I'm missing that are gone, and more symptoms I'm missing that are still there, but I feel like the most disabling ones are still there. I still get the horrible nerve pain every now and then too. I still feel like it's my neck, but I can't wait to get my x-ray done because I want to know how much better my neck actually is because it still feels like it's in the same spot (granted 3 weeks isn't exactly going to move it back into place so maybe i'm being impatient.)

My neck curve is all screwed up. Basically instead of curving in like it's suppose to, it started to straighten all of the way, and then started curving in the opposite direction. So now my spine is crushing my medulla oblongata/ brain stem (the part of the brain responsible for autonomic functions) and because there is so much pressure on it it's not able to function right. It could be worse though because if it were damaged and not functioning at all I would either be dead or a vegetable. I also have pinched nerves in my neck, but they said a big part of the dysautonomia for me was all of the pressure that is being put on my medulla.

@IceLizard I was actually looking up vertebral artery dissections the other day. While I do know that what he is saying about my neck is right because of a previous x-ray with my doctor, and feeling the back of my neck, I am a little concerned. What he says about me having some days when I'm better and some days when I'm worse makes since, but I'm still going to be careful and watching out. I would be more concerned if I didn't feel better at first. Right now I'm just waiting to see when I feel better again to see the validity in the roller coaster statement. Hopefully soon. I'm definitely keeping an eye on it though because my neck is really messed up and I can't risk it getting worse with all of the things that are being compressed. Thanks for your concern

Update: Sorry I haven't updated in a while guys. So I've actually felt worse this week. Last week I felt like I was getting better, but my last 3 adjustments made me feel worse. My chiropractor says that the first three months will be a roller coaster for me with me having some days that I feel like I'm cured,and some days where I feel like I did before I even went to the chiropractor. My brother in law and husband were saying the same thing, but I just wanted to make sure. He said while the bones are moving they will be closer to nerves on some days than others and stuff. It makes sense because my neck has such a long way to go that it will run into things on it's way to the correct position. I'm kinda disappointed because I got myself all excited thinking it would be all uphill from the first one, but I'm just glad that everything is okay. I had nerve pain the last 3 days, and my migranes came back. I've also had weird neurological things that are a little different from my usual. Like ever since yesterday my teeth keep chattering like crazy for no reason every once in a while. I'm not even cold or anything they just start chattering uncontrollably. I had trouble swallowing my food last night. Yeah, kinda weird as I've never had those neurological symptoms before. Ever since my first adjustment my husband has been saying that I will probably experience weird neurological things while everything's moving around. I've been in bed all week. Didn't even go to the gym at all this week cause I've felt lousy, especially with me getting the migraines and nerve pain every night (ugh.) I knew the first 3 months would be the most difficult though and where most of the improvement would happen. I have now had 8/72 adjustments. They re-did my coordination test and said I was a little better. In 10 more adjustments I get to have my neck x-rays! I'm so excited. I can't wait to see if there is any progress. -MakeMeErised

