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PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5
PART 6
PART 7
CHART CLUE
Three specialists, three “unrelated” problems: a neurogenic bladderA muscular organ that stores urine before excretion. that ignores Stina’s commands, electric jolts of face pain, and a high-frequency hearing loss creeping in early. Read together — autonomic instability, a demyelinating cranial neuralgia, and inflammatory sensorineural hearing loss — they are one systemic disease, FMF, touching nearly the whole nervous systemThe organ system that controls body functions using electrical and chemical signals..
The Story
Stina used to describe a flare as feeling “floored” — heart pounding, mouthThe opening of the digestive tract where food enters and mastication begins. dry, a wired-but-exhausted buzz, as if her body were braced for a threat that never came. In calmer stretches the opposite ruled: a sluggish, heavy, “shut-down” feeling. She didn’t have a word for it, but she was describing the two halves of her autonomic nervous systemThe part of the peripheral nervous system that controls involuntary functions such as heart rate, di fighting for the wheel.
The ANS works like a car with two pedals. The sympathetic divisionPart of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for stress and activity. is the accelerator — “fight or flight.” It speeds the heart, dilates the pupils and airways, mobilizes energyThe capacity to do work or cause change., and diverts blood to muscle; anatomically its nerves emerge from the thoracic and lumbar spinal cordThe central nervous system structure that relays signals between the brain and body. (thoracolumbar). The parasympathetic divisionPart of the autonomic nervous system that conserves energy and promotes rest-and-digest functions. is the brake — “rest and digest.” It slows the heart, constricts pupils, and stimulates digestion and bladder emptying; its nerves emerge from the brainstemThe lower part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord and controls vital functions. and sacral cord (craniosacral), including the wide-ranging vagus nerve. Most organs receive dual innervationA situation in which most target organs receive input from both the sympathetic and parasympathetic from both divisions, and health is a moving balance between them — accelerator and brake trading control moment to moment. In dysautonomia that balance breaks: a “revved” flare is the accelerator stuck down, the brake unable to answer. Stina’s contradictory feelings were two pedals out of sync.
From Stina’s chart: Stina’s flares come with a “revved” feeling — pounding heart, dry mouth, wide pupils — that doesn’t match the moment. This page names the pedal that’s stuck down.
Compare Stina’s uninfected appendixA small, finger-like pouch attached to the cecum, thought to play a role in immune function. to an infected appendix.
Activity:
Activity:
Two pedals are only as good as the signals that work them. Next: the chemical messengers and receptorsProteins located on the surface or inside cells that bind specific molecules (e.g., neurotransmitter that let each division speak — and how inflammation can scramble the message.
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The Bladder That Won’t Listen
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Chemical Messengers
List of terms
- bladder
- nervous system
- mouth
- autonomic nervous system
- sympathetic division
- energy
- spinal cord
- parasympathetic division
- brainstem
- dual innervation
- appendix
- receptors