Putting my money where my mouth is: NUCCA

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by Wino, Jun 27, 2010.

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  1. June-

    June- New Member

    FWIW, day three on acyclovir my symptoms were worse in a slightly different way though. After that I gradually noticed periods of slight improvement off and on until after a few weeks there was no doubt I had had a major turnaround although not complete healing. Good luck.
     
  2. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    By way of update:

    As mentioned before, I started Valtrex on Sunday. Since Tuesday, I have been getting more and more bouts of fullness in the right ear, but not the usual accompanied distortion. I had one day where my hearing was slightly down, but that has passed. It's not painful at all, just uncomfortable because it feels like I have fluid in my ear.

    I went to the chiro yesterday morning and he did another NUCCA adjustment. He also used the activator on other parts of my T-spine and L-spine. After that we finished up with some muscle stim therapy. Later that night -- per my new custom -- I hit the elliptical trainer for 35 minutes and, as usual, the fullness dissipated for the rest of the night.

    Went back this morning, and after palpating my neck the chiro told me the atlas appears to be in place. Therefore, no NUCCA adjustment. He "confirmed" this by noting that I had no leg length discrepancy. However, I did have some tightness in my left shoulder blade, so he used the activator to address that. This was again followed by muscle stim therapy.

    Frankly, the adjustment has not done anything for the ongoing issues with fullness. I woke up without much fullness, but have felt it there since lunch time. Again, not painful, just uncomfortable. This is despite the fact that my atlas clinically appears to be in place. This will be conformed next week when I have the follow-up x-rays. We'll see.
     
  3. njspingirl

    njspingirl unilateral menieres..had vns and gent injections

    Ive been having alot of pain in my shoulder area. My doctor also used the activator to try and break up the spams.. HOLY CRAP!....seems its in one area, left side. He said he is sure that its scar tissure that is built up there. He recommends a neromuscluar therapist to break it up. Its just so painful. I saw my pcd today..she did give me a medicine for the inflamation and pain. Havent taken it yet..but wanted something before I went on vacation. I will continue with nucca as long as I can..as the pnc physician said doing the adjustments..overtime will break up that cluster of scar tissue . Also the neuromuscular therapist..if I decide to do it. Ive been in pain for 3 long years...if it wasnt the neck pain..it was the spams. Im tired. I havent taken any muscles relaxers. Ive tried Biofreeze, icyhot,tylenol, tylenol arthritis,advil, motrin, and aleve, moist heat...heat heat..and ice. IM JUST FREAKIN TIRED!!!
     
  4. KTabc

    KTabc Cheese Head Dumbass

    njspingirl-We all hear you and have deep empathy.................I hope you have a relaxing vacation. Chronic illnes sucks BIG time.

    Wino-thanks for the update--you have created a very popular thread! I really need to start exercising again, but just can not find the energy or motivation. I have exercised for years and years. But, since this flare-up started in January, I can't seem to move my butt. Glad you are still working it so hard. Good for you!

    KT
     
  5. KatiePA

    KatiePA New Member

    Wino,
    I've been seeing the chiro for over two years now with great success, but have been having lots of problems the past several weeks with fullness in my L ear. This is my first time having problems with fullness in a while. It just won't go away, and my hearing is much more muffled than usual. I saw the chiro earlier this week and I needed just a slight adjustment, so I don't think that was the cause of the fullness (also, usually increasing tinnitus is the symptom that indicates my neck has gone off, and there has been almost no tinnitus recently).

    So, I am attributing the fullness to this horrendous never-ending heat/humidity wave in the NorthEast. Would love for it to end so that I can test my hypothesis. :D

    Katie
     
  6. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    That is an interesting theory, Katie. :)
     
  7. KTabc

    KTabc Cheese Head Dumbass

    I know my chiro has reduced my dizziness. But, I still get vertigo. I am seriously considering doing a gent injection--have it scheduled for the 30th. I may push back the date and give myself more time. Hard decision because there is no turning back once I do the injection.
     
  8. Taximom5

    Taximom5 New Member

    njspingirl, I have a friend who had scar tissue build up (from who knows what, she doesn't remember ever having an injury there) in her rotator cuff (shoulder). She ended up having a minor surgery to break the scar tissue, which helped enormously. She is now pain-free, and has reasonable (though not 100% range of motion).

    I had good luck with physical therapy/chiropractic care following a torn rotator cuff with major car tissue buildup (because of lousy medical care for the first 5 months), but I did end up having surgery (to reattach the tendon, not to deal with the scar tissue).

    Either way, I hope there are good options for you to get rid of this problem for you. You have enough to deal with, you don't need pain!
     
