Question
QUESTION: Hello Robert, I am a forty five year old male. I suffered a fall three and a half years ago, landed in an awkward position, hit my head, twisted my neck and blacked out. When I came to I had no movement in my left arm, this quickly returned after about a minute, but I had restricted movement in the arm for several months. (Difficulty lifting it above my head). I saw a neurologist, had an MRI scan, and an occluded right vertebral artery was found. Once my arm returned to normal I had no other symptoms, I felt good and was playing badminton 3 times a week. Six months later, during a game of badminton I suffered a real bad neck pain, accompanied by severe dizziness and nausea, numbness down both arms, across the head, tingling sensations at the back of the head and blurred vision. For the last three years I have had ongoing similarvproblems. Physiotherapy sessions have helped to relieve the symptoms for short times, but I continue to suffer lengthy bouts of severe dizziness, usually accompanied by nausea and extreme thirst, gritty, painful eyes and some blurring of vision, my neck and shoulder muscles periodically lock up, I constantly have chronic fatigue, a numb right hand, numb right side of head, bouts of excruciating headaches across the front of the head, and a really painful right heel. I constantly have chronically tight shoulder muscles. I have a crunching sound from my neck when move my head around.I have had two episodes when I found it difficult to walk due to a feeling of loss of movement in my thighs.I have recently been diagnosed with a herniated cervical disk and cervical spondylosis. I am again being referred to physiotherapy but am really despairing at the length of time I have been ill. Out of the last three years I have probably only been without symptoms for around four months. I have had several lengthy absences from work and cannot afford any more time off, I have to force myself in to work as I feel so bad. My symptoms are not always simultaneously present and can be a combination of those mentioned. Some days I have the full works! I constantly have a general feeling of illness and severe fatigue. At times it is difficult to climb a flight of stairs. I have tried osteopathy, massage, chiropracty, physiotherapy, acupuncture, heat therapy, cold therapy, traction, all kinds of vitamins, anti inflammatories, enzymes, all to very little avail. I am told my symptoms are not severe enough for surgery, but I am at the end of my tether and feeling very low with what has become a severely challenged quality of life. Can you offer any insight into what may be happening in my neck and if there is any treatment which may relieve these uncomfortable symptoms? Is there any hope of a cure, or am I now faced with spending the rest of my life with these difficult symptoms?

ANSWER: Well Henryk, I can tell that you must be writing to me form Europe, because I know that you are not talking about American Doctors not wanting to perform surgery on you.
What you need is to have your Upper Cervical Spine Evaluated by an Upper Cervical Specific Doctor of Chiropractic, this is very different than the Chiropractic work that you had tried before.  The only problem is that there may not be anyone for many hours from where you live and work.  There are less than 500 of us in the entire world so the odds of someone being in your backyard are slim to none.
Since the Brainstem is "Houston Control" in the body, an Upper Cervical Subluxation causes pressure on the Brainstem which interferes with the mental impulse and causes abnormal function of any sort.  A General Chiropractor cannot help in this case because he or she is not properly trained and does not have the experience that it takes to work on your case.
I can help you by trying to find someone for you in your area, if I cannot then you will have to travel and possibly take off of work for a couple of weeks if you truly want to get well.
Lets start with finding someone for you, please send your town, state, country and allow me a couple of days to see what I can do.

Yours in Best Health,
Dr Robert Arnone, DC
Upper Cervical Specific Doctor of Chiropractic
"Brainstem Specialist"
711 Old Ballas Road Suite 104
St Louis, MO 63141
314.995.5719

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi again Robert. You are indeed correct, I live in Scotland. I am in Poland at the moment receiving physiotherapy from a private clinic. (Much cheaper here) It helps, but not for too long. Regarding finding someone to consult with, if there is a way out of this misery I have been suffering I would find a way to travel to the moon and back. So, if you do find someone you could recommend closer to home all the better, but I am more than willing to travel - even to America is not a problem. Thank you so much for your fast response and your help I look forward to your response. Henryk.

