Ok friends, I finally got the written report in the mail that I requested from my NS office of the final radiologist report from my CSF flow study. Thought I might get some feedback from you all on it to try to make sense of it and figure out where to go from here. My NS was passing me off as a patient before he even had the final report from the radiologist and telling me I needed to get in with a NL and have some other things checked out/ruled out as he is not convinced all my symptoms are chiari related. So here are some of the issues that I saw in the report, and I wanted to share them with you as you all have more experience with this than I do. So any help/thoughts/advice is appreciated…
- Cerebellar tonsils lie 2 mm below foramen magnum with peg shaped cerebellar tonsils and crowding of the foramen magnum.
Ok, so my first MRI in May showed 5 mm herniation. I know the difference may just be that the MRIs were done at different hospitals and read by different radiologists but I was kinda surprised at the difference.
- “Phase contrast CSF flow sequences demonstrate appropriate CSF flow at the level of the cerebral aqueduct. Additionally, there is appropriate CSF flow seen at the anterior and to a lesser degree posterior foramen magnum below the level of the cerebellar tonsils. There is CSF flow pulsation seen just inferior to the cerebellar tonsils. No definite flow is seen immediately adjacent to the cerebellar tonsils between the cerebellum and the opisthion.”
So if I’m reading this right, on the back side of the cerebellar tonsils there is no flow at all. To me, that doesn’t sound like a good thing. Am I wrong? How much can your CSF flow be compromised and you still be ok, even being in excruciating pain? And he thinks my symptoms aren’t chiari related? He thinks I wouldn’t benefit from surgery? Or is it just because he doesn’t want to deal with the risks of operating on a fat girl? I’m just frustrated. Don’t know whether to follow his suggestion of seeing a NL first and ruling out everything else, or trying to find another NS and try the process all over with them. Ideas/suggestions/thoughts? Thanks!