Tag: neuro

The beat goes on

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Looking for some meaning in this holding pattern of life

I find only the dings along the bottom of the barrel, cold and damp.

Went on a little adventure with my love only to land in a world of hurt

The ghastly symptoms embarrass me in front of a friend not yet known.

I really try to find a way out of this hell, I really do

With answers only to wait, check this, measure that as it is not time yet.

If only I had the eternal eyes of my Savior perhaps the angst would be less

The long naps on a sunny day awakened with distress of illness would be no bother.

“When?” would be replaced with patience, “why?” with simple faith and trust,

Pain with appreciation of endurance granted only by my dearest Lord.

Hold me now as it is too late for my strength to carry me any more

As this heart ticks off more moments, let me know that with You I will go on . . .

 

The next big thing

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It’s a new year so perhaps it is appropriate that the Lord has shown me some new hope for overcoming the serious illness that I have been battling for the last 6 years.  Prepare for another brain dump!  Are you ready?

cranial nerves, TMJ, vasovagal, seizures, epilepsy, non-epileptic, convulsions, vagal, nerve

An Ears, Nose, and Throat Doctor (ENT) suggested to me that I might look into vagus nerve issues.  He said it might be related to why I had a seizure attack in his office after he put a long-handled mirror down my throat during his examination.  As soon as I stabilized 20 minutes later, I pulled out my smart phone and Googled what I would learn are called “vasovagal seizures.”  Holy cow!  There is a lot written about this topic!

The vagus nerve originates in the medulla oblongata of the brain stem and extends through the neck to the heart, stomach and other organs of the body.  It comprises the “parasympathetic nervous system” which is the opposite of the body’s “fight or flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system.  A vagal nerve stimulator (VNS) can be inserted into the body with an electrode wrapped around a branch of the left vagus nerve in the neck (not the right as that one travels directly to the heart).  The VNS sends tiny, intermittent electrical impulses to the vagus nerve to calm the heart, prevent fainting for persons dealing with syncopal episodes, depression, and even seizures.  A person with vasovagal seizures can place a magnet over the VNS when he or she senses an “aura” or sense of impending doom that an episode is imminent.  (I understand this phemomenon well.) The electrical stimulation, once correctly calibrated for the person, can help prevent this specific type of seizure.  No medication is needed although some patients with vagus nerve dysfunction and fainting spells take beta blockers (or herbal alternatives) to help manage the related cardiac symptoms.  (If accurate and not affected by the shaking, my blood pressure dropped significantly during a severe episode recently.)

Forgive me if I don’t have this exactly right as I am new to this topic!  What fascinates me is that persons with vasovagal seizures can present with some of the same symptoms and triggers that I have experienced:  ringing in the ears plus convulsive episodes after  noxious sensory stimuli and needlesticks.  Gratefully, I do not have fainting episodes; I have suddenly fallen asleep when the episodes occur in bed.   But wait, there’s more!  Because there are at least 2 branches of the upper vagus nerve that run near the jaw line, some dentists have suggested that the vagus nerve plus the trigeminal and other cranial nerves (as shown above) may be affected by dysfunction of the temporal mandibular joint (TMJ).  I have suffered TMJ pain for years after a double whiplash injury when in an auto accident in 1996.  I never was able to work full time thereafter due to my injuries.

The upper branch of the left and right vagus nerve runs along the face to end in a couple of points on each ear, respectively.  It seems plausible to me that I could use touch pressure, cold stimulation or even medical grade magnets to stimulate these points.  (Google vagus nerve stimulation for more ideas.)  It also seems plausible to me that any tight muscles or fascia of the face could press on these nerves contributing to distraction of the TMJ joint or impairing the function of the nerves affected.  “Occulsion” of the TMJ (which also includes disc displacement) can lead to a host of symptoms which I have experienced including headaches, pain, clicking sounds, swallowing and possibly sinus issues.

Wouldn’t you know but there are dental professionals who specialize in TMJ Disorders who have had success using special dental positioning appliances in reducing the tic-like symptoms of persons with movement disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s or Tourettes Syndrome).  They use ALF and Geld devices for the upper and lower jaws.  Holy cow again!  Who knew that a specially crafted mouth splint, designed to raise, displace, or widen the palette and jaw bones of the TMJ, could affect the brain so profoundly?

Well I kinda did.  I heard about this a few years ago related to TMJ and have been following one prominent dentist in this area of specialty for a couple of years.  My medical doctor/chiropractor referred me to a TMJ specialist out of town a few years ago.  For less money, my husband and I decided to have our local dentist fabricate a TMJ splint for me; later the dentist fabricated an anti-snoring mouth guard.  Both could have helped different aspects of this serious illness but they did not.  I was unable to tolerate wearing either appliance and would choke on them when the seizure attacks came at night.  I gave up.  So sad.  Years passed and nearly a thousand more violent convulsive episodes.

