Hi Diamondcut,
I have to say that I felt quite good after 5 days of bedrest, when I undertook the autonomic testing in 2004!
Yes, the head instability is a good question, as there are at least a dozen tests that have been developed over the years to supposedly test for this, the most popular is Powers (but there’s also Dublin, Wholeys, Kauffmans, Lees, and several more that I’ve applied to my xrays and scans – but I can’t think of their names at the moment!) The most popular, that has been adopted I believe is Powers.
Anyway, as I say, I tried a whole boat-load of these against my xrays and scans and I passed most of the tests, which indicated I was ‘normal’ I only failed a couple. Unfortunately for me, the hospitals that had looked at my x-rays etc, had not used the test that trapped my Craniocervical Instability (CCI). At that time, no test had so far been developed that could ‘trap’ every possibilty of this type of injury.
However, in Dec 2007, a paper was released by Drs Milhorat, Bolognese, Nishikawa, Francomani etc that made a real good attempt at ‘covering all possibilities’ of this type of injury (Dr Diana has a link to this paper, on her handouts page, I believe). You do need to compare laying down with standing up MRI’s though, if I remember rightly – it’s a few years since I looked at it! It seems more than a little complex at first BUT after some study, I grasped it and applied it to my xrays and scans and HEY PRESTO the mystery was revealed – blatant craniocervical instability!
You don’t need to have full blown Chiari to be suffering symptoms. It’s unfortunate that most neuro’s only look for full blown Chiari. They never contemplate the effect that ‘low lying cerebellar tonsils’ (or cerebellar ectopia as it’s sometimes called) will have, if you also have an underlying retroflexed odontoid (that the peg like bone in your neck, C2, that points backwards in some of us) combined with craniocervical instability – if you have this, every time you bend your head down (in flexion) you are poking your brainstem from the front and crushing your hind brain from the back!!
This is one way that wearing a rigid collar helps, it stops you putting your head into flexion!
Regards
Barbara
(UK)
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Head & Neck Injury (June 2002); Mild Concussion; Post Concussion Syndrome; GERD; Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS); Peripheral Vestibular Dysfunction; Mild Radiculopathy & Small Fibre Neuropathy (right leg & foot resp.); Partially Empty Sella Oct 2002 (worse by Oct 2004); Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD); 3mm Cerebellar Ectopia (Chiari 0); Cranio-cervical Instability (CCI) with Posterior Gliding (PG) & Cranial Settling (CS); Brain Compression; Retroflexed Odontoid; Stretched/Elongated Brainstem; Mild Scoliosis; Ehlers Danlos (EDS) type 111; Osteoarthritis; Arrhythmias (Bigeminy and Trigeminy). . . and now Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Mineral (Mg,Mn,Cu,Zn,Selenium), CoEnzymeQ10 & Vitamin (C,D,B3,B12) Deficiencies!