Date:   12/15/2011 1:36:43 PM ( 13 y ago)
Hits:   13,339
URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1891220

At the urging of a friend, I am posting my health history here in hopes that someone may have some insight to help me out...

My life changed in an instant in 2002. I was a brand new scuba diver on my first dive trip when I was a very healthy 25 year-old man. First dive went fine, but on the second, I surfaced and when I took the regulator out of my mouth, it felt like I got hit by a ton of bricks. I was immediately dizzy and felt drunk / confused / out-of-it. I had a weird pressure sensation like someone was pressing on the top of my head. I discussed this with my dive partner, but we agreed it did not sound like the bends, so we continued on our vacation. I was miserable. The rest of the trip I slept 12 hours a night and still woke up feeling exhausted. I had strange pressure sensations in my head... on top, at the base of my skull, and in my face. The dizziness stayed too, to where I didn't feel comfortable driving. I developed a weird headache that was there 24/7 which my usual ibuprofen couldn't touch. And I just felt so crummy that I was extremely irritable, like my ability to feel any positive emotion just suddenly broke, leaving only negative ones.

Over the next few weeks my chewing muscles became chronically sore and tense, then the soreness crept to my neck and trapezius muscles. For a few days my eyes were incredibly bloodshot and had pain behind them, then that mysteriously went away. I started to get random pain in my face, jaws, and teeth. It was a burning pain that would shift around randomly to different areas. After a few weeks of this I felt my mood spiraling down into a horrible depression. All these symptoms remain (constant, 24/7), except the dizziness gradually went away over a few years. Somewhere along the line I also developed a 'nervous stomach', where it just always feels like it has a little knot in it, maybe like mild IBS (seemed to go away when I was on elavil for sleep). I can deal with the pain from the muscle soreness / tension, but NOT with the fatigue and the way it affects my mood: I feel brain fogged / can't focus / can't enjoy anything. I can smile and laugh but it doesn't even feel good. Every minute of my day is now an act, putting on a good face so others don't know what I'm going through. I feel like a zombie; a shell.

I started seeing doctors... I won't go into every single one, but rest assured I've run the gauntlet with ENTs, neurologists, infectious disease, scuba-specialists, chiropractors, dentists, osteopaths, naturopaths, massage therapists etc. No test has ever shown anything wrong with me. I've taken more pills than I'd like to admit, tried more treatments than I can remember, and spent tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket because all the cool doctors don't take insurance. The only things that have shown any positive signs are:

- Some dental appliances - Early on I found a dentist who made me an NTI device, which got rid of my chronic headaches. It even had me starting to feeling better for about a week, but then I slid back and have been stuck ever since (though I was taking Antibiotics for Lyme at that time too, so I can't be completey sure the appliance was responsible, but I really don't think I have Lyme, though it seems impossible to be sure?). Other TMJ specialists have given me appliances with zero results or very minor ones. One guy would adjust my appliance every week and the next morning I'd awaken with a 10-20% improvement in tension and mood for 15 minutes, but then it would fade.

- Neuro Cranial Restructuring (NCR) - I've done two treatment rounds years apart (each consisting of the standard 4 visits... so 8 total sessions). Two days after the 2nd session, I woke feeling 30% better, the tension in my upper body seemed less and I could smile and it felt GOOD. I made breakfast with a huge grin on my face, finally enjoying something in my life for the first time in years, but within 30 minutes this faded and never returned, even on subsequent treatments.

- Ayahuasca - In desperation, I went to Peru to see shamans and drink ayahuasca. It was mostly terrifying and gave me some mild PTSD, but after my third ceremony, ALL the tension in my body released over and over and over. It was miraculous and I felt amazing; I felt completely cured. But this lasted only about half a day and did not recur with later ceremonies. I am too terrified to try this again, though I think of it often.

- Some supplements - I've tried a ton of supplements but tend to not handle them well, they give me stomach pain / upset and usually don't help at all. But last year I tried "The Way Up From Down" program (info available online for free). It mostly made me feel funky and hurt my stomach, but occasionally it would give me a few hours here and there of improved mood; it was very inconsistent and unpredictable. It even gave me my first two nights of refreshing sleep since 2002. But after a month or two, all positive effects stopped, so I stopped taking them (it was also causing me to lose weight... I am very light and can't afford that). I also did a hair test (showed just shy of counting rules for mercury, very high copper), and tried some ALA + DMSA chelation per Cutler as a trial. This tended to make my brain fog worse while on round; very rarely I would have small mood improvements for a few minutes here and there when off-round. But nothing consistent, and it could have been due to the supporting supplements, it's so hard to tell. I did 20 3-days rounds at 25mg ALA. I gave up due to lack of progress (note: I've never had any amalgams). I also tried a lot of zinc and Mo for the apparent copper issue, but it didn't seem to help. I'm getting another hair test soon to see if things still look the same now that it's a year later.

- Frequent deep tissue massage - I tried getting a deep tissue massage every other day for 2 weeks a few years ago. By the end, my trapezius muscles felt noticeably less tense. My mood wasn't much better, but my ability to think and focus was modestly improved. But this was really expensive and within 3 days of not getting a massage, everything was back to my 'normal'.

So for me, the tension in my face, neck, scalp, shoulders seems to be causing the issue, like the scuba dive somehow messed up these muscles and they won't go back to normal. Because when that tension gets released or lessened, I feel better immediately. Such rapid progress wouldn't be possible if this were really Lyme or candida or parasites etc, right? But if this really is a TMJ issue, why don't I have pain in the TMJs and why don't I respond to treatments very well? I'm willing to accept the idea that something else is causing the muscles to behave poorly (other heavy metals, infection, anxiety disorder etc.), but am not sure how to figure this out.

I'd love any input anyone has!

 

<< Return to the standard message view

fetched in 0.05 sec, referred by http://www.curezone.org/forums/fmp.asp?i=1891220