Hello Everyone! I was diagnosed with Chiari a few weeks and I am still trying to learn more about it. My neurosurgeon doesn't fee that I should have surgery at this time, even though I am in a lot of pain all the time. I am sure like a lot of you. My neurosurgeon is wanting to send me to a pain management specialist to see if I am a good candidate for some kind of nerve stimulator, I think. I don't know. I am still confused.
I have had migraine type headaches off an on all my life. I have had a lot of disk issues in the last 2 1/2 years and have sever spinal blocks to help with that. When my headaches started getting worse, my doctor sent me to a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon told me that I had Chiari after reviewing my MRI. He then requested that I have a mylegram to further diagnose where the pain was coming from. The outcome is that have Chiari, a bulging disk and scoliosis.
My question is this: What types of exercise are good to do when you have Chiari and is there any certain kind of diets that seem to help the most?
Given your spinal history, Chiari diagnosis, and pain concerns I would highly recommend "Explain Pain" by the Neuro-orthopedic Institute. "Graded Motor Imagery" is also a good book to help with knowing where to start with exercises. Hopefully any pain center that you go to is familiar with this well-researched and modern approach to managing and understanding pain. The books are expensive as they ship from Australia but maybe amazon is better prices now. Also ebooks are available, maybe your library can buy it or request it from another library.
I would that you are too individualized to prescribe exercise. I do know that, typically, Chiari people do not do well with standard physical therapy exercises or "move your head 10 times" "Push your head into your hand for 10 seconds". A programme needs to be more précises with motor control exercises and probably graded motor imagery exercises for you. The pain is in your head but you need to understand what that means and what you can do about it. Read the book.
Good luck
Thank you! I will definitely check into those books and I agree the standard physical therapy would not be good.