I wish I had found this site a year ago. I had my surgery on 7/30/10 and after reading a lot of the posts here, I know definitely that I had a good outcome. I was in the hospital for 4 days and dizzy/nauseous and constantly tired for at least 2 wks after that. Thankfully my mom came to take care of the household chores. I am now a little more than a year out from the surgery and doing well. I still have neck pain and headaches from time to time, but the headaches are not nearly as bad as before the surgery. I was told I had to have the surgery because the CSF flow was blocked and not getting through, so for me it was not whether to have the surgery, but just how well would I do afterwards. I have already had my follow up MRI and there is only a minor Chiari malformation now. From what I understand, it is not possible to make it completely "normal", but mine will require no further surgery, thankfully!