Friday 1 April 2016

Woo-Woo, Mrs Tishell


Ronnie Corbett - a natural comedic foil for Ronnie Barker's comedy writing genius. The two of them together were the finest - better even than Morecambe and Wise. He was a dead ringer for my 1st father-in-law too.

Take heed - don't go for alternative therapies before you've had your condition checked out by the NHS. You could end up paralysed.

Hay had been having neck problems and thought she'd visit the local chiropractor - or woo-woo artist, as I prefer to call her - as her is her wont occasionally (and despite being a scientist). Following some magic passes, slapping of her own arms (I'm buggered if I know what that's all about) and some manipulation the condition got worse and she started to get pins and needles in her hands, along with a few other symptoms which are too delicate to mention. Being naturally concerned I persuaded her to see her GP who, on recognising it could be something serious, referred her for an MRI.

It transpires she has cervical spinal stenosis - a narrowing of the spinal nerve caused by a degenerative bone condition in one of the vertibrae in her neck. Requires expert physio based on knowledge of what's being treated and, quite possibly, surgical intervention if the physio doesn't work. The chances are that the chiropractor made the condition worse and could quite feasibly have crippled her from the neck down for life had she continued with the woo-woo. 


The image above shows typically what happens with CSS (it's not Hay's actual scan). A nodule of bone is jutting into the spinal cord.

Chiropractors treat (if they can be said to treat anything) the symptoms, not the underlying condition. They simply don't have access to, or the money for, MRI scans to first check there's nothing seriously wrong with clients and so are working blind. If surgery is the only recourse then I'll have no option but to get in contact with Fitzpatrick Referrals - he's always playing around with spinal conditions if his TV programme is to be believed. If he can operate then she's going to look like Mrs Tishell from Doc Martin for a few weeks... or will have wear one of those plastic cones over her head.



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