I’m having surgery on June 8th. Any advice on what to bring to the hospital and what to expect would be greatly appreciated.
Hi,
I had a horrible allergic reaction to cymbalta but I’m glad you found something that works for you. I’m in pain every day & take a narcotic (which discourages me cuz it’s not what I want) & a compound topical cream that has numbing meds, muscle relaxers & gabapentin in it. It just makes the pain tolerable. Besides chiari i also suffer from another rare condition called polands disease but its mild, but still effects me. How I was blessed with 2 rare conditions is beyond me lol. I’m scared to do the surgery cuz it’s not 100% effective & I’ve heard stories where people come out worse. So I dont know if I just deal or what. I feel alone cuz my husband dont get it & my kids are like moms sleeping again so that is frustrating. I feel like I’m wasting away in bed but some days it’s hard. I feel that I have more bad days than good ones.
Surgery date is June 18th
Amanda, age 40, surgery January 17
Hey Amanda,
Now is a time to be kind-to-self. I’m going to make this sound simple, but I know it is not. ‘Try’ to reduce your stress and do some preparation before the day comes. I say ‘try’ because there will be times when it can all overtake us. Look, you could come out the other side and be 100+% and wonder what all of the worry was about, but on the off chance that this is not the case, what could you need? Do you have a freezer? Make some pre-prepared meals to freeze. Set your ‘zone’ up with what you may need all within reach ie pillows, TV remotes, medications etc. Make sure you have a dark/silent space, no light, no noise. As I say ‘…you could come out the other side and be 100+%…’ and not need any of this, but trying to set up everything when you are trying to recover can be an added stress that you simply do not need. As the Boy Scout motto states ‘Be Prepared’.
I was lucky, I had a live-in slave (more commonly known as a wife 
). She did a silly thing and gave me a bell to ring if I needed assistance, by the 3rd day she removed the bell on threat of it becoming a permanent prothesis 
But having others around can help, even if it’s just once a day to make sure all is OK.
Best of luck with it all.
Waiting to hear how it all goes,
Merl from the Modsupport Team
Surgery set for November 7th 2022 
Welcome to Ben’s friends Jaime! I’m impressed that you got surgery scheduled in such a short time span. I know a few teenagers who have had the surgery and they did quite well overall. If you post a new thread with any questions that you might have about the process and recovery I can make sure to push it out to everyone so that you’ll be more likely to get responses.
Sharon from ModSupport