Crossroads and Pathways
California HAPPENINGS
NightLase, Dental Appliance, Ears and Airplane
The return home at the end of July provided many happenings to integrate –
the week before my music studio opened for the academic school year.
Body, mind, psychological and emotional processing always takes a few days.
These events took two weeks.
Crossroads and Pathways
Where am I going?
NightLase® | Let there be Light
The right side of my head responded with deep feelings of relaxation sweeping through not only my head but my body. What a surprise!
The laser was used both in my mouth as well as on the head around the ear…which is normal. But my response was the surprise.
The right side is the ‘tight’ side and it is becoming apparent that there is a major change happening in this tightness.
These two ‘hot’ lasers are much stronger than the ‘cold’ laser I use at home.
The two light frequencies benefit connective tissue. My problem is definitely a ’tissue issue.”
My ENT was at a loss as ‘what to do’ with the nodule he palpated. And thus arrives regenerative medicine to amplify the benefits of ‘structure and function’ medicine – very different than the surgical and pharmacological avenues of help offered by a traditional doctor like my ENT.
The Osteopath | My Ears and My Back
I was surprised when I felt my Osteopath’s fingertips inside my ear canal.
That was different! And what I experienced as she treated my head from
inside my ear canal was mind-boggling. The temporal bone response
seemed very different than when approached from ‘outside’ on the skull.
She kept returning to a statement that was music to my ears:
“I can’t believe how loose your cervical spine is eight weeks after the PRP injections!” Amazing after only one treatment – especially at your age!”
This observation was from experience of many years with PRP with
many patients. And her second observation that the restriction had moved
lower down into my thoracic spine (mid-back) was definitely in agreement
with my Phoenix practitioners.
Recommending another round of Exosomes rather than PRP in my mid back was also surprising…not only to my ears but will be to my pocketbook as well!
Exosomes would help reduce inflammation and accelerate hands-on treatment
in the fascial change healing process.
Dental Dilemmas
800 Microns and Midline Madness
Two Dental Dilemmas for my dentist and one Biomechanical Baffle for my Osteopath.
The first request from the Osteopath for the dentist was adding 800 microns to my second ‘older’ appliance. 400 microns had created much consternation for him – 800 microns was ‘outrageous’! And cutting the device in half?! Another way to make him raise his eyebrows! I even brought him the articulation paper 400 microns thick for adjustment.
I had misplaced this second device in my home for the past four months. Never locating the appliance was infuriating – who knows when I might need this. The night before leaving for San Jose, my hands unexpectedly found the turquoise box that housed the appliance! I promptly put it in my purse. I was wanting to talk my two practitioners into splitting this second mandibular device down the middle. This discovery was perfect timing – meant to be?
800 microns were added to the left side of this second device at my Wednesday appointment. An unexpected ‘no-show’ with the Osteopath had me able to see her to determine which appliance was better. The 800 microns! However, since it had not been adjusted, she wanted to wait until the next day during my regular treatment and start adjustment.
We bantered back and forth over splitting down the midline of a mandibular device. I stated that I had four mandibular appliances that had been split in the past. This made no sense biomechanically to her. I provided a ‘piano teaching’
3-D perspective. Both of my osteopathic physicians graphically demonstrate the ‘torque’ in my head that can be amplified by the appliance when not adjusted – and out it comes. This has happened the last two months, being able to wear the device two days in June and one week in July. My suggestion that splitting the appliance would perhaps allow me to keep the device in my mouth the entire month giving support to the left side while not restricting the ‘tight’ right side left her shaking her head and saying ‘go ahead and try’.
I am most appreciative of these two doctors and their willingness to listen and try different approaches.
Airplane Adventure
As the airplane was about to touch down on the runway, I felt something in the left side of my mouth.
I reached in my mouth and my finger located a piece of what looked like calcified debris.
As the plane bumped down onto the runway, I had this little piece of whatever on my fingertip
trying to put it in my EarPlane® case.
How I did this without dropping it I will never know!
I then located my bottle of formalin preservative in my knitting bag. (I have carried jars of formalin with me for the past three years – preparation for this ‘thing’ that drives me nuts in my tissue to appear in my mouth.)
I successfully managed to get this artifact into the formalin and the top screwed on before we landed.
I was in shock. What made this artifact appear?
The change in air pressure plus the dental change with an appliance reseated,
the NightLase® treatment and the hands on osteopathic treatment were a perfect combination?!?!
I had four glasses of ice tea in the San Jose airport before boarding the airplane and one hot tea on the plane.
I felt there was ‘no food’ in my mouth at all. Plus, this did NOT look like food.
So, the question remains…
do I follow through with a
BPC peptide injection
into the inferior attachment of Raphe, thereby initiating and stimulating a healing response in my pterygomandibular ‘tendon’?
BPC peptides
are being used frequently.
They are not regulated
by FDA.
The memory of the throat injection
by my oral surgeon in 1998 jumps
into my awareness with alarming clarity!
The injection contents – BPC or anesthesia
is not the issue –
the location IN THE THROAT is mind-boggling!
