Hello...I am a 36 year old who has been having strange health problems for the last 6 years. My symptoms are severe headaches, balance problems, slurred speech and trouble saying what I am thinking, trouble swallowing, loss of motor skills in hands, muscle weakness throughout body, drooping eyelid, blurry vision, dilated pupils, eye sensitivity, sensitive to loud and to many sounds at once, joint pain, muscle pain, sensation of someone digging their elbow in between my shoulder blades on my spine, sensation of pressure coming up my neck and into my head that get's really intense, memory problems with trouble spelling. There are many more but those are the most prominent. I also herniate L5/S1 and had a discectomy but disk had since re herniated. I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia and started seeing a neurologist/pain management doctor who ordered a MRI of my brain to check for lesions ect. This doctor did not read my MRI for 3 months so I changed to a new doctor who in reading the old doc's notes told me I had a chiari malformation and when I looked up the symptom's I had everyone of them. I am being referred to a neurologist and I assume will be sent to a neurosurgeon who is familiar with this condition. I am glad I now know what I am dealing with but am very scared of what this means for the rest of my life. I am already in the process of applying for disability, as I know I can't work. I have 2 very active boy's and my husband has had to take on the housework on top of work and my boy's activities. I explained to them what this condition is but it hard for someone else to understand and I feel very alone. I was wondering if when you have the decompression surgery do the symptoms get better or are they pretty much permanent? Does anyone know of a support group in the Columbia, SC are? I really need to connect with people who understand what I am dealing with, because I try to hide most of my symptom's from my children as they are already worried about me. I also have a lot of guilt and shame over not being able to work and help my husband with the house and my children's activities.

Thanks,

Pam