  9. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    Quick update:

    Saw the chiro on Friday afternoon. Overall, my hearing had been stable up to that point. After conducting his exam, he told me that from a clinical perspective it appears that my atlas is back into its proper position. This was determined by looking at the leg length discrepancy (which no longer exists, based on his assessment), and also by feeling my neck with his hands and not sensing anu subluxation. I am set to have the final x-rays on Tuesday to confirm these findings (I could have had them done Friday, but I was in a hurry because I had somewhere else to be).

    Despite this seemingly good news, last night my hearing seems to have taken a slight hit. It's still functional, but my hearing was noticeably down and I was struggling somewhat having conversations at the dinner table with friends. It was still somewhat down this morning, but better. I popped a couple of Advil in addition to the JOH pills and it seems to be back on the upswing.
     
  10. corona

    corona New Member

    Does having your atlas in the right place make your dizziness, instability, difficulty in turning your neck etc. disappear?

    I don't know if you had the above symptoms or if you were going exclusively for your hearing.
     
  11. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    I haven't had any of hte above symptoms, other thanhearing loss and some stiffness in turning my neck. The stiffness is gone, but I have yet to see any direct correlation between adjustments and my level of hearing. In theory, if the MM was being caused by a misalignment then restoration of the alignemnt should "cure" me. If the x-rays show a restoration of the normal architecture, I will then follow that up with my comprehensive review of my NUCCA experience for the board.
     
  12. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    "In theory, if the MM was being caused by a misalignment then restoration of the alignemnt should "cure" me."

    No, NUCCA cures no symptoms. If your symptoms are related to your upper cervical alignment, your symptoms are caused by nerve abnormalities or impingements, or tissue damage that resulted from head or neck trauma, or tissue damage due to the lack of proper communication to and from the inner ear and brain. If your symptoms are related to any cause NUCCA can treat, restoring proper communication is the enabler for the brain to begin to successfully repair the damaged tissues causing the symptoms. But there is normally no direct cure for symtoms, only restoration of the proper conditions for damaged tissues to repair. If that is the cause, then NUCCA is the enabler for such a repair, if reparable at all. The only direct cure from a NUCCA adjustment would be of a nerve impingement NUCCA successfully unimpinged. And when I say nerve impingement, I also refer to abnormal pressure on the brain stem that could be related to an upper cervical misalignment.

    Have you ever experienced any jaw alignment problems, maybe TMJ?
     
  13. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    The past 2 days have been tough. After having some 3 really great weeks with few issues, the past 2 days I have really been bothered with the feeling of fullness. In addition to JOH, I have been alternating between Advil and Tylenol every few hours, nasal spray and a 24-hour Claritin redi-tab to see if I can get that feeling cleared. I have only succeeded in doing so after exercise, but that benefit subsides after awhile. My hearing, while still relatively functional, has been noticeably lower the last two days. I can have conversations, but not when people try to speak in hushed tones.

    So I had a follow-up NUCCA appointment today. After palpating my neck and going through the muscle isolation assessments, the chiro determined I needed a follow-up NUCCA adjustment. That was done, and followed by activator adjustments to my low back, left shoulder blade and mid back. I then had 15 minutes of muscle stimulation therapy.

    Today, he performed the first set of follow-up x-rays since I began treatment a month ago. I won't know the results until I go back on Thursday afternoon.

    Unfortunately for me, I have to travel yet again for work tomorrow and I am not looking forard to it at all. I have flying when I'm having an episode because invariably my seatmate will try to talk to me and I can't hear a freakin' word they're saying. Then people look at you funny because they think you're blowing them off :)

    As a back-up, I am putting in a call to my ENT to set up a visit for Thursday afternoon. I think I'm going to ask him for another dex shot. I feel like I'm close to getting over the hump, but this lingering fullness just eneds that last nudge to subside entirely. Plus, my tinnitus is getting worse on the right now.
     
  14. Taximom5

    Taximom5 New Member

    Did you ever try antivirals, and if so, did they help? I wonder if it would be a better idea to try antivirals before something like a dex shot which DOES have a low risk of ruining your hearing altogether (unless you tried antivirals before and they didn't help).

    I'm sorry you have to fly while you are uncomfortable. I find that noise-isolating headphones are very helpful for long flights, even if I'm not listening to anything--they reduce that awful airplane engine roar to an amazing extent. In addition, if your seatmate sees you with headphones on, (s)he won't expect you to be able to hear. Or you can do the same thing with earplugs (but not as comfortable), and when someone says something to you, you can smile helplessly, shrug, and point to the earplugs.

    Be careful not to get addicted to the nasal spray--when going off it, you can develop very nasty rebound symptoms unless you wean off.

