Snapple2020
Before you leave the bogs, I have a couple of questions, did I read you suffered from rib pain?
I have finally finished my truck technician days, no longer will I be heavy lifting and exerting myself, took Isaiahs advice(went about it the wrong way,though, got fired/rehired/walked out) (( they know of my ES, did they ease my work load)) (((NO))) but since quitting the all over rib aching has gotten worse.
And my back feels like its burning,from shoulders to hips, is a similar feeling to the jaw burn I get, can’t pin point it if I push and poke areas as it seems all over.
Can you relate to this?
Just took a spin into town to collect a new drug for me to try
Lioresal.
Took my road motorbike and I have pins and needles in my right hand.
How do you know if its ES or lung problems,? or anything else?
Can’t turn down the tinnitus, its like living next door to someone who has a worn washing machine bearing squealing on a spin cycle.
How do you know it/think it/believe all the ailments are linked to ES and not think it could be a tumour, or something else?
My mind is saying for another lung xray
I can push the tip of the right SP and move it around the jaw, hoping to pull it off some nerves
Now my right sinus is blocked
I can unblock temporarily with right SP if i rotate the neck and move the SP into the jaw.
My next venture starts long distance truck driving, involving many ferry crossings and many hours sat doing nothing
On one hand it will be easier on the body physically but mentally I will not be able to occupy my self, hope the sound of my own truck wheels spinning may drown out the tinnitus, if it don’t maybe slip out on deck one night and go for a midnight dip in the channel 
Is ES causing every ache and pain north of the belly button or do I waste everyone’s time looking for something that isn’t there?
I double dropped the Lioresal and they done nowt.
I shoot a flare up soon so you can find away out in time for tea😊
I’m glad that you’re not doing the heavy work any more, would hope that will help in the longer term. I know while I was waiting for surgery I did have a long spell with other pains, I don’t know whether it was general inflammation, maybe the body gets into some sort of chronic cycle? Just my own theory, not a scientific fact! I did start getting symptoms of an autoimmune disease as well, I think it had to be linked, although I never pursued a diagnosis as the symptoms haven’t worsened. Things have improved, I think as after surgery alot of the anxiety left me, & I changed my diet too, reducing sugar, which helped as well.
Would you be able to listen to some podcasts while you’re driving? My son does alot of long journeys, he’s found some regular ones he listens to to keep him awake on the motorways!
Hi Jules, hows things
Indeed I will on the spotify.
Daily stoic, anything to do with motorcycle racing, recommendations please
The stress of fleet management, along with everything else, including living or trying to live with ES took its toll.
GP said take time off, and when asked I was told no.
It escalated, everything did, and I am left feeling like a failure.
Not able to perform, let down by a failing body.
It feels like it, even though I explain to myself I am aging, racing bikes, cycling, lifting weights😂 come on I’m the wrong side of 50
Wake up and smell the beans.
How do you know, without being told that you may have anxiety issues?
How do you know?
My partner thinks I came close to
A. a break down of some sort
B. being arrested again for fighting.
(it was with travellers and horses, I was fighting for their horses and got arrested for trying to help them.)
What autoimmune symptoms were they?
The list of ailments is increasing.
Lioresal kicked in and was like valium without the need to fall asleep.
Is your son an hgv driver?
Is an under rated profession. Is not easy, demanding a lot of skill, good judgement and self control.
I’m looking forward to some me time, catch up on reading, giving the body a rest from hard graft
Hi optimistic,
I’m really happy to hear the hard work days are behind you but sorry for the cycle that led to their end. Here’s my musings about why your back pain is worse since you stopped your job: When you were working long days under heavy trucks & moving heavy truck parts out of & into place, your neck, shoulder & back muscles were always at attention & you had pain. Now that you’ve stopped that work (NO YOU’RE NOT A FAILURE SO DON’T GO THERE!!!), those muscles that were always tight are trying to relax, but they were tense for so long, they don’t know how, so they’re in kind of a no man’s land i.e. not working hard but not able to take time off. I suspect this is at least part of why your pain has increased. Another thought is that when you were working doing that job, you were focused on the job & whatever little rest time you had at home, but now you have more time to feel what’s going on w/ your body so you’re more aware of how intense your pain is all the time.
As far as whether or not all of your symptoms are related to ES, only getting the styloids removed can answer that. We have members who have sinus issues, neck/shoulder & back pain which radiates from the neck/shoulders. Tingly fingers come from the brachial plexus which is a nerve bundle that starts in the neck. Leg/foot numbness tends to come from the thoracic or lumbar spine (middle & lower spinal sections). There are two syndromes - Upper Crossed Syndrome & Lower Crossed Syndrome which are each created by an imbalance in the muscle length & strength between the abdominal & back muscles. Upper Crossed Syndrome is a relatively big problem these days due to the massive amount of daily computer usage. Both are postural issues & can be corrected with the proper exercises which gives relief to the horrible pain they can cause. Driving a truck for hours & hours could predispose you to one or the other depending on how ergonomic your truck seat is & how conscientious you are about your posture when you drive. I’m not diagnosing you but do want you to be aware of these to help you prevent ending up w/ them & possibly a worse situation than you have now.
