Osteopathic Neck Manipulation Caused a Bad Spike

Hello! Short before my first tinnitus onset, which was ototoxic related, I had some neck issues linked to extreme practices at the gym, guided by a moron personal trainer.

An MRI diagnosed slipped disks from C3 to C7. That happened 14 years ago. Osteoarthritis and disc stenosis have developed through these years too, now some pain and pulsatile head tinnitus occasionally happens. Also tinnitus increases when I extremely turn my head left or right, or bend my head forward.

Lately, the pulsatile tinnitus, which I can feel mainly in my head but also in my ears, has become bothersome at night, depending on my body position (fetal is the worst).

To help all this issues, I went to an osteopath, but only for a back and neck massage, I didn’t want any risky neck adjustments. At the end of the session, he said he was going to stretch my neck to help my disks stenosis and consequently ameliorate the pulsatile feeling.

I accepted, but I prevented him that the procedure had to be very soft. He started pulling my head to the right and then to the left, both times to the limit, and both times my tinnitus spiked badly. I didn’t want to go on with that and I decided it was enough, but it was already too late.

My pre existing tinnitus is badly spiked since then and I’m living a real nightmare. I had to take some Valium and extra Melatonin last night in order to get some sleep.

Today the spike hasn’t diminished yet and I’m in panic. I wonder if any of you have ever had a similar experience and maybe could tell me if this spike is going to go away.

I’ve been struggling with an aggravation of my tinnitus since April, things were getting better lately and now this spike has taken me back to my worst days.

I feel so hopeless. Every time I try to get things better I make them worst. I’m again in agony, absolutely hopeless and furious with myself. I would appreciate any comments from you. Thank you very much.

 

Yes i had a very similar experience. I went to a cranio sacral osteopath for my somatic t. The first 2 sessions the tinntius became much milder. It even dissapeared in 1 ear. But the 3rd session something horribly went wrong. My t in left ear returned and t in right ear became much worse. Unfortunatly for me it didnt go back to normal.

But there is another side to the story. I told my doctor who then warned me that cranio sacral therapy is dangerous. So i went to a physioyherapist. They managed to get the t back to normal in a month. And now in the second month they are further decreasing it. After every physio session my t spikes a lot for 2 days. And then it gets lower than baseline. Really, the day of the session my t is horrible but i know it will get way milder after that. I now know that in order to get better it gets a bit worse first.

So hopefully the last part of the story aplies for you.

 

Btw the neck and head pulling is not that agressive. They do it to me too. The first sessions its very painfull. But in the long run it makes ot better. Its very important to relax during the sessions. If you are afraid you will tense up more and then you are forcing the pull.

 

Lebber, I thank you very much for your reply, it gives me hope.

I didn’t get cranio sacral, he planned it to start next week. Go figure! After reading your experience, I’m going to cancel the appointment. Just one more thing that I missed in my post. When he stretched my neck, he pulled my head turning it to the right and forced the pulling a bit till bones cracked. when he pulled my head to the left he even forced a bit more but could not get the bones cracking though, so he stopped. That cracking he did was not good, was it? I had told him before not to crack my neck, so I didn't expect that at all. I don't still know which part of my neck/jaw craked. My tinnitus spiked right then. Let’s hope that this is just temporary and goes back to the base line soon, but my luck is not usually good when it comes to health issues, so I just can't help being skeptical, but still have some hope after your words.
Thanks very much, once more, for caring

 

No problem . I do have to add that cranio sacral therapy can help a lot, but techniques they use are very risky. I discussed it with both my physio and doctor they both said that cranio sacral can both be very helpfull or cause further damage. The phsyio i go uses some of the same techniques but the low risk ones. So its a bit of a gamble if you chose cranio sacral.

Its also very dependant on the therapist itself. Maybe another osteopath or physiotherapist can be of more help i personally find it very much worth the try. Even though it's very unfortunate that your tinnitus became worse it is a sign that there is a neck connection and that it can be corrected to some extend.

Idk if the cracking was bad or good in your case. Its something you have to feel for yourself. Sometimes people dont react well to hard manipulations (cracking) even if done right. But those reactions are normally temporary.

Btw if you are new to massages. Even soft manipulation (massage) can give strong side effects for some people. Some feel more energized, other feel more tired or slighty nauseated for a day or 2. This isnt a bad thing. It usually goes away after 4 days tops. If not the therapy was probably to intense or not done right. A good therapist will adjust intensity. Its a bit of an trial and error. My first therapist did massages for 1 hour on both neck, head, jaw and shoulders and i felt horrible for a week. My new therapist does it for 30 minutes and adresses one area at a time to see if i reacted well. When all was well we increased the number of manipulations per session.

So dont be afraid to get therapy. Its more about finding the right person.

 

And yeah i think its wise not to go back to him. Just the fact that he cracked when tou explicitly said not to. Trust is important

 

Hi,Lebber. Your reply is very helpful, thank you very much. I'll do what you recommend me and I hope I can find a good therapist because this is not easy in my town. It was nice to talk to you, thanks for replying.

 

You're welcom. Good luck !

 

Dear, Lebber: I thought I had to give you an up date, you were so nice to me. Well, as you wished me, the last part of your story seems can be applied to me. If things don't change for bad, my tinnitus is now back to the base line.
I thank you very much for all the good information you have given me, and I wish you lots of luck in this horrible condition of ours.
Best regards.

Dear, Lebber: I thought I had to give you an up date, you were so nice to me. Well, as you wished me, the last part of your story seems has been applied. If things don't change for bad, my tinnitus is now back to the base line.

I thank you very much for all the good information concerning osteopathy, no doubt it’s going to be very useful and helpful to me in the future. I wish you lots of luck in this horrible trip through tinnitus and that we all finally get to our particular Itháki a not far away day.

Best regards

 

Hey Anima, thanks for the update. Im verry happy to hear it has settled back to normal. Let's keep our fingers crossed that i will only get better in the future. And thank you for the wishes i hope we both can defeat this.