Kristy, perhaps you surgery didn't take then? My son had to have a second decompression surgery 8 months after his first. His neurosurgeon said some scar tissue and bony growth had returned causing a syrinx to form in a different location of the spine that time. My son has side effects from the surgeries that include a hyper gag reflex -worse in the morning and random vomiting with no rhyme or reason to it. As far as your dormant symptoms flaring, maybe something has changed in that area with pressure or growth that is causing it?
I was diagnosed over 6 years ago with my Chiari and back then all I had was headaches. What really worked for me was high doses of Magnesium. It helped a lot and prevented the every day head ache. It takes a while for it to start helping about 4-6 weeks but when it did start working there was a big difference. Another thing to check is mold. I found out the house I lived in had mold in the walls not that we saw but it was there. When I moved out my headaches got better. About your symptoms getting worse, not everyone does. My did but it took all most 6 years before I noticed them getting worse and I got new symptoms. Just focus on controlling your symptoms now and don't worry about what might happen later on. Life to short to focus on what might happen.
Toni, I have not had my surgery yet, it is scheduled for 6/26/14. Fingers crossed :). Dannie thank you for mentioning the Magnesium, Im gonna give that a try :)