There’s a good chance you may have an anxiety issue. I say that based on your need for adrenaline. People who are more “tightly wound” often have anxiety struggles (adrenaline junkies are among those). This doesn’t necessarily mean all out anxiety attacks, but that can be part of the equation. Long term pain, life’s hardships, head injury, an irritated vagus nerve, etc. can also cause anxiety problems. Anti-depressants are normally what are used to help w/ anxiety. I have taken very low dose Lexapro for many years to help me feel more emotionally even.
I do agree w/ Jules that the longer one has ES, the more weird symptoms seem to crop up. That’s not to say they’re all caused by ES, but I think when our bodies/nerves are so compromised, one symptom begins to lead to another as our bodies try continuously to compensate for the things that are out of whack.
I’m glad the Lioresal has helped you, & I hope it continues to do so. I see it’s a muscle relaxer which is just what you need now.
Lower Crossed Syndrome
Upper Crossed Syndrome
Thanks, they were interesting, I know I do have very bad posture, need to work on that!
The autoimmune symptoms were dry eyes & mouth, tiredness, Raynauds & joint pains. Most likely cause would be Sjogrens Syndrome; the blood tests were okay can can be negative in a third of cases, next step would’ve been a lip biopsy, but given the treatment is usually immunosupressant medication & I wouldn’t want that, didn’t seem worth the hassle of a lip biopsy! But all the wondering definitely made me anxious, & that probably didn’t help with inflammation, a vicious circle!
You are not a failure! You have a rare & poorly understood neck problem, on top of dealing with the injuries from your accident, you are doing really well to be still standing & not to have given up! & well done for looking out for the horses, even if it got you arrested…
My son is a car saleman (groan, not a slimy one as my SIL called him, a pretty honest one!) Does do deliveries, & he has a long distance relationship too, so travels alot to see his gf! I’ll ask him who he listens to.
Glad the Lioresal finally kicked in!
Wow. Wow. Wow.
I’m speechless
Again wow wow. Wow
Speechless, there is so much knowledge here and information
Thank you ladies 
I am currently in between jobs, is okay if you devide the flowers this week? 
I am really grateful for your help
Speechless, there is so much knowledge here and information
Thank you ladies
I am currently in between jobs, is okay if you devide the flowers this week? I am really grateful for your help
I have to read and research, and keep going back to the replies I receive, it may look like I don’t give a justified reply to all of your questions answered but its a lot to take in
Stress and anxiety I think are causing more physical issues than the ES
Constipation caused by tramadol, stress, anxiety, too much sugar is not helping at the moment, comforting to here that I am not alone.
I’ve had so much pain from my chest, ribs, right shoulder I was convinced agsin that I have a tumor on the longs, despite lung scans, xray etc.
Still occasionally feel like I can’t breathe properly.
Notice no pain upon waking, until getting up and then feels like gravity causes most pain.
Trying to convince myself its anxiety stress and ES and deal with what I know instead of thinking its something other is difficult for me.
I hope I can make my appointment once I hit the road.
This is day six without tramadol, day three without asprin and I popped my third Lioresal last night and I put this down to the move from physical work.
I was told yesterday atva driver cpc course that I need a doctors note explaining that I am fit to drive a truck whilst on Tramadol so I do aim to be drug free if possible, by the end of the week.
Only take if absolutely necessary.
I hope my openness doesn’t make me appear week or attention seeking, I tell it like it is, at 4am I can’t sleep, is radio tinnitus again and can’t find the volume button.
Hope if anyone else reads this and it may help them, I haven’t any solutions to problems unless anyone needs a truck repairing or a motorcycle setting up.
Speaking of which is my sixth day without adrenaline so being as its Sunday and off to get some later 
Can’t completely give up drugs can I
Happy to share flowers! 
Very kind of you!
Hope all goes well with the driver training & going without the meds…take it easy today please!
Podcast son listens to mostly is a nerdy gaming one, but he says James Acasters is funny. Never listened to it myself, will have to trust his word on that!
I hope you got some sleep too…feel for you
No worries on the reply front. I know you “talk” when you can muster the mental strength. It’s a really tough season for you. I hope you enjoyed your adrenaline rush today! Yup, can’t go totally without!!
I’m really glad if the Lioresal is helping enough you can stop the Tramadol. On days you have to take it, try taking some magnesium citrate alongside. Mag citrate is a natural calming agent & laxative. Funny that the two go together side by side.
