** The FINAL Misdiagnosis
This study was done in November 2007. I have since lost even the small degree of support to the floor of the mouth and ability to close my jaw that I had at the time of this study. How long can one human being beg for medical help when the worse the condition becomes, the more I am treated with disdain. If corrective surgery had been done early after the revision face lift, when I first presented with these dreadful, life-robbing symptoms, the supportive tissue which was obviously under extreme tension would not have progressed to actual tearing of the tiny muscles which support the floor of the mouth and hold the internal structures of the neck in place.
I find it quite absurd when surgeons tell me that the “platysma” does not effect the tongue, when they have not taken their own hands to FEEL the amount of counter tension which I have been forced to demonstrate in an elaborate manner, IS effecting all the soft tissue to which it is connected. This is not rocket science, yet will I actually have to DIE before the damage I have been trying to get a doctor to FEEL with his own hands?
Let there be no mistake about this: I have suffered for 8 years, forced to mutilate my own flesh to continue breathing, while doctors saw this and did nothing. My tragedy speaks volumes about the medical profession’s dagerous tendency toward strict lethal linear thinking and confirmation bias. The mental incompetents in this scenario are doctors, not I. For their narrow minded, sanctimonious thinking, I HAVE SUFFERED NEEDLESSLY.
It is physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to keep my jaw closed. I COULD NOT BREATHE when I was being told my airway was “wide open” when the x-ray clearly shows otherwise and was confirmed by my ENT and an independent radiologist. I have been the victim of “confirmation bias” for years. Reports by doctors who believe I cannot breathe as I claim have been IGNORED by the surgeons I consulted. I am certain that if I had to wear a cervical collar or back brace, I would die from asphyxia. This seems to be viewed as some sort of histrionics on my part. I have NOTHING TO GAIN from trying to convince a doctor that I suffer from something I do not. This is NOT a “spasm” of muscle which can be treated with Botox. My platysma muscle is literally tearing and this is easily felt upon palpation, but I cannot get any doctor to take his/her own hands and feel this. Only my primary care doctor actually did this for me, but she is not an ENT specialist and said she did not know exactly what she was feeling. This is not her area of expertise, but when I have asked ENT surgeon to feel this, he refused. Instead said he could “see” tension and wanted to use Botox. I refused. If he could not feel the separation of the platysma muscle which must be grasped firmly and DEEP beneath the detached lax skin which looks like the “platysma band” itself, but is not. Botox has the potential to paralyze the little remaining muscle control which enables me to swallow at all. For my instinct of self preservation, I am labeled “uncooperative”. I cannot allow a surgeon to inject a needle full of Botulism toxin into my neck when he refused to palpate this muscle first. He assumed the banding APPEARANCE on my neck was the muscle, but it was only the skin. This muscle sheath is already compromised and stretched to the limit of its extendability. It CANNOT contract because the muscle fibers are already stretched to the limit. It is HYPOELASTIC. The only means to relieve the tension which was fixed in this hypoelastic tissue is with surgical release. Once released in full width, it would then have to be tailored to form the necessary support to the muscles which support the floor of the mouth and act as a “containing sleeve” for the internal structures in the neck.
When I followed this doctor’s suggestion to rigorously stretch my neck, the more I stretched, the more I lost support to internal structures in neck, and the more difficult breathing became. I refused to swallow barium with my head up because I have been very diligent about NOT allowing aspiration. My reflexes scream DO NOT swallow in positions which I can feel will produce aspiration. There seems to be a basic problem with them BELIEVING that I cannot breathe and swallow when I say I cannot. “Example: when SPL says she cannot tell if I am “just doing that” or if I really cannot initiate a swallow.
In all fairness, the SPL did not have any input from an ENT doctor, and said she cannot evaluate breathing. Yet I have tried for years to get airway evaluation by ENT surgeon who has evaded this. I no longer have the physical strength to go to fruitless consultations or studies. My case has been biased with erroneous reports and I am helpless to change this.
Below: Photo shows what I have had to do to breathe and swallow with my head in a normal (neutral) upright posture. Perhaps you can see the degree of pressure and upward thrust of this bamboo back scratcher, which I use because the curved shape provided the support necessary to replace the function of the damaged muscles. In my opinion, any doctor who claims to have performed an “examination” on me would have to “palpate” or take his own fingers and place them exactly in the area to which I must apply this pressure to feel for himself what happens when I take a breath or swallow. Any so-called “examination” which does not include this is INADEQUATE. Not a single ENT doctor or surgeon I consulted has ever done this. What does it say about a surgeon who spends over an hour with a patient who is pressing this piece of wood HARD into their neck and never once tried to feel what she is doing? That is exactly what happened during my last appointment with Dr. der-Sarkissian. Is it any wonder he can “honestly” say he does not know the cause of my inability to breathe?
This is what I used for the MBS study in 2007
Above: This is now what I use constantly to maintain an open airway if I want to keep my head in an upright, normal position. Extreme pressure must be applied to replace the lost support to the floor of the mouth.
Can ANYONE breathe if the support to the inner structures of the upper airway and floor of the mouth are severely compromised? They cannot. In the past week I have lost the ability to drink from a straw (It is now IMPOSSIBLE for me to close my lips around a straw, and worse, I CANNOT suck in if I try. I would NOT be able to have a PFT because I would not be able to close my lips around the mouthpiece. I could possibly FORCE my mouth to close around it for a second or two, but I certainly would NOT, CANNOT, TAKE A BREATH. Am I really supposed to believe that a surgeon who has performed complex operations on people with throat, neck and mouth cancers, horrific traumatic injuries to these areas, cannot figure out which muscles are DAMAGED BEYOND MY ABILITY TO REPLACE THEIR FUNCTION by my own wits, as I have been forced to do for years? I even pointed out that the very things I MUST do to continue breathing are causing FURTHER DAMAGE. Yet I have been left in this LETHAL CYCLE OF DESTRUCTION?
“It is impossible for anyone to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
– Epictetus (c. 100 A.D.)
How loud, how long, does someone have to scream for help while those with the ability to do something will not?
Stumble It!