Did I tell you that another trigger was to simply eat food?  I thought it was a reaction to the food that I was eating, paid for allergy-type testing and retesting, changed my diet many times to try and end the episodes that often started at the kitchen table.  Many times my hubby had to carry me to the sectional or bed when I could not walk on my own or had  collapsed.  Whoa.  What if it was the very action of chewing that was triggering them?

The vagus nerve and the TMJ issues appear to me to be related.  The video above gives a profound example of how changing the positioning of the jaw can affect neurological symptoms of tics.  This is big news.  What I will do with this information is still unclear.  I favor starting with low-tech mouth appliances before the vagal nerve stimulator surgery, if indicated.  I have begun researching the literature, interviewing Dentists and Oral Surgeons in this field, joined a few discussion groups online, prayed, and talked things over with Steve.  For the VNS I would need to find yet another neurologist to see me.  Proceeding with formal assessments and treatment for the dental appliance will require regular travel to offices out-of-State and thousands of dollars in expenses.  Very likely, insurance will not cover most of the costs; not sure aboit the VNS.  But what if it is a functional, positional issue causing the daily episodes? A VNS would moss the root cause.  Something good seems possible.  I have hope again!

There is much to consider.  In the meantime, there are simple TMJ tests and exercises in addition to vagus nerve stimulation techniques that I found online that I have already started experimenting with at home.  The results are promising.  Yeah God for YouTube videos!  I am so grateful to have resources when I am searching for them in the middle of the night . . . with things to try when the seizure attacks are worse.

Yeah, I am up again late at night once again.  By the way, the parasite treatments appear to have helped some with the exception of getting blindsided by significant triggers (like having a blood draw about 2 weeks ago that triggered 4 hours of non-stop seizures, resulting in another trip to the emergency room and sigmificant increase in head and neck pain, tinnitus, ugh!).  One expert has suggested that improving the alignment of the facial/cranial/neck structures can help overall head and neck drainage; this could include everything from sinus mucous to lymph, blood flow, and cerebral spinal fluid.  Better drainage would surely help my detox protocols work better that and perhaps prevent or resolve the multiple infections I battle that may be affecting my brain, my central nervous system.

We have really got to figure this out folks.  Lord, is your hand in this next big thing for me or not-so-much?  I am hanging on . . . hanging on to you.  Will you graciously lead Steve and me as to whether or not we should proceed?  We need you now sweet Jesus.

I’ll let you know, Gentle Reader, the answer as it unfolds.  I know that my Lord will lead us!

JJ

 

Into the clearing

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When a calming washes over me with which I am unfamiliar

I wonder if it could be here to stay?  Oh my merciful Lord, please!

The headache barely whimpers anymore and her pain cousin screams less

Making me wonder if something real is happening:  “is it live or Memorex?”

Napping fills my afternoons, pill counting still dominates my days, overnights

With fewer medical appointments I can listen to my own body better

And experiment with all that I have learned, all my Great Physician has taught.

Some little sewing projects have kept me going through this stage of recovery

I’ll share it with you if I ever get them done with scraps of stuff from here and there,

Just like life isn’t it when putting pieces together then ripping out the crooked ones?

Maybe someday it will look pretty or be useful somehow . . . until then my Maker “sows.”

What will I reap when the seizures finally stop?  Will life become filled with color and smiles?

Alas until then, Gentle One, watch this space with me for I am hopeful again, not as bad,

Yes at last, I am hopeful again.  JJ

Treatment Update

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Time for a treatment update and some good news!  Yes, things aren’t as bad.  🙂

My major focus with my health since I started this blog has always been to stop the residual, daily convulsive episodes that have plagued me for over 5 years.  More recently my treatment plan has centered around treating a gut infection that appears to be related.  Some call it Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) and specifically for me it might be due to a clostridia species infection.  Regardless, the gut-brain connection is real and affects neurotransmitters in the brain.  A myriad of neurological issues can result when these chemicals are deficient or out of balance.  Specific medications and nutritional supports directed by a functional medicine doctor in the past nor my genetic coach/naturopathic physician more recently seemed promising but did not help.  Over the past 5 1/2 years, my medical doctor and I have also addressed or ruled out a plethora of other avenues (biotoxin illness, Lyme disease, mercury and lead toxicity, nutritional deficiencies, dental factors, epigenetic expression, pain/structural complications, the endocannibinoid system with CBD oil, psychological issues, ruling out brain or cardiac anomalies, sleep issues, etc.).  But what about the dull ache in my tummy?

