Hello everyone. I am new to the group and want to thank those who have welcomed me. I am still learning how to navigate through.. I had been having symptoms since Spring of 2010 and just diagnosed in February 2012 with Chiari. I have been to one local NS, then to see Dr Heffez in WI, and now scheduled for appointment with another local NS. Dr. Heffez appears to be the most experienced at this point. My main concerns:
Having the surgery out of town and experiencing complications when I return home.
Has anyone out there experienced an out of town surgery? I am 61 years old and, after reading through alot of the discussions and the difficult recuperations, am wondering if I should just opt for pain management and forget about the surgery.
Please respond if you have any suggestions for me. Thanks so much!
I had surgery from Dr. Heffez....and I did experience complications...however if my local ER had been on their toes it LIKELY would NOT lead to a shunt being placed. & Dr H was really SUPER about being in contact with the local NS as I was going through this whole shunt business.
(had it been caught earlier in my 10 visits to ER i likely would have NOT needed the shunt--by the time it was realized by a DR who LISTENED to my husband, and looked back on my ER history and who had the brillant idea something is seriously wrong and called for a CT scan- had it not been for this Dr I hate to think of what my life would be like today)
1 thing i will say that i was NOT informed of before sugery in WI is that he would like is out of state patients to stay until HE can remove the staples. ( I was not told this and returned home following discharge)
not sure what you are looking for so feel free to ask
I am local to Milwaukee. Dr. Heffez did my decompression and laminoplasty March 12. I work in the hospital where the Chiari clinic is. He has always been informative and available to answer my questions. There are many who have had surgery with Dr. H. I still have a lot of pain (from the laminoplasty). It has been 3 months so its hard for me to say if the surgery was a success. If you can tolerate the symptoms, I would hold off the surgery. I tried conservative measures for the first year(Dr. H. said he could follow me closely since I worked in the same building.) I do a lot of heavy lifting as a nurse and I believe that made my symptoms worsen over the course of last year. CM was affecting my everyday life and my hopes for the future. I did have compression of the brainstem and vertebral arteries, so he did recommend the surgery.
Dear June: Welcome to the support group too. I just joined this group this past week. So I am new and slow to getting used to this site as well. It actually might have been seeing your post that moved me to finally join this support site too. The reason why I am touched by what you wrote is because I am actually a patient of Dr. Heffez. I just had two surgeries with him this year. I thank God first that I found out about him too. But I can also relate to your concerns. When you get this, look at what I wrote on my page site. I would be happy to share things with you. Blessings, Mary Lou