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

My story with this structure goes back to at least First Grade. That is when I can remember that in the summers I couldn't wear flip flops because my feet were so sweaty all the time that they would rip when my feet slipped. 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 a surgery for it, then, which involved cutting the sympathetic chain. The sympathetic chain is a string of pearls like a nerve network running down both sides of the spine, which participates in the fight or flight response, especially in the thoracic levels. 

Before you think I was crazy to consider this surgery at that time 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, wet hands. Maybe I didn't in winter skiing, but then I had the pain and white turning hands of Raynaud's. 

hands and feet were this wet most of the time

Back to the article in Seventeen magazine.. The surgery, which I would have taken to my parents as a request, had its side effects. Sometimes patients would now have excessively sweating butts. No thanks. 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 had to "come out" and express itself somehow!

Why me?

I have theories about this, and my professional development and body guided me to understand it more deeply. Some of them make sense.

As the stellate ganglion is in the deep neck area, and I was a repeat sufferer of strep and tonsillitis, perhaps the tissues stuck together from chronic infection and inflammation, creating scar tissue. Mechanical tension on nerves stimulates them. 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.

Dysregulation. What is a girl to do...

My teenage and early twenties were spent much of the time in adrenalized sports. Mine all started with guns, so I continued to floor the gas pedal of my nervous system to run like it was about 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. 

Retrospectively, this was me "trying to deal" pretty effectively. As Stephen Porges discusses in Polyvagal Theory, high-level exercise engages the "vagal brake." This means it is a way for the body to balance the overwhelming sympathetic overdrive. High-intensity exercise creates a sense of balance and safety after exercise.

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

Early in my career I met a woman named Sharon Weiselfisch Giamatteo. I learned how to do three planar myofascial release in her manual therapy classes. 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. During lab, my partner did this technique 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 were going over the cervical thoracic area techniques. Sharon talked about one of the releases—a release 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.

I continued in my life with a reptilian spinal cord, performing and having my therapist friends help me unwind that area, and then as I learned more, to the cranial base (where the vagus exits the skull). I learned all the regions of neuroregulation that I could access for myself and my patients. The lumbosacral plexus, the sacral nerve roots, and the respiratory abdominal diaphragm are gaining access to take tension off that portion of the vagus network. I learned about neurofascial process and my inner child. I spent hours meditating and using my. Hands 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.

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 neuro fascial processing on areas like my adrenals, diaphragm, large intestine, or gut brain enteric nervous system.

We are talking about the last 25 years. Now, I don't expect most people to go around holding their neck 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. This 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, switching off the news for audiobooks like: Breath, Fast like a girl, Good Energy, The Four Agreements, and Let Them, will allow us to collectively digest our food and enjoy life more. 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.

So back to 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 nothing they could find. So 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 on a safety meditation 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 Plate image of this area. What came up first was Stellate Gaglion Block at the Stella Center.

What they have discovered and perform regularly for this procedure is that temporarily anesthetizing via ultrasound guided nerve blocks can reset the feedback loop to the reptilian reactive part of our nervous system. They 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 (and trauma environment) that gave me a central nervous system flare-up. This looked like vertigo, concussive brain fog, sciatic and carpal tunnel symptoms. I found the detox nicotine gum protocol, which helped most of this, but what didn't get fixed post Covid reaction was my newly bright red to purple feet. 

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

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.) I believe this process can do some reset that I will benefit from. I scheduled it in about a month so that I will post my process here.

Further consideration with 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. My husband, I am encouraging also to have this procedure. We will be having it together. Me getting mine reset when his nervous system is around mine will be affecting my ability to drop into neutral as his nervous system has also its issues. He, like me, has had severe panic attacks, has a tendency for anxiety and catastrophic thinking, and 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 update 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 served a purpose during time of injury, trauma, deep distress or infection. This injection, like an ice plunge to our sympathetic nervous system may provide the pause needed to recalibrate itself. Fingers crossed.

Stella Center Link