Do I Have a CTD (Connective Tissue Disorder)?

This was a question asked in a support group that I used to be an administrator for. Sometimes my blog posts come from my answers to member’s questions there, like this one.

If you have them throughout your spine, at multiple levels, it’s an indication that your tissue is weak and you likely have a CTD.

There are hundreds of different types, and most can’t be tested for. They are diagnosed by symptoms, and this is a symptom. For example, I have 11 in my cervical spine alone.

One theory is that they can be triggered by a virus from childhood, like Epstein Barr Virus.

EBV has been proven to be a cause for MS (Multiple Sclerosis), because it “eats” the proteins on the myelin that lines the nerves. It’s kind of like the plastic coating on the outside of an electrical cord. When the plastic is gone, the electrical signal gets disrupted. A light might start flickering, or a radio might start cutting off and on.

When the myelin coating deteriorates, the signals to the brain begin to short circuit. The brain might be telling the hand to reach out to grab something off the counter, but the message doesn’t get to the hand and instead of reaching out to grab the item, instead the arm constricts.

The same principle of this type of virus progression has been suspected with other conditions like CTDs. If the virus hides in the neurological system, then it can weaken the tissues there.

I survived Eastern Equine Encephalitis when I was 6. I’ve had “symptoms” of this disease since then, but didn’t put it all together for decades. I had symptoms that I just thought were normal things that everyone experienced.

They were definitely not normal. Things like stabbing chest pains, in middle school, that would send me to cardiology, where they couldn’t find anything wrong.

Now I know that they were compressed nerve roots causing my chest muscles to contract. This would cause stabbing pains, while constricting my rib cage where I couldn’t get a deep breath.

I also had to be homeschooled in 10th grade because of severe, unexplained headaches. The only things that would help would be for me to lay flat, in a dark room, with no sound, and pain shots for days, until they went away. So many trips to the ER for those…..

Now I believe they were CSF leaks. That’s how those are often treated.

I also had several spinal taps, over several years, as they tried to figure out why the headaches were happening. I didn’t know it then, that all of those needles into my spinal cord were making it worse! The doctors certainly didn’t have clue, especially back in the 80’s and 90’s.

The answer to this question though is that it depends.

If you only have a few sacral cysts then it’s likely not a CTD, but rather an injury, fall, etc.

If you have them all over your spine, then likely yes, you probably have a CTD. I’ve also observed over the years, that most people who have TCs throughout their spines are also very “cysty” people everywhere. I have cysts in every single organ, not just my spinal cord.

I hope this helps answer this question for someone. What you do with this information is up to you and your doctors.