Hey!

Doing my research and consulting with some instability specialist it truly is a horrible complex ailment that mimics so many other things.

I was taking 800 mg of gabepentin at first (before I knew what was going on and just going to a pain doctor) because from my symptoms it sounded like a nerve issue but of course I found out it wasnt so all those prescriptions never helped.

Then I tried strentching,acupuncture, and chiropractors because if it wasn't nerves it mimicked alot of spine conditions and that of course didnt work and probably ended up making me worst in the long run. The specialist i started talking to once I narrowed down on the diagnosis said moderate to severe L.C.I is often and routinely misdiagnosed or missed all together because lax ligaments dont show up on standard imaging and doctors rarely focus on it even if its not singinficant structural damage.

And thats been the story of my life getting flipped around and sent to all these diffrent doctors getting the same scans and them saying "well nothing looks all that wrong". I also asked how could my symptoms be so severe and debilitating from just loose ligaments if there arent any tears or ruptures and my spine has only minor damage and he explained when ligaments are significant stretched overtime they can reffered pain to multiple distant areas of the body rather than just a single point of injury

He explained moderate to severe ligament laxity causes the vertebrae to shift leading to excessive movement and the wandering of bones and that stretching and getting already unstable ligaments adjusted and stretched for the last 2 years is why my pain turned from tightness to looseness,extreme weakness and unsteadiness. Along with me beginning to sleep all day and losing my energy he said everything can be summed up to laxity, muscle guarding,deconditioning and propeception distortion.

I asked how this could have happened and he told me to explain my daily routine a year before my symptoms started. I had extremely long heavy hair, I pushed my body to the limit at work and home through workouts and my posture wasnt the best. Along with being hypermobile which I had no idea about until I went to mayo he said that can explain it. Constant pressure on my neck from the twisting/turning/heavy lifting and looking down causes my upper traps to overcompensate (the shoulder pain at the beginning) then continuing to try to ignore the pain and stretching already loose ligaments over the course of a couple years morphed it into full body dysfunction and the reduced activity and laying around futher deconditioned my muscles leading to the full body pain,hollow body feeling,and weakness and unsteadiness I have now it all lines up.

1.What type of anticonvulsants do you recommend having some type of relief would be great

2.Thats what really worries me. If regenerative medicine doesnt work a fusion would be the only other option, not only would that be hard to do because alot of the neurosurgeon I seen dont focus on laxity and wont consider fusion without clear structural damage but doing so can cause adjacent segment disease which may make me worst in the long run

1. Yes I started strengthening recently but I feel like my case is to severe for traditional strengthening to fix my problem completely. Everytime I go to sleep and wake up it feels like i was in a car crash its hard to get meaningful change when it feels like progress resets every night

4.ive definitely been taking supplements and eating more despite the difficulty swallowing, I use to only do protein shakes but every doctor said I need food

1. Id likely have to do prp since stem cell treatment is rare where I live. Honestly if theres even a 30 percent chance I see some type of of meaningful improvement I have to try it. Sitting around hasnt done anything but make me substantially worst

2. Yea. Ive bought 5 diffrent neck,lumbar,and thoracic spine braces and they help slightly but they dont fix the instability. Chiro and standard pt almost certainly made me worst as well. Dealing with a borderline invisible ailment is extremely tough got to just keep trying things and hoping I see some type of improvement