What conditions of the cranial cervical junction can cause SEVERE fatigue?

[Guest guest]

Refresher...Tasha has Chiari and SM and had surgery in January 2007 for which,

as of the end of February 2008, her MRIs look great...except for noting

'chronic' reduced posterior CSF flow through the junction.  She is currently, at

the request of her current neurologist, taking neurotin at 900mg 3x a day for

sleep, headaches and pain (of this, the only one that we can see a regular

improvement in is sleep).  She is CONSTANTLY tired (asking to take a nap or

commenting that she needs one just after getting up) and does not have the

energy to do practically anything.  [We are going to experiment with dropping

the neurotin down to just a bed time dose, but this was occuring before she

started to take it, so I don't know how likely it is that it is caused by the

medicine.]

 

She has been attending physical therapy for 30 minutes once a week since May

23rd; she has reached a plateau and further progress seems unlikely due to her

constant fatigue and low energy level.  Because of this, her physical therapist

has called a halt to further sessions until Tasha's fatigue and energy level

improve.  She wants to attribute this to metabolic issues (which have been

unsuccessfully explored) or to...I know you can hear me before I say

it...DEPRESSION.

 

I have seen Tasha when she is depressed and she IS NOT depressed.  She has not

lost interest in her normal activities, she has not had a noticable change in

her eating habits, she gets up and goes to school each and every day no matter

how bad she hurts or how tired she is.  She is simply tired.  She wants to do

activities that she has an interest in, but does not have the energy to do so.

 

We have consults in New York next month for which I am hoping that we get some

answers, but until then, I thought I would ask everyone here for what could

possibly be going on.

 

Oh, also, possibly connected or not, her asthma is continuing to get worse for

no apparent reason.

 

Thanks for all the help and support.