Cervical Spine Syndrome

Three days ago, I rode a public utility vehicle – popularly known to the Filipinos as JEEP – instead of driving my own car, when I went to the heart of the city – we call it the downtown – where business establishments are located and is around 8 kilometers far from where I live. While on our way there, the driver picked up five elderly women passengers who were also going to the downtown. One of them, a fat woman in red T-shirt, sat next to the bespectacled classy woman already sitting in front of me. They seemed to be old friends who lost communication to each other. After their Hi’s and Hello’s, this woman in red commented to the classy woman: “Hey, that pink scarf looks good on you.” Then she added, “you know what, I have something to recommend good for that (pointing to her neck which was covered by her pink scarf) which my friend used”. In between that conversation I couldn’t hear the other exact words as the noise of the speeding wheel of the jeep distracted my audio. When the car stopped, the classy woman replied, “This is not a goiter, it’s a cervical spine! It all started as a stiff neck and then I over-exercised my neck. After a while I almost became totally paralyzed that I was not able to walk”. What? Did I hear it right? Or was she saying Cerebral Spine? No! She repeated the words, CERVICAL SPINE”. Okey, I heard it right. I thought to myself, “What kind of disorder is that?” How come her neck is swollen?”

 

It really made me think again and again what is a cervical spine? I tried to make some kind of analysis by extracting the root words. A CERVIX is a doughnut-shaped structure that is the neck of the uterus or the entrance of the uterus located at the top of the vagina. The SPINE is a flexible column of bones called vertebrae that supports the body from the base of the skull to the pelvis and is supported in turn by other skeletal bones and a network of ligaments and muscles. Stacked one above the other and increasing in size from the top, the vertebrae are separated by shock-absorbing pads called discs. Extending from each vertebrae are three bony projections called processes, to which supporting ligaments and muscles are attached and which form a protective channel for the spinal cord. These two parts of the body – cervix and spine – are not in anyway closely related. The spine is part of the central nervous system while the cervix is part of the reproductive system. But the most incongruous of them all is that –it’s her neck which is affected. Unless, of course, the cervix runs through her spine and land it on her neck, then she will have that Cervical Spine Syndrome. Whoever her doctor is, I hope she will be diagnosed properly so she can have the proper medication.