Carries Chiari Connection

My daughter was diagnosed with chiari malformation of 2.5cm. Her neurosurgeon said he recommended we have the decompression surgery. My daughter's only symptoms were slight loss of balance, headaches when she coughed, sneezed, laughed hard and when running, nausea several times a day and she was somewhat having trouble sometimes swallowing her food. Her headaches and nausea started last summer, but were few and far between. I didn't have any reason to be alarmed just thought maybe she ate something that didn't agree with her.I took her to her physician in February when they became a problem several times a day. I was afraid she was having migraine headaches like I get. Her doctor sent her for an MRI scan with contrast and diagnosed her with the chiari malformation and referred her to the neurosurgeon at Akron Children's Hospital. I spent many hours doing research on the internet and learned as much as I needed to know about this malformation for our visit. I learned during that time that balance can be an issue. My daughter just fell in school in her gym class and landed on her two front permanant teeth and broke them. After more research I learned that after an injury is when most folks find out they have this malformation because the symptoms present themselves more aggressively, it was then I knew even before we saw her neurosurgeon there was a good possibility he may recommend the decompression surgery. Low and behold that is precisely what happened. He based his decision on the fact that she was having symptoms that were increasingly getting worse and new ones developing. She passed her neurological exam with flying colors! I was still skeptical, but after even more research I decided she wasn't going to get better without it- no amount of medicines are going to take away her symptoms better than getting decompressed and without surgery I may just be procrastinating the inevitable she would still one day need the surgery anyway, so why not nip it in the bud now and let her attempt to be free of this pain now! Amazingly after surgery her neurosurgeon told me this is the worst case of compression he's seen. He had originally intended to just take a portion of her skull and C1, and said he would be about 31/2 hours. He ended up taking that plus a portion of C2 and performed a dura patch using cow tissue. The surgery lasted 4 1/2 hours. She is now still recovering, but already walking and can laugh without getting a headache! I am pleased with my decision so far, I will keep you posted as to her status when it changes. It has been 4 days since her surgery and 2 days into her recovery she has already found relief!