Rescuing my son: Checking the spinal cord alignment

"The spine is the route that the majority of the messages from the brain travel to any other part of the body. The brain over sees the operation of all the activities that go on throughout the body. Most of the functions of the brain are carried out without consciously thinking about them. These messages are sent throughout the body using nerves that run from the top of the head to the tips of the toes,  this what is known as the nervous system. The nervous system is responsible for sending messages throughout the body back and forth from the brain. The majority of these messages go through a long bundle of nerves called the spinal cord, which is protected by your spine. If the spine becomes misaligned, the nerves inside the spine can become pinched and may have difficulty relaying vital messages to and from the brain."

Tommy's spinal cord was studied by a Pediatric Chiropractor Specialist, who has experience working with kids with kids with different needs and abilities.  The spinal cord study was done using a thermal scan and a x-ray. Both, the x-ray and the thermal scam showed something wasn't right with Tommy's neck.  The x-ray showed the neck didn't have the cervical curve. The thermal scan showed a severe inflammation in his neck. The neck's misalignment was making the neck muscles very rigid and causing a lot of inflammation in the neck area. This means Tommy had a neck injury. This misalignment resulted in moving his head forward, which caused lost of balance; poor growth due to the pressure over the pituitary gland. When there is an neck injury, as Tommy's, the pressure and misalignment in the neck can also affect the proper performance of the oral and vision muscles, as well as, sensory issues. When the neck get straight is called Cervical Kyphosis.


Misalignment on the spinal cord hasn't been rule out of the possible cause of my son's muscle weakness and worsen of sensory issues. 


What could cause Tommy's neck Cervical Kyphosis?
We won't know, for sure, how it happened. But I made a little research online and the first page that pup-up was About.com which mentioned the causes of Cervical Kyphosis. Those are:

• The wear and tear of degenerative disks weakens the vertebra whose job it is to hold up the head. Over time this causes the head position to move forward. This in turn causes the normal lordotic curve in the neck to be lost. The result is that the neck begins to straighten.
• Inherited congenital diseases and conditions
• Traumatic injury, such as whiplash, compression fracture, or iatrogenic injury.
• Infection
• Systemic diseases, such as osteoporosis

The highlighted words called my attention. Tommy has a congenital condition that cause low muscle tone and loose joints. An iatrogenic injury could be possible due to the rough movements during Tommy's fights against the nurses in the hospital to keep the oxygen mask on his nose (they had to do it), this has been the only experience I can recall he had a lot pressure on the area of his head and neck. Tommy was hospitalized because of a respiratory infection. Ironically, three of the fives causes got together while my son was hospitalized.

Care of my son's spinal cord

As soon as, we know Tommy's neck injury we started treatment. But before starting treatment, we talked to Dr. W. Hamed about our concerns of Tommy having AAI (atlanto-axis instability). She was very familiar with AAI and how make the alignment without doing a neck rotation. Many are skeptical about Chiropractors, but I personally didn't have any formed conception about a chiropractor before taking Tommy to see one. According to my personal experience, our chiropractor has helped Tommy to get a better connection between the brain and the nervous system. Our chiropractor found something wrong in the C1, C2 and C3 vertebras in the x-ray that the neurosurgeon didn't. Why? The neurosurgeon just focused on the gap between the vertebras, but not how the vertebras were located on top of each other and the neck cervical curve. 


My son's spinal cord adjustment has required techniques done by a professional Chiropractor, supported by the latest technology in chiropractic treatment, as well as, advanced chiropractic methods based on latest science research. During the treatment, it has been recommended to avoid pressure in his neck and the use of a therapeutic pillow or not pillow at all. So my son's spinal core has been professionally treated with amazing results. 

Tommy's cervical curve before treatment was 11°, 

you can see how straight his neck was.

 After 5 months of intensive treatment, 

Currently, Tommy's neck cervical curve is 35°. 

We will continue treatment twice a months

 for 3 more months. The goal is that Tommy's neck 

will be completely aligned in 3 months. 

And after this, the adjustment will decrease once a months

 to maintain the alignment. 

According to About.com website,"Researchers found that patients with curves of 20 degrees or less experienced neck pain associated with the condition." Ironically,  this is something I was observing. Because Tommy can not express what he feels, his behaviors were telling me he was in pain. I even commented several times he was in pain because he used to lay down on the floor without moving, I think this was helping him to relief the pain.


Talking to one of Tommy's caregivers, she mentioned that she remembers that Tommy used to keep his head forward. And we both remember he used to wiggle while he was in a standing position. I am glad other person noticed what I did. I wasn't crazy, something wasn't right with my son. 


Progress
3 months after treatment, Tommy's balance showed improvement. Tommy began to growth and he began to be happy and silly as he used to be. Currently, the Sensory symptoms are beginning to decrease. But there is a lot of more to do to help him to overcome his sensory processing issues. But we are excited for seeing him happy again.  


Recommendation for parents
If your child has low muscle tone and/or loose joints, you should AVOID to put your child to sleep with PILLOWS. The pillows keep the neck curve to the opposite way of the neck natural curve. If there is not a therapeutic pillow is better that the child sleeps on a flat surface. We chose for sleeping without pillow to help Tommy to get the cervical curve again.