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Details
(ID=324)
Date:
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Name:
Julie Horton
Date:
17-nov-2009
Main Condition
Main Condition:
Hearing Disorders - Severe vertigo. Menieres Disease
My Brief Story
Brief Story:
I’ve been having violent bouts of vertigo off and on for years. The vertigo spells were so severe that there’s no way to fully describe what I went through other than at times it felt like pure hell. I would get so dizzy that I couldn’t stand, walk, see clearly or speak. I would throw up over and over. My heart rate would skyrocket. And my body would feel like it was on fire. I would say, no matter what it looked like, it felt a thousand times worse.
In many dark moments, I would say that I’d rather be dead. Sorry, God. I hate putting those words down in writing. It doesn’t even sound like me. But in those moments, I was feeling that defeated.
After the attacks I would be exhausted. I would experience brain fog. And at times it felt like my brain wasn’t working like it should. I sometimes felt confused or slow to understand if too many things were going on at once. I would feel like I was being pushed and pulled at the same time. Despite all of this, I had people tell me, “but you look pretty good.” Are you kidding me? Inside I felt like I was some sort of freak mad scientist’s project. Everyday there was some sort of internal struggle that no one could see.
I started seeing a specialist for hearing and balance disorders and was told that I had Meniere’s Disease. I changed my lifestyle to try to make it as stress-free as possible, upped my exercise and ate as healthy as I possibly could in hopes of fending off the violent attacks. My friends would say that I was the healthiest sick person they knew. I even went on a low-salt diet and water pill for several years, as the theory was that too much sodium created excess pressure in the body (interesting), which supposedly made the symptoms worse. And at some point along the way I lost almost all the hearing in my right ear.
I would feel better (but still not normal) for periods of time, as I learned how to adjust to “my new normal.” But then out of what seemed like nowhere I would have another violent attack. They were so bad at one point that I had endolymphatic-mastoid shunt surgery to try to ease the symptoms. Several months later, the attacks came back at full force. I was having severe vertigo spells every day, sometimes multiple times a day.
My specialist me that the only other thing he could do for me was a form of brain surgery called Selective Vestibular Neurectomy that would cut the balance nerves on the weak side of my vestibular system. Supposedly, I’d never get vertigo again (“in that ear”), but it would be a long road to recovery (I hear compared to that of a stroke victim). Of course that sounded insane and barbaric, but I was close to signing up for it because I was so sick and desperate. I shudder as I write that. I came so close.
Enter, a miracle. About a week before my pre-op surgery appointment, (or as I refer to it now…one of the dumbest things that I almost ever did) I see a flyer for Upper Cervical Care in a 5-k race goodie bag (Thank you Dr. Nathan Vuagniaux. He told me later that the idea to put the flyer in the bag was his last minute decision at 3:00 that morning.) from a race I didn’t even get to participate in because by that time I was so sick again. I think someone upstairs didn’t want me to have that surgery, ya think? You can’t even guess how many times I’ve said thank you this year.
I was intrigued by the first sentence of the flyer:
“When your head is not properly aligned (balanced) the signals that travel from your brain through your nervous system to every part of your body can be disrupted or distorted.”
YES! I’m listening! That summed up how I had been feeling for years, but I had no idea how to put that into words. I remember at times feeling like there’s no way I have a disease. It’s my head that’s causing the problem! But I didn’t know how to voice that, as I had never heard of this before from a medical professional.
I went for x-rays, which showed that my upper cervical spine was so severely misaligned (due to four concussions over my 38 years) that my brainstem was twisted. A damaged brainstem. Um, what? This was so far off from anything I had ever heard about, read about or googled about. My specialist never told me anything close to this. I was in a state of “huh?” for days.
Since those nerves were damaged, they could not communicate properly with the rest of my body. The brain-to-body signals were messed up, which resulted in severe vertigo, and a slew of other symptoms including rapid heartbeat which is a symptom I’ve had for years that no cardiologist could ever explain. In the morning my heart rate would be around 130. That’s almost double of what it should be. Can you imagine how that felt? I was told on several occasions by cardiologists, “your heart is healthy, your heart just beats too fast, we don’t know why it beats so fast, it’s normal for you, you’re not going to die, you must have anxiety.” I even went on a pill for a while that slowed down my heartbeat. And for some reason later, another doctor told me I could quit taking it. Just quit taking it. I did and my heart freaked out, and I wondered if I was having a heart attack. Finding out that my rapid heartbeat was the result of a twisted brain stem was a huge bonus discovery.