SIBO, small, intestinal, bacterial, overgrowth, abdominal, pain, tummy, stomach, appendicitis, clostridia, infection, test, OAT

I did an experiment with a hand held far infrared (FIR) device designed to treat pain.  I used to sell the KenkoWave when I was an Independent Wellness Consultant for a Japanese health technologies company called NIKKEN.  Pain in the right lower quadrant of my abdomen has persisted for over a year.  A comprehensive medical workup yielded no clues so I decided to shine the FIR light onto my tummy.  After just 2 minutes, I had a 2-hour, violent, non-stop convulsive episode that would not respond to any remedy we tried!  I hung on for dear life!  I experimented some more the next couple of days with the same result:  an hour of non-stop episodes after only 60 seconds!  Holy cow!  Maybe the cause is in there somewhere?  By this time I had gotten the results for the THIRD SIBO test coupled with an Organic Acids Test (from Genova Diagnostics and Great Plains Laboratories, respectively) with severe and high markers respectively.  Over the next month, a plan of attack came together.

Somehow treating SIBO last year with an antibiotic (that stays in the gut called Xifaxan) was not enough to solve the problem.  The current round began with about a week of a powerful bio-botanical followed by a nasty antibiotic called Flagyl or Metronidazole.  The drug makes me nauseous so I take another pill for that.  I am not fond of drugs but at this point I will do it if it KILLS THE BEAST!!!  Gratefully, the abdominal pain has already come down.  This leads me to the good news:

  • One-point reduction in the 1-10 pain scale.
  • Less reactivity to noxious stimuli and pain that used to trigger seizure attacks.
  • Shorter episodes that are generally less violent.
  • One less episode most days at my most vulnerable times:  falling asleep or waking up.
  • Clearer thinking for some part of more days.
  • Less stress, fear, sadness, and anxiety.
  • Fewer headaches.
  • Less food sensitivities slightly expanding my food choices.
  • Increased ability to tolerate more supplements prescribed by my doctors per my test results.
  • Ability to work in the garden about once per week.
  • Ability to get to bed before midnight up to 3 nights per week.  (I often stay up late to avoid seizure attacks falling asleep.  Sometimes this has helped in the past.)
  • Movement in a better direction on several laboratory test and scan results.

The changes also appear to have been impacted positively by taking Low Dose Naltrexone.  Persons with autoimmunity diseases and fibromyalgia often use it to reduce a variety of symptoms.  I did not do well on a different dose in the past but I believe the Lord led me to do some research and prompt me to try it again at a lower dose.  This started the list of improvements noted above with the reduction in chronic muscle and joint pain.  Praise the Lord!  Treating the gut infection followed and here we are.

I am encouraged and hope you are as well, Gentle Reader.  Lord willing, I am going to get well!

If you are someone reading this who is struggling with severe illness, please let me know so I may pray for you.  And please don’t give up!  If I can make it through hours per day of head-banging, you can make it through what you are dealing with too.  You are not alone.  Keep trusting in the Lord to see you through each moment, to guide you and comfort you as only He can do so.  He promises to never leave us or forsake us and will always be near if we but call upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He sees us on our bed of sickness.  He hears us.  And one day He will come again in glory for us, taking us to a place where there will be no more suffering or weeping.  He promised!

Thank you for following my journey dear one.  Take care, JJ

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Dealing with the trauma of illness

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Not that I have a total handle on this topic or anything but hey, I have learned a few things worth sharing . . .

Every day for over 5 years I have suffered waking seizure attack episodes of varying duration and intensity.  For over a year (ending last year) they averaged 2 to 5 hours per day!  At least once per month they would spike up to 12 hours on and off in a single day, sometimes requiring an Emergency Room intervention.  I have been to 3 different emergency rooms a total of FIFTEEN TIMES including once by ambulance.  After nearly a year of IV antibiotics for chronic Lyme disease these episodes are generally less than an hour per day now with some positive changes in triggers and patterning.  Significant testing and other treatments, research, and patient “networking” remain my primary occupation.  I am grateful for the improvements that have come including overall less pain from the repeated physical trauma of “head-banging” and wretched writhing movements (thanks to  periodic intervals of physical therapy and periodic chiropractic adjustments).

The journey is hell at times.  At my worst times I have questioned if I could endure this level of suffering one more moment.  My breathing has stopped numerous times and there has been one significant near-death experience with visions of “white lights.”  I have had to pray many times for the Lord to give me the strength to get to the bathroom when alone during hours of convulsive episodes.  Every type of healthcare provider I have ever seen and most close friends and family has witnessed them.  My husband is a saint, having cared for me often late into the night then getting up and going to work the next day.   A total of probably a hundred times he has had to carry me across our home when I could not walk, feed me, take me to the bathroom, assist me with bathing, take me to the emergency room, run urgent errands, and the like as my primary caregiver.  Probably a thousand times he has volunteered to bring me some type of “rescue remedy” to attempt to get the seizures to stop (generally at night or upon waking in the morning).  He never complains.  He is my hero for sure.

