Hello everyone! It has only been 4 months that this chiari malformation has given me trouble and I cannot imagine how some of you have dealt with your pain for so long! Leg and arms experiencing pins and needles, extreme leg pain, and headaches becoming much more severe than years prior. I was blessed to find my neurosurgeon so quickly and fully trust his work and compassion.I am scheduled for decompression surgery march 20, however I am terrified!! Can someone please give me some peace of mind and educate me on what to expect my first few days after, did symptoms resolve?!Also how quickly did you feel like you could safely return to work. I am a corrections officer in a prison and wonder how soon I can safely return to work without worry of injury to my head. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Hailey, I understand how you feel. I was diagnosed last week and today I just want to cry my head hurts so much. I am already considering the surgery as long as my doctor feels I am a good candidate. I look forward to hearing about your results. I will know more on the 10th once I see the NeurSurgeon.
Rebecca thank you for the input. I am very worried about how much time it will take to heal, symptoms to go away and if I can safely return to work. I have researched so many stories of each healing process and they differ so much person to person! Also I have enormous respect for your husband working with juveniles! Adult prisoners are bad enough, I wouldn't last a day with kids!!
Rebecca said:
Hi Hailey,
I believe the healing time is pretty different for everyone. Some experience relief from headaches fairly quickly, while others have some headache and other symptoms while they are healing. I believe the general consensus is, it takes months to really get a good idea of how you really feel. Recovery is hard, even for the less severe cases. I have read from some others that there a period for a few weeks/months where you have a lot of relief of symptoms, but then as the nerves start to grow and heal back together, they kind of overreact, and you feel pretty bad - like all your symptoms are coming back. But then the pain seems to dissipate again once the healing has reached a certain point.
I do not want to be a Debbie Doubter, but my husband is a correctional officer at a juvenile detention center. Juveniles tend to be worse than the adults though. Knowing what my husband goes through on a day to day basis, I'm not sure I would be comfortable going back for several months, if at all. I think the typical return to work for a desk job is about 3 months. A correctional officers job is extremely physical with a high risk of injury - and if the inmates know you have just had brain surgery (which you will not be able to hide).....You would be an easy target. I believe even after surgery it takes a while to get your body strength and coordination back. I could be completely wrong as I have no had my surgery yet, but I think you need to sit down with your neurosurgeon and tell him exactly the types of activities you do as a correctional officer.
When you are healing from this surgery, you are not talking about just the first couple days. You are going to be talking in terms of weeks. You have to rest, rest, and rest some more. I have read from others that you can not lift over 5 pounds for months. You can easily over do it on your days that you feel pretty good, and then have several days of set backs.
Having said all of this, there is a high success rate for this surgery and most people believe it to be worth it.
Rese,
I wish you the best of luck and hope you get relief from these horrendous headaches. Do you have any other symptoms? I had headaches everyday for 3 years, and then out of nowhere in the last 4 months it has been a downward spiral of pain in my arms and legs every minute of the day. I pray you do not have to experience this. Let me know what your surgeon says!
Rese Hull said:
Hailey, I understand how you feel. I was diagnosed last week and today I just want to cry my head hurts so much. I am already considering the surgery as long as my doctor feels I am a good candidate. I look forward to hearing about your results. I will know more on the 10th once I see the NeurSurgeon.
Hi hailey, I just wanted to check in and see how you are doing? Did you have the surgery? How are you feeling? I am sending lots of positive thoughts your way.