Hello Everyone. My name is Brian. A few of you have been responding to my mother's posts on here and your support is greatly appreciated. This is my first time posting on this board in particular and I am curious to see what everyone has to say.
My surgery is scheduled for November 12th of this year, so pretty soon. I find myself being more anxious and scared about the whole process a lot more now than I did when I got over the initial fear and set the appointment. I am scared of the pain, the recovery and the chances that I will complications or a negative outcome. I am not completely focused on this and generally have a sense of positivity about the whole thing, but I have to be honest in saying I am getting a bit scared.
What did those of you that had the surgery do to prepare or calm yourselves? Was there anything that any of you would have done with the benefit of hindsight?
Right now I experience the following symptoms, and hope for them to go away!
Headaches
Nausea
Neck pain
Upper back pain
Nystagmus (I also have Septo Optic Dyslpasia which includes Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, so Nystagmus is something i've always dealt with, though it's noticeably worse now.)
Vertigo
Memory issues
Cognitive issues (word selection/speaking problems)
Pain in my calves
Hand tremors (not so bad with the aid of lyrica)
Poor gait/walk into things/trip
Photophobia
Poor sleep pattern
Some of these symptoms are all the time, some come and go. I find that I feel the most "crippled" by Chiari when the headaches ,pain/, nausea,dizziness and photophobia are hitting me at the same time. The other stuff I can deal with, however the memory issues and speech problems are relatively new (within the year) and really frustrate me.
Anyway... this is kind of a random post and I appreciate anyone taking the time to read it or respond.