After being diagnosed with Chiari Malformation it felt good to go back to my GP and say "Remember how I have been telling you there is something wrong with me? There is." Not that it meant much more than that I was not crazy. My husband went with me to my first appointment with the Neurosurgeon and was shocked that I wanted to have surgery. He had no idea how bad I really felt. No one really knew because I had gotten good at dealing with it, but it was getting worse and getting worse quickly.
I had the surgery on November 28th and felt better right away (helped along with pain meds). I had pain from the incision but did not feel weighted down and the numbness in my arms and feet was gone. I too was in ICU for 2 days and then went home on the 5th day after surgery.
I went to see my Neurosurgeon a week later to have the staples taken out and I have an appointment for an MRI on January 18th. There has really been no after care at all. I felt really good at the first appointment and the first 3 weeks were great. Between Christmas and New Years I started having the numbness "waves" go over my body. There has been returning numbness in my feet and my right arm. The pain in my shoulder blade area has returned and now I have a horrible pain in my head, which is not a headache. It is more like someone is sticking a pencil into the back of my head. It comes and goes (and seems like where he may have implanted the dura that is holding my brain up) but when it happens it takes my breath away and can last for quite awhile. I have also been dealing with horrible neck pain for the last 3 weeks.
I anticipate that after the MRI the surgeon is going to release me to go back to work. I am a 911 dispatcher and I don't know if it is even safe for me to be doing that job right now. I would hate for someone to get hurt because I was too nervous to talk to my surgeon about my concerns and to ask him for more time off.
I hate hanging around the house all day and cannot seem to find the energy to do much. I don't know how working 8 hours and a fast pace stressful job and then coming home to a husband and 3 kids is going to be possible.
**I am also unable to find anything about what to expect after this surgery. It really seems like we get sent home to fend for ourselves because no one knows much about this. I am glad I had surgery because I do feel much better, but this pain in my head has me really concerned.

Thanks for letting me vent