Hi everyone, my name is Marissa, 17 from Oregon. I found out I had chiari in early November. I’ve always had terrible headaches so I had already had a neurologist for migraine care, but after a concussion in 2014 my headaches got worse to the point migraine medication didn’t work so they scanned my head, twice actually and there you go. I see a neurosurgeon end of Jan. All while who’s is going on I’m supposed to be a normal teenager and go to school and try to graduate this year because I am a senior in high school. I can hardly get up in the morning and look out a window sometimes because of my head pain. How am o supposed to get a diploma? It just seems like the worst possible time for me to have this.
This is obviously a really hard time for you. It makes sense to adjust the expectations accordingly.
I think th word "normal" really hurts people who have a chronic illness. Is it normal to in so much pain? No, it is not. People who know about your pain can't ask of you what they would ask of a person feeling great. Talk to your parents, teachers or someone in your school who can in any way help. Tell them you want to graduate, but the pain makes everything really hard. Ask them to help you create the environment in which you can graduate.
Hope this helps.
That old saying when a door closes a window opens comes to mind. No one can give you general answers that will meet your expectations. To me a large part of living with chronic illness is reframing your personal concept of what it is to be "normal" on planet earth at this point in time. I've been where you are, your only choice is to become as stable as you can and move forward as best you can. This cannot be rushed and will require a truly massive degree of patience on your part.