Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior

irishbookfairy says:

This scares me as I have had a problem with my neck for quite a long time now. I have S-shape scoliosis and have had it all my life. I went through several very painful neck adjustments during the 4 years I saw a chiropractor. I finally insisted that they no longer do this to me. It was like I had to fight to make them stop. Ever since then I have had difficulties with my neck. My mom and I were both dx with some kind of weird problem where we do not have “cushioning” between our larger neck bone and spine. It is basically bone-on-bone and we have been told that we are supposed to do these neck “exercises” for the rest of our lives and also when our necks hurt we are supposed to put our chins on our chests for awhile to relieve pressure. Heres the really weird stuff….for the past 2-3 years there are times when my neck makes all these strange little cracking sounds. I can barely move my neck and it will suddenly start up and I have sometimes counted the number of “cracking sounds” and they have gone up to 20 or 30 for the slightest movements. Sometimes when I have bad headaches my neck also does this and my neck will not be moving at all. I have asked nurses about this and if this has ever happened to them or anyone else they know. Their responses? They have looked at me like I am crazy and have said things like, “no, no one I know has things like that in their necks” and also “you must be making it worse than it is because no ones necks crack like that”. When I think of all the things I have learned on this site thanks to Kelly and her brave sharing and research I am so thankful. I can honestly say with all my heart that Kelly has probably given me the chance to see my grandchildren someday. Now, I can arm myself when i see my doctor and MAKE him run tests and actually “TOUCH” me. Yes, so far I have seen him 3 times and he is wonderful because he was the one who did dx me but he won’t touch me. He barely looks at my fingers and touches them He looks at my deformed looking feet and toes and tells me I have “water weight” and need to stay on a salt free diet. He says that he feels “water weight” in my fingers when it is obvious to me that it is synovium fluid. Hopefully my head won’t “fall off” but I think that Nicole is “crazy” as in funny and I plan to read her book! Thanks for being “crazy” as well Kelly, it does help difuse our situations!