Oh yeah and I think my blood pressure and heart rate are starting to level out I've been getting a normal reading the past few days while sitting, which is good because a lot of the time even my sitting blood pressure is all over the place, but it still doesn't tell me anything, so I decided to put it to the test. I cheated a little bit because I stood up to get the blood pressure machine (from a few feet away) before laying back down, but I waited 2 minutes and I really don't think it made a difference. These were my results. Laying: 125/77 heartrate 120 Sitting: 117/ 70 heartrate 120 Standing: 143/83 heartrate 119 After going down the stairs: Tried 4 times but couldn't get a reading. Even up to 4 minutes after going down the stairs. This is typical though. My pulse pressure gets too low a lot of the times when going down the stairs. In fact most of the reasons I pass out is because of a low pulse pressure, and not a low blood pressure necessarily. After going up the stairs: I didn't even take this because I couldn't get a good reading going down the stairs so I didn't expect much out of it. But wow my laying/sitting/standing have definitely evened out to what a normal persons would do. Here is a copy/paste from my first thread where I asked questions about completely unstable blood pressure for comparison. "Here's an example of me taking my blood pressure a few times today. 2:41pm: 108/81 heartrate 112 (sitting) 2:43pm 145/127 heartrate 41 (still sitting) 2:45pm: 110/95 heartrate 96 (still sitting) 2:46ppm 124/87 heartrate 118 (still sitting) Yes, those are real numbers only minutes apart without me moving. It's not my machine, or me moving, or anything. I feel the effects when it goes to extremes too. I tried to do the tilt table test on myself the other morning Laying 15mins: 106/75 heartrate 104 Standing 1 min: 100/76 heartrate 138 Standing 2min: 113/80 heartrate 122 Standing 3 min: 100/62 heartrate 104 Standing 4 min: 97/69 heartrate 90 Standing 5 min: 94/75 heartrate 127 That didn't really tell me anything interesting. My blood pressure didn't get lower and lower or higher and higher, and my heart rate just kept jumping around for no reason and so it didn't even stay above 120bmp for a POTS diagnosis. I took my blood pressure at different positions the other day Laying: 71/52 heartrate 79 Standing: 101/80 heartrate 120 After walking down stairs: 97/67 heartrate 88 Those were all right after the other btw. It makes no sense to me why my heart would go down after walking down a flight of stairs but my body does a lot of things that make no sense. Later that same day Standing: 112/97 heart rate 158 (I was experiencing pre-syncope and felt like passing out so I kept taking my blood pressure and after I finally stopped showing Error this is what I got. Btw it shows error for me a few times a day because my pulse pressure will get really low. I know this because it only shows error when I feel faint and when it finally does give me a reading my pulse pressure is low. Going upstairs: 151/96 heartrate 91 Sitting: 123/100 heartrate 80" So, yeah it's definitely showing signs of improvement. Before my blood pressure was completely unstable and made no sense. Now it seems like it's starting to even out. Although I will keep testing myself to make sure it's still improving. So not only is it starting to seem more stable, notice in the past test it increased 34 beats per minute from standing, but today it went down 1 beat (so it practically stayed the same.) I will keep testing to let you guys know how things go. Oh and once again I don't have POTS. I just have dysautonomia and vasovagal syncope. My heart rate and blood pressure were always too unstable to be diagnosed with POTS despite having literally all of the symptoms. My blood pressure sometimes went way up from standing, sometimes went way down, and sometimes stayed the same. It all depending on what it felt like doing, so no POTS.