    Would it help to exercise twice a day? (Like you'd really have time for that...)

    Safe travels!
     
  15. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    Sorry all the discomfort, Wino. I did ask you about TMJ or any jaw symptoms or discomfort. That you did not answer maybe means the answer is no. Just comfirm that for me when you get a chance.

    Hang in there and safe travels.

    Hank
     
  16. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    No problem, Hank. Your deduction was correct, though I didn't actually mean not to answer. I have been assessed for TMJ and that is not an issue for me.
     
  17. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    POST TREATMENT X-RAYS UPDATE:

    When I last posted on Tuesday night, I was getting ready to head out on a work trip to Philadelphia, and I was having some problems with fullness and slight hearing loss. Well, my flight had a layover in Atlanta. Despite wearing the Ear Planes, when I landed in Atlanta I felt pain in my right ear. I tried to equalize my ears, and I felt like my eardrum must have slightly ruptured because I could sense the air escaping through a hole like it does after a dex shot. So I bought some Advil at the airport and took two of them, and felt better within a couple of hours.

    As the day progressed, I actually felt my hearing get better. By the end of the day I was back to basically normal again. As you can imagine, I was pretty apprehensive about flying the next morning again since I thought I might have some trauma to the ear drum. On the next morning flight, everyting was fine on the leg from Philly to Atlanta. But on the way from Atlanta back to home, I started feeling some vertigo. The good news is, I think it's because I got a mild case of food poisoning from the breakfast at the Atlanta airport. I was extremely nauseous, flet cold and clammy and had all the other unpleasantness associated with eating bad food.

    When I landed, I felt just well enough to make my chiro appointment. I went straight from the airport to the chiro's office. I told him about my GI problems and he gave me some homeoptahic remedy for nausea and dyspepsia. Believe it or not, it actually got rid of my symptoms within about a half hour.

    So, onto the chiro visit. He put my new films up on the board and compared them to the old. The first thing he pointed out to me is that the curavture of my neck is starting to show signs of going back to normal, though it's still too straight. With respect to the atlas, he told me that my atlas is no longer laterally misaligned (in other words, it's not too far over to the left side anymore). But, he still thinks I need a little bit of rotational work, so he adjusted me again. He also cut me down to 2 visits a week instead of 3. As usual, he did muscle group testing and saw I was having some spasm in my left and right shoulder blades and in my low back, so these were addressed with activator adjustments. This was all followed up with muscle stim therapy for 15 minutes.

    I plan to keep seeing the chiro for a bit longer. Not so much for my MM issues, as because I'm interested in the others things he has been working on that have made my back and neck feel better. When I gather my thoughts a bit, I plan to write up my assessment/experience of chiro treatment with respect to the management of MM. I plan to post a full assessment that includes both the positives and the negatives from my perspective.
     
  18. Taximom5

    Taximom5 New Member

    Thanks for the updates, Wino!

    I was thinking, maybe it might help to take an antihistamine or a decongestant next time you fly (before the flight) if you are feeling fullness? I know landing when even a "normal" (as in non-Meniere) person has a head cold can be absolutely excruciating. I remember 20 years ago flying with a cold, and I thought my ears were going to literally explode. It was worse than labor.
     
  19. Henrysullivan

    Henrysullivan New Member

    The last time I flew, it about killed me. It was June, 2002. To Hawaii. Then we took two flights from island to island, each time approaching 15,000 feet. While on the Big Island we drove the the top of Mauna Key, 13,800 feet, just to see the view. Then flew home. Each time, the trip up was great. While at 45,000 feet my hearing was never better. Ears felt wonderful. But when coming down, pressure would build in my ears that lasted for days afterward. This was before Meniere's. I attribute it to blocked eustachians. Others I was with did not have that problem. So I suspect something is related there. I also always had trouble clearing my ears scuba diving, again seemingly always having problems for several days afterward. So the doctor joke says, if it hurts to do something, don't do it. So I have sworn off both. If I have to fly down the road, I will do it. But I do not plan on going up again on my own elect.

    Ear planes did not help.
     
  20. Wino

    Wino Resident Honey Badger

    Yeah, I have my pre-flight regimen where I take a Sudafed about an hour before the flight, and then the nasal spray. I hadn't heard about the propensity for addiction on nasal spray until you posted about it the other day, so I'm wary of it. But I figure I'll be okay if I limit it to only using it before flights.

    I had the head cold experience one time before, too. While I will obviously never know what labor pain is like (whew!), it was the most excrutiating pain I felt since I had an infected wisdom tooth. I had that same feeling where I thought my ears were going to explode, and at one point I would have welcomed it if it would make the pain go away.
     

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