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Well I saw the neurosurgeon today - amazingly quick!!!

He has determined that my chiari herniation is between 6 mm and 8.1 mm. He remeasured the mri scan and found it 8.1 mm. All of my symptoms are chiari - occipital headaches, tingling hands, halos, numbness in my face, trouble speaking, hiccups, etc.

He left the appointment saying to call him when I was ready for surgery. Not we'll monitor you, we'll run more tests, let's see how this progresses. Surgery. It's a decompression surgery where they cut a piece of my skull out at the top of my spine and replace it with a larger piece grafted from my thigh bone. This reduces the pressure on my brain and thereby all of the above symptoms (hopefully). Success rates are 70 - 80%. The remaining percentage have symptoms reoccur in 5 - 6 years at varying degrees, and a small percentage report no improvement.

So now I have more research to do and a huge decision to make...

I could use some hugs... I'm scared to death about any surgery, let alone this one.

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Cassandra

Live like there's no tomorrow. Love like you've never loved before.

IBS A 20+ years, Chronic Migraines, Chiari Malformation (decompressed June 22, 2010), Brachial Neuritis, and ??? the list just keeps growing, but I'm still shiny side up!

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