Dear Witherspoon,

Of course you're scared. If you weren't you'd be nuts. Most of the people who come here are somewhere between nervous & terrified, so you've got company.

I'm going to give you some links to medical forums & suggest that you copy your intro post from here over there. There's a lot more more traffic of people wrestling with their conditions, so there'll be eyes with the sort of experience you need reading it.

Spinal Disorders & Back Pain: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum22.html
General Health & Rare Disorders: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum2.html
Arnold Chiari Malformation & Syringomyelia: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum71.html

You can start your own thread on any or all of these forums. Ask questions. Hopefully you'll find some answers, but at the least you'll find folks with some sensitivity to what you're going through.

We're here to help any way we can. Stay in touch.