My symptoms are: dizzy, pain and numbness in hands and feet, headaches (but only occasionally) trouble sleeping,and short term memory loss. Can I expect symptoms to get worse? Is Chiari progressive? I have a 10mm herniation with no syrinx. Any advice is greatly appreicated!!!
Jules,
Everyone is different. Some doctors take the watch and wait route if symptoms aren't too bad. Many times gravity, wear and tear,age, trama ect will make the herniation worse and will increase symptoms. Many times the cumulation of having CSF flow blocked or slowed down, brain stem crowding and pressure in spine and head make symptoms worse. The decompression is a treatment for Chiari so that it doesn't progress. Have you had a Cine MRI to see how much flow you have? Wendy
no, I have not had a CINE MRI.
wendyanne said:
Jules,
Everyone is different. Some doctors take the watch and wait route if symptoms aren't too bad. Many times gravity, wear and tear,age, trama ect will make the herniation worse and will increase symptoms. Many times the cumulation of having CSF flow blocked or slowed down, brain stem crowding and pressure in spine and head make symptoms worse. The decompression is a treatment for Chiari so that it doesn't progress. Have you had a Cine MRI to see how much flow you have? Wendy
Becki,
I am so glad things are going well for you! Congrats!
Becki Bowling said:
Like Wendyanne said everyone is different. I was similar to you. I had a 14 mm herniation with no spyrinx. Biggest issues were dizzy, brain fog, pain, numbness, and headaches. From the time I was diagnosed in Mar of this year until my surgery 11 days ago I did get progressively worse. By June I was no longer driving and could only work part time from home. That's why I decided to go for the decompression surgery. Many of my CM symptoms are gone already. For me it was the best choice I could make.
Mine, personally got progressively worse as time went on. At first it was just TERRIBLE migraines, then comes all the other fun stuff...numbness, blurred vision, pain in neck/shoulder area. It got to the point that the 2 months prior to surgery, I was taken out of my home on a stretcher b/c I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't feel anything from the neck down which scared my entire family...not to mention my toddler :( but after surgery, the headaches aren't as often and the rest of it is tolerable... :) good luck!
It can get worse, that is why they usually require you get a MRI periodically to keep an eye on the progress to know when to take action.