So here is a bit of a back story. I have had neck issues for nearly 8 years. I have been to see several dr. and an orthopedic dr. that none of them have been able to say why or help. Pain would come and go but always there to some degree. In July of 2013 I was involved in a car accident which seems to have exasperated all my symptoms. I went to Chiropractor and did PT from July 2013- February 2014. They gave me some occipital nerve blocks which seemed to help for a couple weeks but headaches came back after 3 weeks and they would only do 2 rounds. Starting back in August I started having headaches...everyday. I went to see my OB for a follow up on a recent surgery and he tried me on Tramadol for head and that did nothing as well. I finally couldn't handle it went to ER and they did CT, said everything was fine. Went to family dr. and he thought maybe sinus issues since headaches worsened when I bent over...no help. decided to try to grin and bare it since no one really took me serious. Then in December I started with serious vertigo/dizziness...went to ER once again did a CT scan EKG and blood work all came back fine except they suggested highly getting a MRI as my CT scan showed herniation of the cerebellum 4-5 mm. They sent me home with meclizine which did nothing. Went back to family dr, he said he wasn't too familiar but referred me to a neurologist and also gave me a script for ativan also did nothing. 3 weeks later as mysteriously as it started the vertigo stopped but was replaced with an even worse more constant headache. Finally month later went to neurologist...gotta say he was horrific. Very much God complex and didn't even bother to look at actualy scans and said I in no certain terms did not need an MRI and that I had migraines...he refused to listen to anything I had to say about neck pains and dizziness...in his words lets take this one symptom at a time and what was my MAJOR complaint. I left his office in tears with a script for verapamil which I have faithfully taken 3 1/2 months. headaches are still here to some degree everyday...they come and go and are worse at certain times. They move around my head...almost always in the back by also on top of my head, in my forehead and like a vice at times around my temples. My eyes hurt a lot of the time and lately my jaws hurt. I went to dentist to see if maybe it was TMJ and they say I show no evidence of it...went and got my eyes tested and they say everything looks fine, perfect vision. This damn tingle feeling in my head is becoming more and more often and my throat has been feeling weird, almost like its numb but I still swallow fine. I don't know what to expect and am terrified this dr is gonna brush me off like the rest. I have 3 kids and I feel like all I do is REST because im tired and my head hurts. I feel like Im going nuts and this is never gonnabe remedied. I don't know if it is Chiari or what but that's what it seems to point to from CT abut they wont do a MRI to confirm. UGGGGG.
It sounds very much like Chiari. I would beg your PCP to order the MRI. Mine did and then I saw a neurologist and neurosurgeon later. Honestly though the neurologists were no help at all. I was lucky to find a great neurosurgeon on my own! Best wishes and please don't give up! Keep fighting for that MRI!
So I had my appointment yesterday...they said I do have a diagnosis of chiari malformation but he doesn't believe that any of my symptoms are from it. He thinks its too small to affect anything, I didn't bother arguing with him, i'll wait til we get the mri's done and see what that shows us. He believes it has something to do with my neck. He is sending me for a brain mri including brainstem as well as a cervical mri and a flexion x ray of neck. I don't know what to think but at least i'm getting the mri's that will hopefully shed some light on what is going on. I'm just getting concerned because some of my symptoms such as tingly hands are geting worse and it seems to be affecting the right side of my face as well. It isn't completely numb but feels like the very end stages of getting novacain. also my head is tingly ALOT. I had a question though, he is sending me for both mri's without contrast. is there any reason he should or shouldn't do with contrast or both with and without?
None of my MRIs had contrast! It's good that he's ordering the tests. You can at least forward those MRIs to another doctor for a second opinion. Did he mention a CINE MRI?
He didn’t. I assumed if there was something more suspicious found in mri’s we would deal with that later. I just got off the phone with the office sting up where I want mri fine so I should know soon when.
I had my mri’s yesterday. I have never had one done so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. It’s it normal for them to clip something on your finger…almost like a pulse/ox monitor? It wasn’t for the entire brain scan but the last 10-15 minutes or so.I was scheduled for brain mri and cervical mri.
They were probably doing the CINE MRI then so the pulse ox is a good thing!
I will…it’s gonna be a long 2 weeks of waiting