The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection
quantamagazine.org

Human anatomy, at first glance, often seems wrongly-engineered. After you've worked inside dozens of people, you begin to realize that everybody is unique — and nobody is "textbook" anatomy. Who knows what all this goop even does?!

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend this humbling human experience. My hope is that my own cadaver is ripped apart by somebody as crazy/appreciative as me =D

https://meded.ucsf.edu/willed-body-program :)

Well, this understanding, if true, could help explain why the severe-debilitating pain level I've had would very easily cause me to get completely lost in the pain - where I couldn't get my mind going, couldn't focus past the pain, would be lost and fully distracted by the pain if I didn't 1) keep my activity level as low as possible (even slight movement of my neck would strongly worsen the symptoms of Eagle's syndrome, particular to the right - a commonly described symptom that one side is much worse), and 2) if I had had any inflammatory foods during the prior 2-3 days or 5 days if dairy.

Now my struggle is, now that my nervous system isn't so interfered with with my vagus nerves' signaling no longer being interfered with - my nervous system is working far stronger now, so I feel the remaining few areas of pain far more strongly - and along with that emotionally the experience is far harder as well, far more aggravating; and I arguably no longer get as easily lost in the pain anymore, but now that I am more often connected to my mind, the remaining more strongly experienced pain is more constantly disruptive - whereby the disconnect otherwise was arguably a sort of coping mechanism; being lost in pain is not fun, but at least then routine could act as a functonal crutch.

The biggest problem now though is it is even more difficult to get my mind focused on a specific task that I need to get done, having had severe executive dysfunction that had slowly been improving over the years as I played whack-a-mole to knock out the next strongest sources of pain - but now trying to organize and get together what's needed to book next diagnostics for next likely needed treatments to get last 2-3 major-excruciating remaining pain sources has been so difficult now, the uphill battle has turned into a steep cliff; the biggest problem is I am in Canada, Ontario specifically, and the knowledge and competency-critical thinking here is absolutely abysmal - where I've had to spend likely now over $800,000 for medical treatments in the US over the last ~8 years, and now struggling to find competent dentists - made worse by a dentist 1+ year ago - lastly being bounced around I think to 5 different dentists now the past 3 months.

My story is more complex than this however. My issues with pain only started after "successful" LASIK eye surgery ~12 years ago caused my nervous system to get overwhelmed - causing central sensitization - was the tipping point or the "final straw that broke the camel's back." Prior to LASIK my mind could handle suppressing whatever underlying pain the injuries and nerve compressions I had; so there is definitely a factor of compounding and arguably amplification (along with hyperalgesia, a hyperesensitivity to pain) between different the eyes and the rest of the body-brain.

I'm at my wit's end, and as pain has localized, unmasking the remaining pain sources more strongly, it appears there's a possibility while LASIK may have been the impetus - it may have been the teeth damage-specific teeth pain but overall bite occlusion causing severe sensitization via disruption of my reflexes-autonomous nervous system, essentially TMJ-TMD but only problems runaway guarding-muscle spasming that's compressing nerves - and then perhaps TMJ-TMD guarding compounding with the Eagle's syndromes; and then perhaps also with the corneal damage that happens in 100% of LASIK surgeries, of which there is nothing more I can try to reduce that as a source of pain.