ANSWER: Henryk,
I am sorry to say but there are no Doctors that I would feel comfortable sending you to in Europe at this time.  Chiropractic is American made healthcare and the Upper Cervical Specific Work is also American Made and takes a lot of dedication and more education than the typical chiropractic schooling offers.  You can probably relate to this because you have attempted Chiropractic already and have not gotten well.  
Right now this is where the best doctors in the world are located.  If you truly want to get well then you would have to take a trip to the States so that we can assure the best possible care for you and attain the greatest results in your case.
What I would suggest for your situation and case would be a minimum of 2 weeks intensive care to a maximum of 8 weeks. The ideal care plan for this would be 4 weeks of intensive care.  Whatever program you choose we would need to do a follow up in about 3 or 4 months for a 3 day intensive plan before we release your case.
Just reply to this with any questions you may have and your time of care requested.  I can then reply with more details for you so we can move forward and begin your journey to wellness.
I look forward to your response and am here to help.

Yours in Best Health,
Dr Rob Arnone, DC
Upper Cervical Specific Doctor
"Brainstem Specialist"
Arnone Specific Chiropractic
711 Old Ballas Road Suite 104
St Louis, MO 63141
314.995.5719

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again Robert.
Having researched Upper Cervical Chiropractic on the Internet, I am very interested indeed. I had never even heard of this treatment before but it all makes so much sense! I am keen to visit the States and commence a treatment session, and would very much like to come soon. (I am a lecturer at a College and have a further 7 weeks off before students return) I have researched enough on the subject to roughly understand what it is about, but I do have a couple of questions. The first is if you could recommend someone in New York? I have two family members who live close to NY and financially this would be the least burdening option for me. Secondly, is there any way you could give me an average approximate cost for around 4 weeks treatment? I realize this is a difficult one, as I am sure treatment needs vary from patient to patient, but is there an hourly rate? Would I have treatment every day? Any information you can supply me with is gratefully appreciated, as I have to understand the affordability of this before I come. Finally, I also have lower back problems. (Two herniated disks) I never mentioned these before, as I did not see the relevance to the neck symptoms. Now I do, is it possible I may need separate chiropractic treatment for my lower back, or do you feel that correcting any alignment issues in my neck would help the lower back enough on it's own? Again, I understand this is a difficult question to answer without seeing me, but any thoughts on the issue at all are greatly appreciated.
Finally, may I please thank you for the service you provide here for free, you are obviously a very caring person and it is a pleasure to meet someone, (albeit via the Internet) who takes time out of their day to help others in difficulty. Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing back from you. Henryk.

Answer
Henryk,
I do know of a couple of good Doctors in NY, I was actually born and raised in NY.  However, these doctors practice quite differently and I do not refer to anyone unless I am certain that the Doctors are doing the work properly because my reputation is on the line every time I refer a patient.  It would not be a good situation if I sent you to someone that I do not have total confidence in and you come all the way out to the states only to go back with the same problem that you had before.  The purpose of our conversation is to get you to a place where you can get well by correcting the cause of your problem.  
There are many doctors that practice many different techniques of Upper Cervical Care, but there is only one technique that was practiced by the developer of Chiropractic and who did 16 years of research on the worst of the worst cases yielding over 90% results in getting sick people well.  
DD Palmer discovered Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa in 1895 by restoring a deaf man's hearing.  BJ Palmer was his son and he was considered the developer or the father of Chiropractic.  BJ Palmer was the one who gave his LIFE 18 hours a day 7 days a week to prove Chiropractic as a science, philosophy, and art.  BJ tried everything there was to try:  Full Spine Adjusting, Palpation, Instrumentation, Different types of tables and corrections, and he ended up with the Knee Chest Upper Cervical Specific Work as the Specific.  
This is the reason that I practice this work in the first place and not some other technique that is second rate at best.
There are a few doctors in other countries practicing Chiropractic and some even practicing Upper Cervical work of some sort, but if it is not The Specific, the work like was done in BJ Palmer's Research Clinic, then it is not something I can wholeheartedly recommend.
I do not know if other clinic's run the intensive care programs that we run at our clinic, although I would think that they would be able to make one up  for you.  Our 4 week intensive care program consists of daily visits every day for the first week, and then 5 days per week for the remaining 3 weeks.  The cost for this program is $3500.  We have an arrangement with a place that you could stay and eat at a home for an affordable but extra fee.  It is located near the bus line which runs near the clinic and to other parts around town.  Otherwise we have a discount arranged for you at the Drury Inn which is slightly closer to he clinic and more upscale with higher fees involved.  It is according to your needs and budget.
Just let me know what you would like to do and I will be happy to help you with whatever you decide to do.

Yours in Best Health,
Dr Robert Arnone, DC
Upper Cervical Specific Doctor
"Brainstem Specialist"
Arnone Specific Chiropractic
711 Old Ballas Road Suite 104
St Louis, MO 63141
(314)995-5719