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Excuse me, are you a rock star?

For those of you that have been reading along, you know I have occasionally dropped in thoughts and comments on my wife's illness. Here is another. (hey, I gave you three or four "fluff" pieces in a row!!) Spasmodic Torticollis. Great name for a rock band, yes? Cervical Dystonia. Also a good one. Both sound like a lead-in for a heavy metal band with big hair. Well, we have entered the rock band era with my wife's disease. And now, the coliseum is proud to present.......Cervical Dystonia!!! These two heavy metal names are both monikers of a disease of which my wife now is suffering. As a side effect of her primary illness, we get to sample an entire array of diseases - as symptoms of multiple system atrophy. Cervical Dystonia is (in layman's terms - I am just now learning about this, over the last few hours) where the muscles of the neck spasm and/or contract on their own. It is annoying and according to my wife (and common sense) very uncomfortable to painful. When she gets tired, excited, or emotional more than a bit, her neck pulls her head towards her chest. This is actually called anterocollis when it happens this way. There are other names for pulling to the side or to the back. I am not sure how common this is, but in her case she cannot pick her head up on her own. I have to push/pull her head to the correct position and hold it there while things calm down. Ain't life grand! Rock on, dude!!
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