@northerndarlene I know what you're talking about. I think I mentioned it somewhere on here, but I'm not sure. I had originally thought I had something really wrong with both my neck and my back before I had gotten my x-rays. I don't have back pain that often, but every now and then I get the most awfulllll pain out of no where that would put me in tears.They told me that my back wasn't really a big problem though, but that my neck was really messed up and was causing my problems and I needed to get it fixed. They said I had scoliosis in my back (which I had known), but the curve wasn't that bad,and it wasn't causing me any other problems or interfering with nerves, or really anything that should even be causing me pain. I also don't even have muscle spasms in my back. So naturally I was like *** why do I get the most awful pain than. I experienced that pain again though either before my first adjustment or before my second. I payed really good attention to what was going on this time. The pain started in my neck and it was when my neck was hurting really bad and giving me nerve pain, but I noticed it was pain that started in my neck and was traveling along my spinal cord. The pain in my spine was nerve pain that originated in my neck. It was a burning, stinging feeling. It was a sharp, shooting pain. I had shingles when I was 12 and nerve pain is awful pain that makes you want to curl up in a ball and cry. If I had been paying attention enough I would have noticed it was nerve pain that I was feeling. Sorry for the backstory, I'm very detailed lol. Anyways, yes I experience that burning pain in my back. I personally don't experience it in my arms, although with the exception of the spine, the arms is one of the most common places to feel effects from nerve pain in the neck. In my case, whenever I start feeling that pain my whole left arm and hand will go numb and I'll get that pins and needle feeling. Also I've noticed in the past that whenever my neck would start hurting more than normal my dysautonomia symptoms would act up more, that was one of my signs that it was originating in my neck. So, if your heart rate speeds up during this pain pay special attention to what else is worse. Take your blood pressure and heart rate, try to see if you feel generally a lot more crappy than you do when you aren't experiencing it as bad. This could be a good indicator on whether the dysautonomia is being effected by it. Although, it was a very obvious change in me. The day I found out I had dysautonomia and started researching more on it I had a feeling it was related to my neck/back. It might not be as pronounced in other people, but the fact that your heart rate speeds up during those burning sensations is a good indicator that at the least your heart rate seems like it's being effected by it. Also try massaging your neck and see if this helps somewhat. It probably won't help with the pain for that long, but if it temporarily helps while you're massaging it than that's a good indicator that your headaches are probably caused from your neck. When I first started getting frequent headaches in highschool I was able to take ibuprofen for some relief, but when it got really bad around the time I started getting sick nothing would make my migraines go away. They were the type that you'd go to bed with them, and you'd wake up and it was still there. It would temporarily give me some relief while I was massaging it, but a few minutes after I stopped it would return to it's originally intensity. Try massaging the area at the top of the neck where the head and neck meet. That was always the most helpful for me. I would definitely get that checked out because it sounds like it might be a pinched nerve. I'm not a doctor, but if you are feeling pain in your neck and what sounds like nerve pain in your arms and back followed by an increase in heart rate than it def. sounds like you might have a pinched nerve. I wouldn't rely too much on an x-ray from your doctors office though. They usually can't pick up on whether a nerve is being pinched or not, and they usually don't do it from the side or look to see if your neck is curved or not. I had a feeling my neck pain was connected to my dysautonomia so my doctor ran an x-ray. All he said was that my c-4 was starting to twist and I had a degenerative disc that MIGHT be pinching a nerve. He couldn't tell me for sure because most doctors aren't trained to look for pinched nerves and stuff in an x-ray. An x-ray from a GOOD chiropractor should be able to tell you because chiropractors are trained to be able to see that stuff. They have to learn a lot about the nervous system and how it's related to the spinal cord and brainstem. They need to know this stuff in order to unpinch nerves and to avoid damaging anything. An MRI should also be able to tell you what's going on. I've never had one done but from my understanding anything going on with your neck should show up on an MRI. If there is anything this whole thing has taught me though, it's to not ignore that type of stuff. Pain is your body's way of telling you something isn't right. Good luck! Keep me updated.

@ Corina thank you @ BeforeTheMorning Thank you Update: I do a lot of updates lol. Today I have learned that I'm not completely invincible. I am now in spoon debt. I pushed myself too hard trying to clean the house up before the landlord comes on Tuesday. I'm going to probably rest for the next few days to make up some spoons because I overdid it and feel exhausted. Surprisingly I didn't pass out though. I haven't even been able to clean in the past few months, but before that whenever I would overdo things (not nearly to the extent I've overdone it the past few days) I would pass out and that would be the end of me trying to overdo things. I was surprised that I had cleaned and done laundry for 4 days straight as well as doing light workouts. It's kind of difficult when situations arise where you have to push yourself knowing that you will pay for it, although I also didn't know what my new limits would be so it's good to know how far I can push things.That is definitely an improvement! Besides, the spoon debt that I am in right now is just how I normally felt before I started getting adjustments anyways just without the passing out and migraines. It's more just that complete exhaustion to the point you can't do anything that is on a level that only people with chronic illness understand. I have an adjustment tomorrow so hopefully in 2-3 days I'll be back to feeling where I have been for the past week I cleaned about 3 months worth of mess in 4 days which is definitely not an easy task for a spoonie. Alas I'm done cleaning and will probably spend the next 2-3 days in bed reading or watching movies which is fine by me. I had a few days to catch up on the things I needed to do so I will be better able to relax knowing there isn't overdo laundry and the room isn't a mess. Plus there is the knowledge that I'm getting better to keep me going I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for listening to my ramblings