What is the Stellate Ganglion, and why am I considering injecting mine?

My problems with my sympathetic nervous system, and so, as it turns out, the Stellate Ganglion started by at least First Grade. That is when I remember that in the summers, I couldn't wear flip-flops because my feet were so sweaty that they would rip when they slipped, I also couldn't hand in any standardized tests that were not wrinkled from sweat. Later, in around 8th grade, I would have a name for this condition: hyperhidrosis. I would find out when reading a Seventeen magazine article that a disorder of the nervous system caused it, and there was surgery for it, which involved cutting the sympathetic chain. The sympathetic chain is a chain of nerve bundles that runs down each side of the spinal cord. This nerve network participates in facilitating the fight or flight response, especially in the thoracic spine levels. The surgery was having success eliminating this sweating problem by severing the communication in this network by surgically cutting it.

Before you think I was crazy to consider this surgery just because my hands and feet were a little sweaty, you have to understand that they were sheet soaking wet all the time. When I was unconscious, sleeping was the only time they were dry; as soon as I woke up, my first sensation was the initiation of sweating. It was more noticeable, obviously, in the summer, but all year long, no matter the temperature, I had wet hands. Maybe I didn't while I was skiing in the winter, but then I had the pain and white-turning hands of Raynaud's. Both are disorders of the thoracic outlet and Autonomic Nervous System.

hands and feet were this wet most of the time

The surgery, which was successful for several happy people (this was 1989) , had its side effects. Sometimes patients would wake up from the procedure and now have excessively sweating butts! Later, I would understand that this area, the parasympathetic nerve plexus of the sacral nerves, regulates the bowel, bladder, and genitals. (Rest, digest, and reproduce as it is safe now.) Our bodies constantly try hard to balance the equation for regulation and homeostasis. That nervous system information that they severed had to "come out" and express itself somehow!

What causes this? Why did I have this? Why might you if you are reading this?

I have theories about this, and as my professional development (driven by my health issues to learn as much as possible) as a Physical Therapist that specializes in manual therapy guided me to understand it more deeply. I took courses and had hands on treatment myself for my: thoracic outlet, pelvic floor, cranial base, nervous system and immune system via diet changes, detoxes and supplements. I was able to correct 90% of my symptoms and others with similar issues.

As the stellate ganglion is in the deep neck area, and I was a repeat sufferer of strep and tonsillitis, eventually ending up perhaps the tissues stuck together from chronic infection and inflammation, creating scar tissue. Mechanical tension via restrictions in the fascial system on nerves stimulates them, a bit like having your foot stuck down on the gas pedal of the car. Additionally, being cared for by teenagers at times, who admit to dropping me "at least once," and rough play with my brother likely resulted in plenty more mechanical injuries to my neck. Whiplashes, concussions, weather, the mechanics alone, or mechanics plus vigilance perpetuated by continuing trauma, likely all of the above. My early immune system (which has to play nice in the sandbox with the nervous system) was also tweaked. As soon as I was born, I started reacting to detergents and other allergens, my parents couldn't use detergent on my laundry or I couldn't breathe.

My teenage and early twenties were spent racing in high-intensity adrenalized sports. Swimming, Rowing, and Track all races started with literal cap guns, and each race I performed as if it was life or death. I raced the 800 in track, I was a competitive swimmer, and then I raced more in college on the Northeastern Rowing team. More fight or flight practice and bias.

Retrospectively, I can understand that this was me "trying to deal" with my dysfunctional nervous system pretty effectively. As Stephen Porges discusses in his Polyvagal Theory book, high-level exercise engages the "vagal brake." The Vagus nerve system, as it is explained by Porges, is a way for the body to balance the overwhelming sympathetic overdrive. High-intensity exercise recruits this Vagal Brake, which, for those of us who use it regularly during sports, creates a sense of balance and safety after exercise. The ultimate Self soothing on a primitive level.