The feeling of not being able to breathe seems to be a symptom for some people & usually goes along w/ vascular ES though I had it sometimes & think in my case it was caused by my vagus nerve. That’s just to reassure you that your lung x-rays are accurate.
I agree w/ Jules…I hope you can sleep. That in itself is healing. Try that magnesium citrate I mentioned it does help w/ sleep. In the US it comes in a powdered form under the brand name CALM so you can mix it as weak or strong as you want, but beware, too much will clean you out from your head to your toes. 
Praying for you to get that truck driving position your aiming for & still for the doc appt in Dec.
Lol i ‘talk’ too much
I have to make them shorter
Is it possible for ES to cause brachial neuritis?
Two things going on at the moment are the burning shoulder and the brething issue
Is it control over the diaphragm?
If I could relate what is going on to anything I have read it woul be brac/neur
A visit to the quack to again, to check the lungs, said they are fine
Told me shoulder pain is Mus/skeletal, over use and strain.
Gave me more tramadol and anti inflammatory.
He didn’t know what ES was, he didn’t want to either.
He said ‘If what I give you doesn’t work, oxy won’t be an option for you.You must suck it up.I can’t give you anything else’
So I’m going off to suck it up.
Hi optimistic,
Breathing issues related to ES usually either come from vagus nerve irritation or from vascular compression or both, however, I received this link from someone today who’s had several ES surgeries & is having terrible difficulty breathing still. Someone sent it to her & I think it bears looking into in her case & potentially yours as well because of the amount of trauma your styloids have suffered & who knows what nerves they may be irritating at this point. I will say based on your brachial neurologists response to you, this is obviously something about which he knows nothing. You could send him this link & ask for his opinion.
Shoulder pain is most likely your accessory nerve being irritated by ES along w/ overuse. The accessory nerve being irritated is only making your pain worse. The right nerve pain med in the correct dose could go far in giving you relief but it may take some trial & error to figure out the correct med & dosage needed. Even then it can take several weeks to kick in & start doing its job.
Opt, so sorry I didn’t respond as I didn’t see this pop up.
No I did not have rib pain generally (some thorastic outlets stuff though). Alot of my pain I think relates to neck instability (from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome - connective tissue disorder) and it throws my shoulders, jaw, ear and neck into all types of dysfunction including down my arms. Just sitting causes pain everywhere, Add in the ES and Im a mess.
My body is feeling old and the things I used to do, if I try just cause more problems so I understand your feelings. Its not you that is a failure its your body failing you. You have pushed your body hard (like me) and now we are coming smack dab into our limitations which are hard to accept. I wonder too about possible autoimmune disorder. Either way, I have found that living a clean anti-inflammatory diet (low sugar, carbs, coffee and alcohol), as Jules suggested did help overall. This is easier said than done.
Due to COVID I feel my dysfunction worse because I cant do warm water aerobics which really helped my overall pain levels.
This upper crossed syndrome info is great! I have bad posture and know I need to work on that. All that heavy lifting opt, has not been kind to your body. I have found that stress does not help and my jaw worsened recently. I just came off work a week ago for my next surgery and only went back in August. The job was stressful and I hate it. These don’t help the psyche and can impact sleep making pain issues worsen. It is vicious cycle. Chronic pain can make you go mad so hang in there Opt.
Some days I suck it up too, others not so much. 
Thanks snapple. Hope you get back to bobbin in the pool soon
This was part of my physio after the femur shatter and I miss the pool myself, is something I need to get back to.
Is pay back for sure, bodies revenge on being busted, over used and abused.
Hi Denise, I hope you’re doing well. I saw Dr. Annino this week. I am considering surgery with him or Dr. Cognetti. I was wondering how your recovery has been. Many seem to experience nerve complications after surgery.
Hi @DeniseD — I currently have all of the symptoms you mentioned above to some extent. Would you feel comfortable describing the type of chest pain you had prior to your surgery? I’ve been recently diagnosed, and I’m afraid that vascular compression may be causing these symptoms. So far I’ve had chest X-rays, EKG & a CT scan showing my organs to rule out infection etc, but I experience chest pain quite often. Im so glad to know your surgery was successful. I can only hope to get relief!
I’m glad to hear you finally conquered this demon. I’ve had odd symptoms on my left side for at least 6 years, but the past year and a half have been brutal. I have an appointment with Dr Annino at the end of this month, I found him here. Next week I’m seeing a neurosurgeon, at the BMC. So two doctors, two opinions. Those will be the 11th, and 12th MD I’ve seen. Wish me luck.
We’ll I saw the the doctor at the BMC, the neurosurgeon wants to relieve my jugular compression by doing a craniotomy (?), the nerve pain by some type of ablation. I see Dr Annino on the 25th. This has been one hell of a ride.