I was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with Chiari and I have a different situation - my surgeon was shocked it was never discovered when they performed a craniotomy due to a subdural hematoma less than two years ago. I went to my neurosurgeon due to the headaches and not feeling right so she sent me for my routine MRI and surprise surprise here I am today with a surgery date. I have a surgery date of March 13th so far I am not really nervous because I have already went through a severe brain surgery, however, I was told by my surgeon that decompression is much more painful than what I had experienced. The thing that makes me nervous is recovery and finances. That sounds so horrible. I am just worried how soon it will take me before I can get back to my life again. I need to work to pay my bills and am not sure if I will get disability because I collected it when I had my first surgery. That is my stress. I am sure the closer I get to surgery the more nervous I will get. I think a lot of it is I don't really have an extensive knowledge of Chiari which I need to do more research. GRRRRR sorry I just needed to vent my feelings.
Valerie