I found this chart on another Chiarian's website. This illustrates the difference and degrees of Chiari. I am labled as a person with Chiari 1...that means I'm the one in the middle. If you look at the base of the brain, the little bit of brain working it's way into the neck is called the cerebellar tonsils. Thankfully, it's not an important part of the brain...concerning just the same. These tonsils along with the brain stem descend into the spinal cavity. Only one of those parts should be in the spinal cavity and that is where all the pressure I feel is being created. A recent visit with the headache specialist confirmed that my brain even baffles the experts. He thinks I'm having four types of headaches: sinus, tension, migraine, and the chiari kind. Because he can't specifically point to the ones that are chiari created, we're going to experiment for a while. My current regime is a muscle relaxer each night (for the neck pain), a migraine pill most days (for headaches that seem to be migraines), physical therapy (again, for my neck), and then possibly switching to a gluten-free diet...just in case it's diet that is throwing me out of whack! In about a month, I'll meet back with the specialist. We will reevaluate my headaches and see what is being stopped through current procedures and what still needs attention. Eventually, we will get to the bottom of all of these headaches and be able to recognize which headaches are chiari related. From there, who knows? There could be surgery, but maybe not. I'll keep you posted. I'll also keep working on posting one of my brain scans for all who are curious...right now our scanner isn't cooperating, so I hope the chart at least makes a good visual. Thank you for all of your concern! Keep us in your prayers as we keep you in ours! Have a wonderful and Happy Easter from The Brocks.
2 comments:
Hi Hillary.
I was so sorry to hear about all of your trouble with headaches. I had remembered Carly mentioning that you had a rough time with them. One of my best friends from childhood has the Chiari Malformation. They discovered hers about 10 years ago. She has not had the surgery at this point. I am certainly thinking of you as your try different approaches that will hopefully lead to relief for you. I need to get your email addrress from Carly and will write more. Take care, Love ya, Cheri
Hil,
Just want you to know we're praying for you! You seem to be in great spirits, and I hope that continues! I don't know why things like this happen, but I do know they serve to make us stronger and draw us closer to those we love the most! Love and Prayers!! Jarrod and Devin
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