Chiari Decompression Surgery

I'm having brain surgery. No matter how many times I say that, to myself or out loud to other people, it sounds absolutely ridiculous. There's no way it can actually be true. I'm a 33 year old woman, who up until recently, was very healthy. I eat well, exercise, and with the exception of having my two children, I've never even been in the hospital, yet I'm having brain surgery. Even as I type it, on my computer screen it looks fictional. Yet it's not...and it's happening soon, very soon.

June 14th, two weeks from Monday. I just scheduled it this past Tuesday and it's going to be here before I know it, which will probably be for the better because I think that sitting around any loner trying to believe this is actually going to happen it would drive me crazy (ok, crazier than I'm already feeling).

This past January I was diagnosed with a Chiari Malformation. Basically, the base of my skull is too small for my brain (I used to mess that up and say my brain was too big for my skull, I liked that explanation better, lol). So with nowhere else to go, my brain has descended into my neck/spinal column, down to my 2nd vertebrae. It is in between my brain stem and vertebrae where there is only supposed to be spinal fluid, causing a ton of pressure and pain.

At first, I decided to be treated for the pain with medication. After months of prescriptions that proved to be ineffective, I tried alternative medicine (massage, acupuncture, you name it). I was desperate. But my condition only worsened. I was in complete agony and eventually was put on steroids and narcotics (as strong as morphine) because the pain was so bad. The pain is all in the back of my head, neck and shoulders and then causes headaches & back pain. It has even affected my ears; I have chronic earaches and my hearing has been affected. I'm in pain everyday. I seriously cannot remember what it feels like to feel normal. This is why I'm having the surgery.

My neurologists were at a loss for treating me and agreed that I needed to do this. The procedure is called Chiari Decompression because it is supposed to relieve the pressure. I sometimes feel like my head is going to explode right through my ears, so the name sounds fitting.

June 14th is the date I go in to have my head decompressed, can't wait...