The Vagus system provides a way to release pent-up fight-flight energy discharged with racing so that relaxation can occur. Even then, I was sweating. But I could at least focus during school as long as I had exercise in my life.

pent up fight flight energy discharged with racing so relaxation could occur

Early in my career as a Physical Therapist, I met a woman named Sharon Weiselfisch Giamatteo. In her manual therapy classes, I learned how to do three planar myofascial releases. We can access deeper tissues with an interface specifically intended not to recruit protective reflexes in the spinal cord—low load, noninvasive—not my usual modus operendi. My partner did this technique during the lab on my thoracic outlet and inlet, respiratory, abdominal diaphragm, and shoulder girdles. That was the start of my developing some strategies and solutions to lifelong problems.

A few years later, around 2004, while I was attending the "Diaphragm Compression Syndromes" course, we reviewed the cervical thoracic area techniques. Sharon talked about one of the releases for the Stellate Ganglion. I had never heard of this structure, but she described it as a particularly large nerve bundle "ganglion" area with more influence of the thoracic sympathetic chain, so my ears perked up. She said it was something of a director of that system, a high-level mediator. From that day on, while treating the location on my clients, the stellate took on the image of a person sitting in one of those orange director chairs influencing movie scenes loudly, projecting instructions. It reminded me of the surgery for cutting the sympathetic chain, but now there was a director of this chain, and releasing it could help my situation.

As I learned more, at a cranial sacral course about the Vagus in 2010 we learned how to unwind tissues at the cranial base (where the vagus exits the skull). I knew the regions of neuroregulation to work with mechanically and Somatically, that I used for myself and my patients. The lumbosacral plexus, the sacral nerve roots, and the respiratory abdominal diaphragm are all gaining access to take tension off that portion of the Vagus and Sympathetic network. I learned about a technique called neurofascial process or NFP, and my inner child. I spent hours meditating and using my hands to make connections (a bit like acupuncture needles) before going to sleep at night, I connected my neck to my: limbic system, eyes, diaphragm, and liver. All of these things got my sweating down and my overall reactivity to be less in the world. I intentionally stopped watching the news and learned how to ground my lower chakras by re-entering my body from the previously disassociated state. I lived near Muir Woods at the time so the trees taught me very well.

Once I no longer needed pillowcases to treat my patients (I had to use them so I didn't sweat through their clothes!), I did what I called "energetic push-ups" by watching Mt. Everest climbing movies like Vertical Limit, holding my stellate (via cranial base hold with upper neck or anterior access, like over the thyroid), and doing Neurofascial Processing on areas like my adrenals, diaphragm, large intestine, or gut brain enteric nervous system. I connected with them through the freeze mode that came up during tense scenes in the movies.

With my particular healing journey we are talking about the last 25 years. Now, I don't expect most people to go around holding their necks while watching suspenseful movies for their personal development (although it is a worthy exercise, believe me), but taking care of the nervous system has never been so widely noticed in the grassroots posts on social media. Society having more focus on mental health and nervous system understanding currently is a wonderful thing as our nervous systems do synch up or "entrain" or "co-regulate" with each other. Having more of humanity tracking this and unwinding their nervous systems, making choices with how they embody themselves, will make it easier for all of us to get to a much better contented, loving space. Nonviolent communication, mindfulness, voice coaching, nature walks, genuine connection, and switching off the news for audiobooks like Breath, Fast Like a Girl, Good Energy, The Four Agreements, and Let Them will allow us to digest our food and enjoy life more collectively. In safety. In pleasure. In contentment. There is a time and a place for survival mode, but ease should be the norm, not the rare.

Nervous system entraining with nature.

nervous system entraining with nature.

So, back to the Stellate block... 

