Hi, I too have chiari malformation, and just to let you know, do not let your doctor brush it off, its not ok. there are things that can be done to make the pain and pressure a lot better. there are medicines that can be prescribed to help, and now that prescriptions are so cheap, it is worth getting, next the only options are surgery and the way i see it is if we were born with it, we might as well keep it until it is just absolutely dire that we have the surgery. it is onset at birth, but sometimes is not discovered until late in life, i didnt know until i was 15 years old, and by then, i had been having migraines for years, but no one believed me, so dont let him brush u off tell him u want to know more and want to feel better.
Jessica
Quote:
Originally Posted by KelsieG
Hi all,
I am a 26 year old female. I teach at a community college and have no health insurance. About three weeks ago, I started experiencing feelings of weakness in my right leg, only in the evenings. About two weeks ago, I woke up and the entire right side of my body felt weak--leg, hand, arm, and face (including my right eye, which FEELS droopy, but is not). I knew it wasn't muscular weakness, because I could still stand on one leg, lift weights, do yoga, etc. A few mornings ago, I began experiencing numbness on the right side of my face, to the point that speaking became difficult. I went to the ER and they did blood work (all normal) and an MRI, to rule out stroke and, possibly, MS. The doctor came and told me that everything looked fine, but that I had a Chiari malformation. He then told me it was nothing to worry about and NOT the cause of my symptoms. He thought perhaps some compressed nerves were to blame for my arm/leg symptoms, and that my face was going numb due to anxiety.
I came home and looked it up and was shocked to find that a vast majority of my symptoms are present with Chiari malformation!
I have been prone to terrible headaches for much of my life and have always chalked it up to stress/hormones (maybe it still is...I don't know). I have also had an odd "clicking" that felt as though it were coming from inside my skull when I ran/jumped. I don't know if that has to do with anything, but it always unnerved me a bit.
I guess I'm wondering...can Chiari symptoms present on only one side of the body?? My left side is completely fine. The weak feelings on the right side are going away a little, but my right eye feels as though someone is standing behind it trying to push it out of my skull. I'm also experiencing sensitivity to light and sound. My mother thinks it's a sinus infection (she had one that made her face go numb and messed up her eyesight) and told me to take some Mucinex D. I'm growing increasingly certain that my chairi malformation has something to do with this.
Was my doctor wrong to brush this off? Should I find a new doctor or go ahead an follow up with the old one? I would really like to try to find myself some health insurance before a firm diagnosis is made. If the only treatment option really is surgery...I...I just can't imagine.
I feel very alone and frightened right now. Will chiari kill me? Will the symptoms rapidly get so bad that I lose motor function or my eyesight? I'm terrified and poor and I feel a little angry that the doctor didn't even entertain this as a possibility.
Does anyone have any advice as to what I should do now?
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