Wearing a Cervical Collar during a ballet class!

I just did one of the best ballet classes I think I had done for a very long time, wearing a cervical neck collar!

Last night I had done class (without a collar) and really struggled with nausea and changes in heart rate and blurred vision, but nausea was most over-riding symptom - I had to keep checking where the bin was! These are POTS related and also seem more than likely to point to the possibility of the suggested cervical instability at C1/2 (all yet to be proved).

During today I did suffer extreme hand/arm coldness even with the collar one, but this improved after doing some Bowen (treating someone else!) and having had lunch.

I wore the collar nearly all day. I hated it. It is really hard to explain why I am wearing a collar for a non-acute injury. This evening I decided to do ballet in the collar just to see what happened. I took it off for a brief spell before class to do my physio specific exercises. I then decided to wear it and it was most interesting. I had much better control of my body in general and less pain and tightness in upper traps. I had no nausea (although as a precaution tonight I took a precautionary antisickness tablet). I had no dizziness, or change in heart rate and no visual problems. I felt much more stable in my body and was much easaier able to access my deep core abdominals. I seemed to manage most of my range of movements, although I still have an issue with hamstring tightness and hip tightness which I will be taking back to K (and right ankle). However, otherwise I did a very good class which had some very challenging adage and I even found pirouettes easier.

There is no longer any doubt that it is my neck instability that is causing all these extra symptoms. I would welcome K and H's thoughts following my collar experiment during ballet class. T had to rush off after class, so couldn't check what she thought.