Hello everyone, I had decompression surgery roughly two years ago and I believe the surgery was successful. I do not experience Chiari headaches as I did before, and movements like bending over, coughing, and sneezing no longer trigger headaches. However, I am still having headaches and it's becoming harder to ignore. For example, craning my neck for more than a few seconds is rather painful, and as a college student I spend a lot of time looking down with my neck bent forward as I work on homework or study. When this happens, the pain tends to begin in my neck and then sort of spread upwards in my temples and behind my eyes. I've connected with many Chiari patients on Tumblr and Instagram, and learned of occipital neuralgia and cranial-cervical instability, and I'm worried I may have it. The occipital nerve runs from the top of the spinal cord and into the neck - AKA, where my Chiari is located and I think the compression may have damaged the nerves there.
Cranial instability and occipital neuralgia are both somewhat related to Chiari, and I was just wondering if anyone on this site has been diagnosed with either occipital neuralgia or cranial instability. I'm not even sure what kind of doctor I would see for this, my neurosurgeon most likely? I wonder though if I'm being a hypochondriac because I feel like my doctor would have already seen this problem, but maybe not. I'm just really confused and not sure what to do.
