Posted 6/28/2023 5:30 AM (GMT 0)
I don't post too regularly, but I think I may have posted about my neck pain in the past. One of my worst symptoms and up until recently I put it down to the infections (bart in particular) and whatever else causing my MCAS to flare, which in turn loosens the connective tissue creating instability.
I had been assuming that with treatment, the neck pain would go away. It was pretty much constant, every day, but with flares particularly with hormone changes. I've been on abx for about 10 months now and with my MCAS stabilizing before that as well, it has definitely improved, I noticed a lot more good days. But when I do flare it's agony still.
I started going to physio because I was desperate for relief, and she said my traps were really tight. Treatment would help for a couple days and it would just come right back. I've posted about how I took up warm infrared yoga in January and how life changing that has been, but something just wasn't sitting right with me that I'm doing this yoga 4-5 times a week, sometimes twice a day, with back and neck strengthening etc in addition to all of the physio exercises, and just not seeing improvement in my functioning and still in SO.MUCH.PAIN. Of course I knew that if it is infection based then maybe these treatments wouldn't help, but I was getting desperate.
So I decided to go see an osteopath. He said yeah, definitely the shoulders and neck are stiff and we can do something about that. After my first appointment, I felt a little sore that day but not just where he treated, like a whole body soreness like I've had with herxing. Sure enough, later that night I get my usual sulphur smelling urine that I get when I've had a herx. The osteopath doesn't know anything about chronic infections so I didn't ask him about it, but he did say that when you release neck stiffness like that, you improve the cerebral blood flow and that can have an impact on the PH of the body. As we know, in chronic illness, our PH can change. So, while I know a physical therapy can't cause a herx because it's not killing microbes, I wondered if something could have shifted in terms of my PH or blood flow and/or vagus nerve, and allowed my immune system to start doing some stuff. I don't know if the changes would happen that quick but I do think it's an interesting possibility!
Anyway, regardless of the mechanism, the next day I had the least amount of pain I've had in my neck for three straight years. So much so that actually my brain couldn't entirely relax, because I kept waiting for the other pin to drop and thinking it would come back (which I think tells me something about the brain connection to chronic pain). I had a few slight pain days that week, but nothing nearly so bad. I know that some of you will know what I'm talking about when I say that I do feel something profoundly shifted in my body. I went for another treatment recently and while I can't say I'm totally pain free, I have remained without the excruciating pain and continue to have these moments of doing things I normally would be doing but distracted by pain, but realizing that same pain isn't there. Again it's not fully gone and it's still early days since I've only been twice, but it's very much improved, and when I went to the physio like double the amount I never felt this kind of change.
So, all that to say, I recommend giving osteopathy a try if you have chronic pain in a part of the body that just isn't going away. I don't know why, but up until I went I kind of thought it was not very legitimate so I never even considered it, but boy am I glad I did. I still think treating infections and MCAS etc is hugely important and am still treating, but I like this idea of getting at things from all angles.