The pterygomandibular raphe supports the buccopharyngeal fascia and the constrictor muscle -which is where the injection was previously done.
How has my life brought me full-circle?
Would this injection act as a memory trigger
of my 1972 anesthetic intubation injury as before?
My ENT has ordered an MRI with contrast per my Santa Cruz Osteopath’s request;
he is in touch with the neuroradiologist who has read my film before
and hopes to engage
her once again.
My Osteopath and I are
in agreement in thinking
that we must be very precise
in describing where to look for this tear – this is NOT
a common happening
by any means.
And once again the Waiting Game begins.
Hope and Fear, two sides of ONE coin, have no place in my consciousness…
Only falling into the groundlessness within the Boundless Presence
while waiting into Courage and Knowing…
as the MRI and the interpretation of my ‘airplane treasure’ come into focus during August.
Processing Change
The Airplane Specimen
Arriving home late on Thursday evening, my ‘airplane treasure’ sat on the kitchen counter until the next morning. I rushed to my ENT’s office before playing Mahjong with friends and dropped off my specimen for biopsy.
I remained in shock throughout the weekend: Where did this come from? I don’t have any tonsils. Why can’t doctors find this? There is more to come.
The biopsy arrived in record time the following week confirming vegetable matter, not tonsillar calcification. Nevertheless, the specimen was hard as a rock with a sharpened point and what looked a little blood.
How long has this been there and where? And, in my opinion, there is more. What will the next weeks bring with this ‘thing’ out of my tissue?
Jin Shin Appointment
My weekend shock was eased by my Jin Shin practitioner. Friday had me thinking that maybe was resolution was around the corner…even though I try not to go there. On Saturday morning, I woke up into pain before getting out of bed. The entire morning was most disconcerting and difficult – physically and emotionally. I had an afternoon Jin Shin appointment and was concerned I would be unable to lay on the table for an hour. Instead, I went to sleep and left with 90% of the pain gone. That was another shock – pleasant to say the least. My gratitude took me to yet another emotional level. Extremes….
Memories of my first experiences with Jin Shin when quitting all medication for back pain resulting from the two failed back surgeries flooded my mind. The surprises of this light ‘acupuncture’ touch are amazing!
And, here I am in the midst of backlash from cranial osteopathic change and emotional reactivity – and my body enters into a deep state of calm in the midst of chaos and pain. What could be more healing?
Osteopathic Appointment
My local osteopath amazed me with his hands which seemed to literally reach inside me and touch my pain. The end of the treatment left me feeling like a wet noodle. The release that he facilitated was my back – which affected my facial pain beyond belief.
When I stood up, his comment was also music to my ears, similar to Santa Cruz and my other osteopath! “Look at that back! So much straighter.” And my mid-back felt completely different.
My physical therapist is also very aware of the change in my cervical spine that is affecting my entire back. He has studied with my cranial osteopath and also treats in this perspective and awareness. All agree that the ‘restriction’ is in my thoracic spine. It is reassuring to have different practitioners on the same page as to what is unfolding and where it is located. All have hands-on approaches – same and yet different.
Also, my body responded much better to the split appliance than the solid device. It will be interesting to see the dentist’s and Santa Cruz Osteopath’s reactions. Again, I’m most appreciative they are willing to listen and work with me in the unknown.
These kinds of experiences keep me trudging through the pain. Structural change does not happen overnight. And this appears to be what is occurring, a result of the cervical spine being loosened by the PRP injections two months ago.
ENT Appointment
The MRI report did not discuss the very specific request to investigate the “inferior insertion of the left pterygomandibular raphe in the retromolar trigone area”; instead, the trigeminal nerve was discussed! At least my ENT was proactive and talked with the neuroradiologist he originally requested and they reviewed the film together. There was nothing significant in the area; however, her recommendation was to consider MR Neurography which could possibly give more information. My ENT wants me to see a neurologist; he feels this is out of his area of expertise.
The airplane specimen seemed to be no concern. He could not answer my question: “Where did this come from?”. His suggestion that it was maybe between my teeth met with a vehement negative response from me. Bottom line – location remains unknown and seemed insignificant to him in spite of my 29 years of saying something is embedded in my throat
In researching more about Barrows and MR Neurography, I learned that the neurosurgeon/ neuroradiologist in Santa Monica was one of the creator’s of MR Neurography in 1992! The MR Neurography protocol is proprietary and only done in The Neurography Institute facilities.
Image | Backtrax America
Thus, the only logical MR Neurography to pursue would be returning to Santa Monica and this neurosurgeon for direct comparison, using my neuroradiologist in Phoenix for a second read.
I will be interested to hear my Santa Cruz Osteopath’s input.
I believe my Life Lesson in all of this Unknown that keeps turning into a circle
is learning how to be neutral and nonreactive.
This is difficult.
I thought I had improved until I found this 2011 MR Neurography report
and discovered the information about the doctor that I saw was the creator of MR Neurography!
I have been wondering about the many surprising things that have recently happened…
and what’s next?
Recent events have also led me to wonder about past happenings
and what meaning they contain for the present.
Past, Present and Future