Three years ago, I was doing my usual thing with a client, an athlete who was having irregular heart rate issues and passing out, sweating, etc. Cardiologists had checked him out, but they found nothing, and he was cleared from their point of view. But he understandably did not feel safe on the bike, as he was having these passing-out events. He was restricting himself to the stationary bike for safety. So, during the session, I did what I often do with this kind of person: I opened up his thoracic outlet and the shoulder girdle and clavicle area, which I found most limited. He had some odd sensations as it unwound, which I would expect. While working on him, I had him perform a safety meditation; in this case, he was tracking a place in his body that felt "the best." After the session, I went to give him some more visualization to do. I googled images for the stellate ganglion to provide him with a Netter's Anatomy image of this area. I often do this so interested people can better understand the structures at play in their symptoms. When I Googled Stellate Ganglion, as I frequently do, I found that an advertisement for the Stellate Ganglion Block at the Stella Center came up first this time. It was the first I had ever heard of this procedure, but I was intrigued.

They have discovered that temporarily anesthetizing via ultrasound-guided nerve blocks can reset the feedback loop to the reptilian reactive part of our nervous system cascading from the Steallate Ganglion overreaction. Doctors have successfully used it to treat post-traumatic stress injury, anxiety, depression, addiction, Raynaud's, peripheral vascular disorders, and hyperhidrosis.

Now, up to about three years ago, I was happy with my process and earned a healthy relationship with my nervous system. However, I had an issue post-Covid spike protein introduction to my Central Nervous System (and the trauma environment) that we all experienced. In my case, my first vaccine gave me a central nervous system flare-up. I woke up 8 hours after my J and J vax with severe vertigo, which settled into concussive brain fog and peripheral vascular neuropathy. This flare lasted for the next two years. I had vertigo with any cold virus I got after that, no matter if it was Covid positive or not. I also had bright red toes with thin skin and thin toenails due to the side effects of my vaccine. After my third vertigo event, I found the detox nicotine gum protocol (nicotine is a competing binding agent for the Covid spike protein), which did finally get rid of my vertigo and concussion symptoms post-vax, but my newly bright red to purple feet have still not resolved.  

Three and a half years ago, my stepdaughter saw my feet; at the time, she was working in the vascular surgery wing of Mass General, and, concerned, she texted a picture of my feet to one of her favorite MDs that we worked with for her opinion. That doctor said that I was likely going to need my toes amputated.

Since the nervous system in my body has been my "weak link," that is what came up with my treatment reaction, or some would say "long COVID." For this reason, it is certainly possible that the Stellate Ganglion procedure will help this new condition, which I am experiencing with the same general brand: nervous system dysregulation.

I am hanging in there with my Self-care around the distal circulation of my feet, and they are not as bad as they were in 2022, but they are not the same. I also have low load constant upper cervical strangulation feeling and tension in my jaw and tongue, and some dysregulation in my hands (parts of my fingers will turn white). This process can do some reset that I will benefit from. I scheduled it for about a month and will post my process here.

A further consideration of the nervous system healing potential available at this particular time in our human evolution and history is that of the nervous systems in our families. The players in the home present their nervous systems and have huge effects on each other near each other. I am also encouraging my husband to undergo this procedure. Especially as his state of being is, at this point, much more amped than my system. We will have it together. Ideally, he will go first as the "louder being." Getting mine reset when his nervous system is around mine will affect my ability to drop into neutral, as his nervous system also has its issues. He, like me, has had severe panic attacks, has a tendency for anxiety and catastrophic thinking, and has OCD (I don't have those but do have difficulty staying natural when he wants to talk about the news or what may go wrong with our daughter.) Finding and staying in an enjoyable neutral is an intentional practice worthy of your time. I will give updated blogs on what this is like as spinal cord-level co-regulation "couples therapy," I have high hopes for a household nervous system upgrade. Technically a “downregulated” one. 😊

Spinal cord reactions and protective modes serve a purpose during injury, trauma, deep distress, or infection. This injection, like an ice plunge into our sympathetic nervous system, may provide the pause needed for it to recalibrate itself. Fingers crossed.

Stella Center Link