Hi, my name is Deana and I am 46 years old. I am a mother of 4 beautiful grown children. For the past 15 years I have felt terrible. Ranging from headaches to backaches. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia around 8 years ago. In February of 2011 I had a severe headache which lasted for 3 weeks. I finally went to the hospital and found out that I have a pineal gland cyst. Sutter hospital wasn't too concerned and told me to just let my primary know. When the headaches got worse, my primary told me to go to the ER at UC Davis hospital. They did scans and tests which showed that I had hydrocephalus and had almost lost my peripheral vision. They admitted me right then and 3 days later I had brain surgery to reroute the fluid. This worked for about 1 week and then the fluid started shooting out of my incision. I was then put back into the hospital to have a brain shunt put in. 1 week after that, the tubing came out of my stomach and they had to go back into my stomach and move the tube down near my bladder. So several months later when my symptoms were still bad...headaches, severe pain in my left leg and arm...they did more scans and realized that my cervical spine was severely compressed and that I have chiari malformation. So they did a front cervical 3 level decompression and fusion. After several months the pain was the same so they decided to do a chiari and a laminectomy. When they got in there, they saw how bad the chiari was. Lots of scar tissue and severe compression on my nerves and spinal canal. They did not have enough time for the laminectomy, so I am probably looking at another surgery at the least. This has all happened since March of 2011.I feel like I am at my breaking edge. It would be nice to speak with other people that understand. My boyfriend tried to trivialize everything and it is so frustrating. But unless you go through it, you just have no idea!***************

Deanna,

First, you've been through a lot and I'm sorry that it sounds like you'll need more surgery.

Second, any sort of spine/neurological surgery requires a lot of rehab/recovery time and you've had several major surgeries in a very short time. I hate to say this but your boyfriend should be more supportive. It's not trivial what you've been through. I've had surgery to remove a nerve compression affecting my arm. It took a long time (several years) to regain the full use of my arm.

I grew up in northern California so I recognize the places you've mentioned. My sister lives in Sacramento. I have a syrinx (syringomyelia) in my neck.