This condition, inflammation of the arachnoid layer, is considered “incurable.”
It is not.
The spine and brain are sheathed with three layers of tissue: the delicate pia mater, the “spiderweb-looking” arachnoid layer, and the tougher dura mater. Arachnoiditis, inflammation of the arachnoid tissue, can occur when a tiny bit of tissue, not necessarily viewable on x-rays or CTscans, becomes trapped between two vertebrae.
The inflammation is usually not noticed until the nerves in the surrounding area begin to break down from the chronic inflammation. A person might have this condition for decades but not notice anything wrong until the damage to the nerve sheaths becomes so severe that intense pains begin.
The pains might be anywhere below the waist. Most common pain is in the legs, pelvic floor, and buttocks. The leg pain has been described as “like having seizures in my legs.”
The most common cause of this condition is thought to be epidural injections. While retracting the needle from an epidural injection, a tiny amount of spinal sheathing can become stuck between the vertebrae. Once it is lodged in there, it usually cannot work its way out.
Although epidural injections are the most common way to get spinal sheathing stuck between vertebrae, I have seen three cases in which the entrapment was present at birth. It might have occurred during the violent pain of a forceps delivery. In one case I saw, the baby’s very large head had been stuck in the opening to the birth canal. He was born via C-section, and the doctors physically struggled to remove his head from where it was stuck.
In the cases where a person was born with trapped sheathing, in every case, one leg was twisted, on the same left or right side of the body that had the spinal sheathing entrapment. Two of the cases had presented at birth with a significant twist in the knee-to-foot area of the lower leg. In both of these cases, the patients had reeived years of physical therapy as well as braces or a cast on the twisted leg, to no avail.
The patient in the third case was born with what is called “club foot”: the foot was severely rotated medially. (See the essay on this site on Club Foot.) This patient’s club foot healed easily, in one session, but his internal agitation as manifested by constant squirming continued until eight years later, when I decided to examine him for entrapped spinal sheathing: pre-arachnoiditis. As soon as I held his L-2 and L-3 apart for several of his breath cycles, he immediately went limp and relaxed on the treatment table. His mother was amazed: “He’s not squirming!”
Treatment
Treatment is extremely simple. The patient lies on their back. The health practitioner, friend, or family member needs to place hands under the patient. Assuming the tissue is trapped between the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebrae, one hand should be under the 2nd lumbar vertabra, the other hand under the 3rd lumbar. The practitioner should imagine their hands are actually holding those bones. Move the bones what feels like about a quarter of an inch apart. They actually only need to move a very slight amount apart, but in the practitioner’s imagination, they should move significantly. Holding these bones apart will require a bit of slow but powerful force.
Hold the bones apart while the patient goes through at least three breathing cycles (inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale). At some point, the practitioner might feel a tiny sensation of “bounce” deep in the spinal area. This is the spinal sheath popping free. Feel free to repeat this technique two or three times, to make sure that all the tissues involved have worked free.
In my limited experience, the most common location of entrapment is between two lumbar vertebrae. Although I have only seen it between L-2 and L-3, it might well be located anywhere in the lumbar area. If you are not a medical professional and not used to locating the various vertebrae, know that L-2 is located at the level of the waistline. In an adult, the other lumbar vertebrae are approximately one inch tall – so the center of L-1 will be about 1.5 inches above the waist, the center of L-3 is approximately 1.5 inches below the waist, and so on.
If you are not certain which vertebrae are involved, you can work your way up or down the lumbar vertebrae, starting by separating L-5 S-1, then L-4 L-5, then L-3 L-4, and so on, up to L-1 L-2. Be sure to let the patient have three relaxed breathing cycles while you are gently but firmly holding the bones apart.
Who can do this work?
Anyone can do this work. A trained healthcare professional is not necessary.
The type of health practitioner most qualified to do this type of work is a craniosacral therapist.
Typical chiropractic adjustments are NOT designed to pull the vertebrae apart. If the only person you can find who is willing to do this treatment is a chiropractor, please make sure they read this page before starting. One of the patients who was born with a twisted leg and who had lifelong internal agitation, before being diagnosed at age 71 with arachnoiditis, had regularly seen chiropractors for her low back pain. Years of various types of chiropractice treatments had not resolved the underlying problem of entrapped spinal sheathing. As soon as the bones were separated and the entrapped tissue snapped free, the lifelong sense of internal agitation was gone.
Recovery time
Just as the inflammation takes decades to severely damage the nerves, recovery from the pain of this syndrome can require many months – usually more than a year. Although the sense of internal agitation might stop immediately after the sheathing is freed, the involved nerves might continue to explode in pain until the nerve sheaths are completely healed.
Some of the involved nerves might have been numb for decades, or even a lifetime. When these nerves come online, begin working again, a person might experience sharp pains when the nerves “wake up.” This phenomenon is similar to frostbite: the tingling or sharp, even excruciating pain of the return of nerve function.
Some of the worst pains can be from nerves in the pelvic area. The intense burning can be agonizing. A desire to rub and scratch at the painful area can be overwhelming.
In one case, after more than a year of foot numbness and intermittent but severe leg pain that the MD could not diagnose, the person’s onset of pelvic nerve pains were the final clue that led to diagnosis and treatment. The pelvic nerve pains were at their worst for nine months. The pain began to decrease after nine months, and by the thirteenth month, they had ceased.
Pain might also be experienced in the buttocks (usually described as a “sharp” pain, like knitting needle being stabbed into the buttock(s)). Leg pains are common. Also, the return of nerve function just under the skin might cause itching or burning sensations, like a mild sunburn.
So long as nerves are continuing to heal and functionality is resuming, physical sensations of pain, itching, or burning might occur. Once the nerves are fully healed, there is no longer any indication that there was ever a problem. The pains cease and the sense of internal agitation or wanting to jerk the body at the waist – upper body going one direction, from the waist down going the other direction – ceases.