Cervical Spondylosis 'Delayed' Symptoms. How C/S Symptoms manifest themselves.

[physiobob]

How about I changed it from a '!' to a ' ' which is to day that I wholeheartedly agreed with your 'note to self' and appropriate others

[gerry the neck]

How about I changed it from a '!' to a ' ' which is to day that I wholeheartedly agreed with your 'note to self' and appropriate others

That would be fine....if it weren't for my allergy to emoticons and their occassional misuse. Poor things must be sick of forum abuse. Maybe, it's just me !

[gerry the neck]

Patient v Therapist Relationships

I suppose one of the good things about posting my views on an anonymous forum like this, is the fact that I would never dare expressing them in real time i.e. at the GP's, at the P/therapist's or at the Neurologist's. I simply can't afford to risk alienating professionals who are my gateway to medications, p/therapy or surgery. Whenever I have, in the past, expressed doubts about anything, it has usually ended up in embarassing silences, not good for either party. I've also always got the impression, from communicating on other forums with C/S patients, that they consider these encounters as something of a 'charade' where, no matter how disappointed the patient is with any advice, they should just accept it, because that's all that's on offer. An unlikely situation of the patient patronising the professional !

The patient is aware that the professional's attitude is tempered by their own uncertainties about treatment, although the professional will try to mask this aspect, and, as such, all is forgiveable in an unperfect world. Perhaps it's the attempted masking which makes it all so obvious ! It all works on certain levels, keeping the wheels turning. However, it can also be a systemised denial of patient inclusion, perhaps because it is already assummed that there exists, at the core of treatments for the condition, a presummed inevitability about degenerative processes, and the prospects for improved treatments are inherently bleak.

As C/S patients, we are aware of, and encounter these scenarios regularly. In a way, I suppose, we assume the charade before any treatment, and we don't like to leave a lingering sense of futility behind us when we leave...that could count against us in any future dealings. We don't want to shut any doors. Gradually, we become complicit in the general denial of the usefulness of questionable therapies, or we stop attending. Strangely, either choice will probably have few repercussions on our general well-being, because the therapies don't guarantee improvement, and the lack of therapies doesn't necessarilly mean a worsening of symptoms.

I know the choice that attracts me most, because I have no desire to be a victim on two levels. Once we strip away the supposition that the professionals might hold all the answers where C/S is concerned, we free ourselves to face the dilemmas it creates and perhaps to trying to manage these on a home-based, daily level. It is so much easier to accept our own attemps / failures than it is to accept why advised therapies are not working. And if something does happen to work, it's usually a reward that makes all the effort worthwhile.

One last observation here. The word 'Regenerative' never crops up in any description of C/S. 'Degenerative' is the classic description upon which all theory is based. Some time ago I read a book called 'The Body in Action' by Sarah Keys, which disputes the 'degenerative' overview and seems to make a lot of patient friendly sense. On the downside, I found I didn't agree with her suggested regime for exercising. Can't win 'em all.

Gerry

[gerry the neck]

Not doing a reply to myself here. Just another 'note to self'. But, as I consider myself part of the 'Global Self' anyway, that seems ok !

I'm going to go out on a limb here and try to explain, in layman's terms, what might be at the core of the problem of why so many long term C/S patients are not content with available treatments. And, it's got nothing to do with the fact that they're just a load of whingers. Much the opposite, it causes the whingeing and moaning.

Firstly, I believe that my C/S condition, first diagnosed 30 years ago, to be an injury based ( I/B ) C/S, although this has never been confirmed. Suffice it to say that, at age 59, I have no other arthritic based ( A/B ) symptoms. Therefore, the C/S is unlikely to have been caused by an underlying arthritic condition, which would, in turn, have it's own 'wear and tear' 'degenerative' connotations. I also believe that the (vast ?) majority of C/S cases, particularly where the elderly are concerned, are arthritic based ( A/B ) and, as such, they come with a certain inevitability of degenerative rates of deterioration normally associated with underlying arthritic conditions.

However, with ( I/B ) C/S this isn't the case, where an injury may have occured at a young age, and the neck may be continually trying to repair itself, without the hindrance of an underlying condition. This constant / intermittent / unpredictable process, (regeneration), over many years, even before any trapped nerve symptoms might manifests themselves, can cause 'associated' reactive symptoms, which I would argue are more difficult for the patient to deal with, because of their nature, than any actual trapped nerve symptom. In fact, when a trapped nerve symptom does eventually occur, it is very likely that the 'associated' symptoms will ease off, simply because the neck no longer needs to protect a nerve from being trapped....it's already happened ! This is what happened to me a couple of years ago, and kickstarted my attempts to understand the complex changes I was experiencing.

Meanwhile, the professionals, seemingly, are basing their overview of C/S on recognising that the majority of cases are ( A/B ) and are elderly, with all the inevitability that that implies. Any consideration of long term ( I/B ) C/S seems to come under the same umbrella, and therefore, treatments are meted out the same for both. This might be a mistake because it doesn't necessarilly take into account that, as with long term ( I/B ) C/S, any regenerative reactive processes which the neck engages in over long periods, whilst further 'wear and tear' only progresses at normal rates, as in a healthy neck. What I'm really saying is that different therapies should apply where one condition ( A/B ) is definitely degenerating, but the other ( I/B ) is constantly repairing itself. Perhaps they ought to be classified separately so the appropriate treatments can be targeted properly.

There's also the implication that a younger ( I/B ) C/S patient will experience 'associated' symptoms without having the luxury of manifesting a 'real' symptom which other people can relate to and empathise with. Maybe they should just be grateful they haven't got ( A/B ) C/S, but that's just meaningless, speculative, relative comparisons, as we all know. The 'associated symptoms can cause all sorts of difficulties ( a sub-text of undermining disbelief ) when dealing with others, and yes, even when dealing with professionals.


So there you have it. Plenty for any aspiring P/therapist to get their teeth into. Use or discard at will !