Dr. Nate (our hero) described my condition as one of the worst he’s ever seen and used the words “train wreck” to describe my upper cervical spine. I started treatment right away, which was a correction to the upper spine (C1 and C2 vertebrae) to get back in alignment so my body could start to heal itself naturally. Naturally! This was unreal to me. No medicine? No brain surgery? Just a non-invasive correction to jumpstart the healing process. Wow. Seemed so simple to me. Why am I just now hearing about this?
After one correction I was feeling better within a few days. I couldn’t believe it. It was the miracle I had been searching for.
Before the corrections, on a good day I couldn’t lie on my right side ever without getting dizzy. I couldn’t lie on my back, and I started sleeping with about eight pillows (seriously) because I would get dizzy laying down from the pressure it put on my brainstem. Of course at the time I didn’t know that was why it was happening.
Now I’m able to lie on my back without a single pillow. I can lie on my right side. That’s huge in my world. I can walk to my mailbox without making sure I have my “dizzy pills” with me, you know… just in case. And now I’m not always second-guessing, should I go here by myself? Should I do this or that? What if I have an attack? And I don’t have as many visual disturbances as I once did. And that was something that was so hard to explain to someone. I would just say, “things just don’t look right.”
Though the healing process takes some time, I’m now feeling so much better, getting my life back and starting to do things again that once brought joy to my life. I’m working out again, I’m not as “socially scared” to participate in, well everything, and making a goal list like you wouldn’t believe!
Basically, now that I’ve learned about Upper Cervical Care and know the benefits of it, it’s something that I’ll do for the rest of my life. It’s incredible stuff. Your brainstem is the communication line to the rest of your body. The body has the ability to heal itself of most ailments, but if there is interference, the brain and body can’t communicate to heal itself naturally, ultimately resulting in some sort of negative condition.
So I had been treated for four years for a disease that I don’t feel I even had, went through an unnecessary surgery and was about to sign up for another one.
I had told my balance specialist that I’ve had multiple head injuries and asked him are you sure this doesn’t have anything to do with the concussions? He replied with a stern no, and if anything made me feel stupid for even asking. I know differently now but I ended up paying him to cut my ear off, stick a piece of plastic in my endolymphatic sac which would change the way my inner ear worked for the rest of my life, in hopes of never getting vertigo ever again. And I end up getting sick again anyway and this time with more of a vengeance! Wow. And now he’s telling me the only other thing he can do for me is to cut my brain open, and I’ll have to spend my summer recovering like a stroke victim. What? But I was clueless enough and definitely sick enough to (almost) sign up for it.
I would love for my hearing and balance specialist to hear the facts of my Upper Cervical experience and ask him to be open to considering Upper Cervical Care as an alternative to his patients, especially to his Meniere’s patients and especially to his patients who have had head injuries. My problem wasn’t in my ear. He could never have fixed me.
As horrible as this nightmare has been for me… and for the people close to me (Thanks for hanging in there everyone - I can’t imagine what that must have felt like for Kevin), I feel that I had to go through it in order to come out with a fierce passion for spreading the word about Upper Cervical Care to those who are sick, desperate and hopeless.
Don’t just take one doctor’s word that “this is all that we can do for you.” Get a second, third, fourth, twentieth opinion! There ARE always other alternatives despite what one doctor is telling you. I believe Upper Cervical Care is the answer to a lot of conditions. Educate yourself. Knowledge is power!
I didn’t go through the all the puking and tears for nothin’, which is why I am becoming an Upper Cervical Advocate. Upper Cervical Care has changed my life and I believe it saved my life. And I’m paying it forward.
Chiropractor's Details
Name:
Dr. Nathan Vuagniaux
Practice:
Upper Cervical Health Centers of America
Has own X-Ray equipment.
Street Address:
#20 Ginger Creek Parkway
Suburb/City:
Glen Carbon
State/Province:
IL
Postcode/Zip:
62034
Country:
UNITED STATES
Telephone:
618-692-6992
Fax:
618-692-9792
Email:
nvuagniaux@hotmail.com
Web Site:
www.uppercervicalcare.com
Chiropractic Technique:
Kale Brainstem
