Who am I?
Hi, my name is Daniel, I’m 23 years old and I was born and raised in Sweden. I’m currently disabled because I have been suffering from Atlanto-axial Instability for almost 3 years.
Before CCI I was studying and I was living a good life, which was suddenly over after a car accident.
How I got diagnosed
I got diagnosed 2 years ago. The options and knowledge about CCI in Sweden for proper imaging is very limited. They don’t take you serious at all, they said nothing was wrong with me, called me crazy and sent me back home.
I went to a neurosurgeon in Spain who is specialized in CCI. Dr. Oliver told me I have Atlantoaxial Instability and Atlantoaxial Subluxation, which is probably causing me symptoms. I went to dr. Rosa in the US, I got an upright MRI and he and his radiologist dr. Harshfield confirmed the diagnosis.
How my CCI started
My CCI started after a car accident. I was told I have a whiplash injury.
The search to a diagnosis wasn’t easy. Not any doctor believed in this condition and they called me crazy. Thank God I met Dr. Scott Rosa in the US. He’s an amazing and very knowledgeable doctor.
My symptoms
My symptoms are debilitating and disabling. Some examples of my symptoms are brain fog, heavy head feeling, dizziness, headache, throat and tongue spasms.
Treatment for my CCI
There are not so many treatment options for CCI. I joined a very helpful online community with CCI patients, so that’s how I learned about Atlas Orthogonal. It’s a non invasive way to get your upper cervical spine properly aligned, without any chiropractic manipulation and hopefully ligaments can heal over time when being in alignment. I went to dr. Scott Rosa in the US and after he made an upright MRI he adjusted my neck. This helped my symptoms: my vision has improved, my head pressure and brain fog went down. I might still need regenerative medicine to strengthen and heal my ligaments that are injured, in order to get more improvement in other symptoms as well. At this point of time we are not sure about that yet, but time will tell.
My life now
I’m glad I got some improvement from my treatment with dr. Rosa, but I’m still disabled and I can’t work or live like normal. Currently I hate life and I miss my life before CCI. I need to be careful with my neck movements, so I make sure I don’t rotate, flex or extend my neck too much.
My family didn’t understand what I was going through, but after they’ve read Dr. Harshfield’s report they understand me better.
I’m grateful Dr. Rosa is supporting me in the process, I couldn’t do it without him.
