This 4 year-old patient presented in November of 2012 with a bizarre list of symptoms and behavioral instabilities. Her mother reported the possibility of head trauma prior to birth during the early portion of her 3rd trimester. However, the physicians who evaluated her upon birth were unable to detect any abnormality. They gave the child a normal apgar score and released both mother and child within a couple of days following birth.
The first few days of life for Sophia were difficult. She screamed uncontrollably for hours on end, despite every effort by her parents to soothe her. As time went on her episodes increased in severity and duration sometimes exceeding 10-12 hours a day. Her desperate parents sought the advice their pediatrician, who soon referred them to a pain specialist, then a neurologist, then a rheumatologist, etc. Other specialists continued to evaluate Sophia and prescribe numerous medications. And so began their 4.5 year-long journey to discover what was wrong with their little girl.
During the 4 years of medical treatment, the family experienced severe internal strains trying to cope with a very sick little girl. They could not go out in public with sophia for very long, even when she appeared to be having a good day. They could not take a short trip to the grocery store, run a small errand to the post office or take a walk in their neighborhood without Sophia melting down into screaming hysterics over what their medical doctors said was something they could not find in all of their tests.
Sophia was scanned every way imaginable. CT-Scans, MRI’s, X-rays (with and without contrast) mylograms, nerve conduction tests, countless blood tests and physical exams were performed. All turned up a relatively normal and healthy child that screamed for no apparent reason. To be blunt, the long term prognosis was hopeless. Thousands upon thousands of dollars had been spent and no clear diagnosis had been reached. The worst part of this situation was not knowing what the problem was. In fact, since the exact condition that she was born with had remained unchanged for 4+ years, the doctors had moved to an acceptance state and tried to coach the parents on how they were going to deal with this situation going forward. This is, by the way, what people in chronic pain are told when they enter a “Pain Management Program” at most pain clinics.
Fast forward to November 2012 when Sophia came in for an evaluation.
Evaluation Findings:
Sophia walked in to my office with the physical posture and countenance of a child you would assume was clinically depressed. Her parents referred to the expression she had 24/7 as her “perma-frown”. She moved without obvious difficulty, but she never smiled. She didn’t laugh. She didn’t really express any emotion, except sadness and fatigue; a very serious child indeed. Her body felt generally tense and tight, and almost any palpation was met with a significant jump sign response. Recognizing this and the fact that she was 4 and half years old, I made sure that the only thing she felt during my assessment was light touch. I relied upon the cranial scan and my palpation to guide everything that I did.
Palpation:
Her Dural scan was extremely severe. No way to have a scan this severe without some form of head trauma. She tested positive for FALX-N, CDT-N, TENT-N, SB-N, LAM-N (Falx Ceribelli), SBF-N, OAM-N and SDR-N (Posterior Spinal Dura). Her cranial scan also revealed severe peripheral nerve dysfunction in both the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. The entire sympathetic chain tested positive for dysfunction, to the point of severe pain behavior during extremely light palpation. In addition, she had wide-spread arterial and lymphatic-venous dysfunction and some visceral dysfunction, in that order from most severe to least severe.
Treatment:
She was treated on five separate occasions from Late October 2012 to January 2013. Each treatment lasted for about an hour. During her first session Fascial Counterstrain for the neural system was performed to her cranial dura, sympathetics and peripheral nerves. I was able to clear most of these systems and quickly dampen the somatic branches to her extremities. Subsequent counterstrain treatments for the arterial and lymphatic venous systems were performed systemically as both of these systems were wide spread throughout her body. The fifth session addressed about 12 visceral dysfunctions spread evenly in the lower gi, mid-abdominal and cardio-pulmonary systems.
Results:
Despite only having 5, one-hour sessions of fascial counterstrain, Sophia had a dramatic and complete recovery. Her screaming and restless behavior stopped entirely. Her mood and demeanor shifted from depressed and fatigued to happy and energetic. Her pain complaints disappeared and her mother and family have a new found joy in getting to know their little girl. The complete testimony as relayed by Sophia’s mother can be found here.