hey my name is brooke and i was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformaion 1 when i was 15. I am now 19. I had that surgery in January 2011 about two weeks after i turned 17. I was scared as im sure you were but it went ok. After my surgery tho i developed a syrinx at the top of my spint between c1 and c2. Plz look at my profile and read my story to fullyn understand how that went for me.