- Tarlov Cyst
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My long story.....
When I was pregant at 21, I ended up on STD due to having severe pain in my sciatica - I worked a desk job and could not handle sitting for long periods of time. Even after I gave birth, I had severe lower back pain. I tried everything - chiropractic, pain meds, injections.....Found out that I had a cyst. Went to the U of I hospital and was told by the doctor that he would not do surgery on me because it would cause a scar (WTF, I am in pain, I don't care about the scar). I went to several doctors to find out that not many doctors treat or believe in Tarlov Cysts. I researched a lot back then and found very little. Very slowly, I became as non-symptomatic as possible with no medical intervention. I gave up on doctors in general.
Through out the past 14 years, I have not had my chiropractor touch my lower back, I have always had issues laying flat on a hard surface, I would get minimal amount of pain here and there. I have survived.....until about 6 months ago. This is when my story goes back and forth quite a bit. About 4 years ago, I fell on the ice and injured my shoulder. I have had 2 shoulder surgeries - by 2 different doctors. Neither helped. Throughout this process, I have done physical therapy, chiro, accupuncture, injections, you name it and then tried absolutely nothing....I was off of work for over 2 years and slowly got myself back to having a high pain tolerance and have dealt with the pain.
In May 2015, I started having severe pain in my neck - I had a cervical MRI - I have 2 bulging discs, along with stenosis and a the most important a perinueral cyst, (no one mentioned the cyst). I didn't read the report until just a few weeks ago. I let my guard down and was trying to trust doctors again. This cyst is located at C7-T1. I cannot determine how big this is.
I have determined that more and likely I started experiencing symptoms after my fall due to this cyst on my cervical spine - and everything that I have been doing, chiro, injections - irritated it severely.
My history is pretty unreal -dislocated hip at birth, chicken pox twice, mono as a teenager, H1N1, mono as an adult, cyst removed from my throat that came back unknown, appendix and gall bladder removed, Histoplasmosis, and just recently diagnosed with borderline glaucoma. I am 36 years old and would actually say in pretty good health overall.
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