I am so thankful for everyone’s help. Words can’t express my gratitude
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@vdm is the part that I have circled the collateral vein you mentioned?
I also feel that this shows the compression of the IJV near the top of my neck. Am I reading this right? I am still new to all of this.
Yes that’s the IJV , looks like it’s compressed with the cervical vertebrae process. but it looks distended below this as well, I would be concerned that there’s compression lower down too, so something like TOS is worth looking into…
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Thanks @Jules. I see a neurology pain management dr on March 11th, a vascular surgeon on the 12th and Dr Yian an ENT mentioned on this forum. I am praying someone will help me. It gets disheartening to go to all these doctors and have them dismiss me and say I just have normal age related disc wear and tear. I am printing some of my 3D images and am going to try and hand it to the doctors and hope they will at least glimpse at it. I don’t want to live the rest of my life like this argh
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@stephanie - the vascular tissues in the circled area are the internal jugular vein & the internal carotid artery. Collateral veins are usually a tangle of veins behind (toward the back of the neck) the IJV.
To me your left IJV doesn’t look very compromised up near your C-1 & styloid but the right one does look a bit more compressed potentially by your internal carotid artery. As @Jules & @vdm noted, the IJV distention looks worse lower down which could possibly indicate a Thoracic Outlet Syndrome problem. I’m really glad you have an appt w/ a vascular surgeon coming up pretty soon.
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I put the black arrow on the collateral I had in mind
The one below shows something I find unusual too (but probable). The bluish is the vein, the reddish seems like an artery, but there is a small vessel (most likely artery) (white) in what it seems piercing your jugular through the middle.
It’s not unheard, but it also could be a CT scanning artefactual result.
From this view, it seemingly shows intertwined ijv with the arterial vessel (ICC perhaps, based on the location), but it has to be checked on other planes too and the route of these vessels should be followed from the beginning to the end to properly identify each of them.
The thing is, that in very rare cases there are quite a number of anatomical “variations” how ijv, ICC, ECC are aligned. From anecdotes I’ve heard (and in some cases seen images) of ijv compressed by twisted ICC, by accessory nerve, accessory nerve piercing through ijv, or “split” ijv (a segment where ijv splits into two and later joins again into one).
Are they “normal”? It’s really hard to say. I start questioning what’s normal and what’s not, as some people with seemingly significant anatomical variants have little to no symptoms…
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Interesting. You all are very knowledgeable. So the vein I circled is possibly the collateral vein? It does seem to be very random
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I had breast cancer in 2018. It was on the right side. The procedure the dr did required him to flip some tissue through to my chest. He was completely baffled when all the tissue died. He told me I had bad blood flow. Then a few weeks ago I had an xray of my femur and it showed that the bone marrow was dying. It all seems related to me.
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@vdm what is ICC and ECC?
It seems that way… The vein expands compared to its “normal” (statistically) size to accommodate higher flow needs.
But have you been investigated for possible EDS? I’ve heard some EDS variants significantly affect vascular structures.
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Internal Carotid Artery, External Carotid Artery. Sorry, my phone’s autocorrect changed the ICA into ICC, and ECA into ECC, but doesn’t do anything when I type ijv. Depends on the phone keyboard language settings I guess.
That meant to be ICA and ECA
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That sounds really tough… Did they investigate why it happened? Blood circulation is one thing, but systemic issues might indicate something more important that only reflects in the blood circulation…
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I’m really sorry to hear about the dying bone marrow in your femur. Was any possible explanation given? Will you have a follow-up appt w/ a vascular surgeon?
I’m also sorry you’ve been through breast cancer. You’ve traveled a tough health road over the past 6 years. 
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No I have not been checked for EDS. I also see a Rheumatologist. I will see her Tuesday. She is checking me for different things but so far the only thing off is a low positive ANA and high Creatine Kinase. So many doctors and so many random symptoms. I am tired of going to the dr. No @vdm they never checked why I had bad blood flow the dr just called the tissue that died “zombie tissue”
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I brought my report for the femur to my oncologist and he is doing an mri on my femur and hip. I see the doctor that ordered the xray on the 5th so maybe I will get more info. Do you feel much better after your surgeries?
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Zombie tissue?! REALLY?! There must be a more scientific explanation though not every tissue transplant is successful. Did you have to have it redone? I’m really, really sorry for what you’ve been through!
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Thanks. Its ok. I did have it re-done by a different doctor 
I wish he would have checked my blood flow before he did the procedure. It was done. It was some procedure they do a lot in Europe and I think he thought I would be a good candidate for it. I do think it’s a bit weird that he didn’t check things out more before he did it, but oh well. I just really want to get this whole thing figured out as it is making life hard. I am suppose to start a new job soon and I want to be present and not in pain.
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Hm… High chronic CK in my non-professional opinion may indicate ongoing muscle damage, which in turn might be caused by insufficient oxygen supply to some muscles. Bone marrow death… I don’t know. If that can be attributed to some blood flow issues too, the I’d suspect two things might be going on:
- either there is some (mild) vascular insufficiency towards the leg (or systemic vascular insufficiency), vasospasm, compression of arteries, very low blood pressure, thrombosis and similar conditions
- or there is something wrong with the oxygenation of the tissue even though the blood supply is sufficient (blood flows but the oxygen cannot be delivered). Sickle cell anemia? Micro clotting? Pulmonary disease? Constant toxic effects from the environmental pollution? Malnutrition?
EDS comes to my mind as it may impact elasticity of the blood vessels.
Also, do you have sleep apnea?..
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