By Bridget on Wednesday, December 12, 2001 - 08:06 am:

My husband has been a life-long sufferer with neck, back, shoulder, headache problems, etc. We didn't know it was EDS/HMS until just the last few years.(A few of our kids started showing problems also!) He underwent prolotherapy treatments this past year with a pain/rehab specialist; she was the first person in our city of Tucson to be qualified to utilize this therapy. Her method was working on one area at a time, with treatments one month apart. So far, he's had his neck, and shoulder area treated. She wanted to do his lower back also, but suddenly she is not on our insurance anymore!

It was very difficult for him to go through the treatments. He seemed to experience a more severe flare-up afterwards than what is the norm. It took almost that whole month for him to feel like he was getting over the pain, flare-up, etc from the injections. At several points, we were wondering if he should just stop.

I'm so glad he didn't. Now it's been about 2 months since the last treatment, and it's like the difference between night and day. We joke that he now gets up in the morning like a 55 or 60 year old, instead of 80 or 90! (He's 42) He even played basketball with the kids for half an hour, with no adverse affects the next day (or next week!)

Anyway, i just wanted to share this, so that anyone going through it or contemplating it will be encouraged to not give up, and be patient for results. I think it's a very individual thing, and in his case, it took L-O-N-G to see any change.

Bridget, Tucson

By Park Griffin on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 12:32 pm:

I'm so glad to hear about the improvement! Two things: Strained ligaments are sensitive to prolotherapy which can cause chronic pain. Also, prolotherapy causes the natural healing process to work at healing tissues that normally don't heal. This can set off a cascade of neuromuscular spasms and myofascial pain syndromes. This is normal but after about 3-6 sessions of prolo, the neuromuscular response diminishes. If is is worth anything, if the doctor as still in network, I'd go after the low back treatments in a heartbeat.

By Bridget on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 07:12 pm:

Park,

Thanks for your insights on why the flare-ups in between were so extreme!

Bridget, Tucson