I had my decompression surgery on march 28, 2013. I was in ICU for 2 days and was released to go home on easter. The surgery took 3 hours. My NS cut out 3in of my skull, and opened up my dura mater, and took a skin graph from my right thigh and sewed it over the slit and closed me up. When I woke up in ICU all I could remember was asking for my husband and being in a lot of pain. The morphine made me nauseous and vomiting was very painful. They gave me some other meds to take. For the first month post op i was miserable. I was dependent on my husband and mother n law to do everything. I kept getting fevers and couldn't swallow. Went to ER for those symptoms and found out i had strept throat and UTI infection. I had trouble with making bowel movement cause of the pain meds and muscle relaxer. I finally had my 1st bowel movement 4 weeks post op. My recovery has been very painful. It hurts to walk, It still hurts to cough, sneeze,vomit, but my NS insists thats normal cause the muscle and nerves are healing. Has anyone experienced what I'm experiencing? My NS said it may take 6 months to a year to feel 100%.
Ugh! So sorry your having a tough time. I am 19 months post op. I don’t think I am back to normal,but have found a new normal. I also took an unusually long time to be resonably self reliant again. Get lots of rest and take it slow!
I hate to tell you but I came home quick thought I was great until the pain meds wore off. I suffered for months. I would cry because it hurt anyway I tried to lay to sleep. I would say minimum 3-6 months for pain and a year to get back to complete normal! What ever normal is when you have Chiari!!! The surgery did help me with so many symptoms and I don regret it. I take topimax 50 mg daily to keep from having head aches. I still go to a massage appt. once a month to help with body pain. My surgery was November 2011. Good luck and hang in there.
I don't know if I tried to do too much lately or what but my lower back hurts a lot. Everytime I sneeze, cough, or strain to get up it hurts worse. Has anyone experienced this?
Hi Dawn....
Sorry you are dealing with all of this..YES...For the 1st several mths post op...every time I sneezed, strained, ect...the pain increased so much.
Try not to over-do...easier said than done , I know.
How are you today??? Keep us in the loop.
I have a factory job where I'm lifting anywhere between 50 to 90 lbs repeatedly lifting and flipping them during my shift. Before surgery I had problems. I was diagnosed with chiari in 2009 after bein laid off since 2008 from the same job. I got called back to work in July 2011. I just had my surgery this past March cause my symptoms worsened since I started working. My NS suggested I get a different job. My husband works at the same place and does the same job. It pays well and has good health benefits. I'm supposed to return to work in 5 more weeks and I don't know if I'll be able to do it. I'm not saying that I don't want to go back cause I do. We are struggle without both incomes. My symptoms are making me think I can't do it. The pressure in my head from sitting to standing, bending over to pick something up, straining and lifting is still painful...more than it was before surgery. My hands and arms shake when I'm using them. I'M REALLY SCARED OF WHAT MY FUTURE HOLDS. I thought that if I had this surgery that my job wouldn't be as difficult as it was to do. I know my husband is expecting me to return to work in five weeks. I don't want to disappoint him. I don't want him thinking I'm trying to get out of working....I'm not at all. Has anybody had those symptoms after surgery that prevented u from returning to work? I'm praying that whatever happens that it's God's Will for my life. My NS said recovery may take up to 6 months or more....in 5 weeks it will be 3 months. Praying for answers and understanding <3
My NS told me that he couldn't guarantee that I'll be able to return to work after my surgery and recommended that I get a desk job somewhere. I took that very lightly thinking surgery would make things better for me when I return to work. I expected myself to bounce back in no time because I was determined too. I will say my husband did tell me this morning that if I'm not healed enough to go back to work in 5 weeks than don't cause he doesn't want me to to get hurt worse and have to have more surgeries. (Talk about answered prayer....<3) That eased my mind and I told him that I will try my best to go back to that job and when I do hopefully there will be openings somewhere else in the plant I can bid on to get out of that department....God Willing that is. <3