In other blogs you will read about all the avenues we have pursued to try and get me well:  chronic Lyme disease, heavy metal detox, mold remediation, obscure infections, dietary restrictions, neurology workups, dental issues, nutritional deficiencies, epigenetic testing and coaching, electrosmog, gut issues, yada, yada, yada.  I spend hours per week researching, managing my healthcare, dealing with extreme mold avoidance and other preventative strategies, and accessing my support system online or by phone.  Church worship is also online to minimize triggers from environmental stimuli, however this strategy also increases my social isolation.  Trips away from home are generally focused on essentials during my best times of day and occasionally with transportation help from a couple of sweet gals from church.  I wear a mask in their cars and sit on a towel covering the passenger seat but we find a way to connect anyways during those trips when help is needed about once per month.

As you can see, there is much abby-normal stuff during my days.  Social isolation and the ongoing seizure attacks are my biggest heartaches.  The latter causes both physical and emotional trauma when they are severe which still happens two of the seven days per week still marked by ongoing episodes.  The two this week included:  1) a violent reaction to an ingredient in an new injected medication that I need to treat osteoporosis and 2) a new strategy to treat severe Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.  Both of these conditions very likely are complications of ongoing illness as they were not present before I got sick on October 11, 2011.  Each new diagnosis will bring its own special kind of discouragement if I don’t keep my worries in check with my hopes placed in the redemption promised with belief in Jesus Christ.  Already I mentioned a few of the strategies I use for managing the social isolation.  What about the trauma?

I manage the trauma of severe, ongoing illness by trusting in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This used to mean that I trusted in the promise of Jeremiah 29:11:

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  (NIV)

Surely if there is a purpose for all of this suffering then it won’t be wasted.  It becomes part of a greater plan, encouraging me enough to endure even the worst of the pain and anguish I am enduring.  This viewpoint has helped me cope during the first 5 1/2 years of this illness.  It carried me through the decisions to spend the rest of some savings with the hope of a cure and to endure the side effects of such treatments.  I can look back and point to the skills and information that I have learned, write about them here, take to heart the remarks of others encouraged by my stories, and note the Divine sequencing of many things that have happened along the way.  The Lord has provided so much for my care that gratitude has replaced temporary doubts, frustration, discouragement, intractable pain, and so on.  Seeing some meaning in what I am going through or shortly thereafter, gave both me and Steve enough hope to keep moving forward no matter what the “cost” may be.  But what about when the process stopped?  The money ran out.  I am not recovered.  There was no where else to go this past Winter when I got to the bitter end of my proverbial rope with worse symptoms than I could ever imagine!  Yeah, that was the onset of facial shingles in December.  More hell and a hospitalization too.

That’s when I needed to learn to trust whether there would be a purpose I could see or if there would be no purpose or direction at all.  I discovered that complete trust in our Heavenly Father builds faith and the strength to carry each of us through ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.  It’s a supernatural gift bestowed upon believers in God Almighty who trust Him.  For those of us chosen to travel a path of excruciating suffering, we must find our way to this level of trust in the Lord our God.  Our faith will grow as a result and both will carry us through the dark times no matter how dark they become.  Did I tell you that frightful demonic attacks have come during the worst of the waking seizures?  Yes.  It’s more terrifying than I can describe but may try to do so another time.   At those times only the spiritual armor of God (see Ephesians 6:10-18) and this reassurance spoken by the apostle Paul will quiet my spirit.  God is greater than any threat in this world, in my world, period.

2 Timothy 1:7  (NKJV)

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Because what is my worst fear anyways?  Dying?  For me it is probably not dying but suffering even more with dying as the end result.  So finding peace when dealing with the trauma of physical and mental suffering must be accompanied by the reminders of Who overcame death, in Whom have I placed my trust, and in Whom will I find victory over my fears.  To extinguish the fearful thoughts I must again turn to the “sword of the Spirit” as described in Ephesians 6:17 as the word of God.  In the Book of John we find Jesus comforting a grieving friend when:

John 11:25-26 (NIV)

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Not only did Jesus overcome the grave when He rose from the dead on Resurrection Sunday (Easter), He gave those who believe in Him the promise of a glorious eternal life in His presence where there will be no more weeping, no more sorrows.  There will be rewards for the faithful too.  There will be perfect peace, love, and joy forever.

the cross

I may never see healing this side of heaven.  I may see healing this side of heaven.  I really have no idea which one it will be or when it will happen.  In the meantime I will simply trust in Jesus Christ who knows my name and sees my suffering (Psalm139) and ordains it somehow for good.  He will be here with me always.  I ain’t dead yet so I trust that He will add His grace and power to see me through to my last breath.  Until then Gentle Reader I ask you,

Do you believe this too?

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