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Are these Chiari Symptoms
Hello,
For the last 3 years I have been getting problem after problem and they all seem to be repeating compounding and getting worse. I guess it started with neck pain on the left side of my neck. It would last a week and then a couple months later I would get it again. Three years later I have pain all day everyday in my neck. Then the pain started radiating down to my shoulder I feel four different pains. sharp pain, dull aching, electrical feelings and pinching. Maybe a year later I started getting back pain on my lower left and directly over my lower spine. This gradually got worse and now it is almost everyday. I am constantly tired but cant sleep. Loss of appetite, depression, mood swings, and sleep paralysis. Last year I started getting headaches and doctors say it is sinus. I never had them before but now I get them alot. More recently with the neck problem, I get headaches. It starts at the bottom of my skull at the top of my spine and radiates into the back of my head and to the front of my head. It also hurts behind my left eye and my head feels like it is full of pressure and being squeezed really hard. I now feel sharp pain behind my ears and my ears feel full sometimes. I hear like white noise and helicopter noise in my years. It is hard for me to make out some noises now and my ears are sometimes really sensitive to noise like it hurts to hear it. I get random bout of nausea that feels like squeezing in my stomach and I feel like I need to throw up. A couple of weeks ago my fingers started tingling and the neck pain has gotten really bad as well as the back pain. The headaches are getting more frequent and if I sneeze or cough really hard it sometimes causes the headache. Occasionally I feel a very sharp explosion in my head and then a sensation of head radiates through my whole head. My eyes have been dry and irritated for 2 years with no doctor explanation. I have had cramping in my hands alot and joint inflamation in my fingers and toes with swelling multiple times. I am negative for rhuematoid and blood labs are normal except vitamin D deficiency.
In march the pain in my back got so bad I went to the emergency room and they admitted me for a week but at the time my neck wasnt hurting so I did not say anything. They told me I had a small cyst in my spine and its nothing to worry about. The doctors now treat me like a drug seeker and basically blow me off. This caused me to order my medical records and I found out I have according to my MRI of the back "Hydrosyringomyelia is identified extending from approximately level L1-L2 through approximately level T9-T10" They did not do a MRI of the neck that I know of so I dont know but xrays of the neck say mild kyphosis at C3 through C5 region and loss of normal cervical lordosis.
More recently my hands feel really weird like they are unable to normally respond to temperature. It is like there is no heat and there is no cold just absense of sensation but they tingle. I feel hot and cold when using water but the normal sensation seems gone. I feel like I have a lump in my throat a lot and I gag for no reason.
Can the hydrosyringomyelia be causing all these problems?
I have no health insurance and The veterans hospital physician wont refer me to a neurologist because they think I am faking it and it is phychological. Any insight would help. Oh also I feel like the room is spinning right after the stomach issue starts. My lips keep going numb as well as my feet and hands.
For the last 3 years I have been getting problem after problem and they all seem to be repeating compounding and getting worse. I guess it started with neck pain on the left side of my neck. It would last a week and then a couple months later I would get it again. Three years later I have pain all day everyday in my neck. Then the pain started radiating down to my shoulder I feel four different pains. sharp pain, dull aching, electrical feelings and pinching. Maybe a year later I started getting back pain on my lower left and directly over my lower spine. This gradually got worse and now it is almost everyday. I am constantly tired but cant sleep. Loss of appetite, depression, mood swings, and sleep paralysis. Last year I started getting headaches and doctors say it is sinus. I never had them before but now I get them alot. More recently with the neck problem, I get headaches. It starts at the bottom of my skull at the top of my spine and radiates into the back of my head and to the front of my head. It also hurts behind my left eye and my head feels like it is full of pressure and being squeezed really hard. I now feel sharp pain behind my ears and my ears feel full sometimes. I hear like white noise and helicopter noise in my years. It is hard for me to make out some noises now and my ears are sometimes really sensitive to noise like it hurts to hear it. I get random bout of nausea that feels like squeezing in my stomach and I feel like I need to throw up. A couple of weeks ago my fingers started tingling and the neck pain has gotten really bad as well as the back pain. The headaches are getting more frequent and if I sneeze or cough really hard it sometimes causes the headache. Occasionally I feel a very sharp explosion in my head and then a sensation of head radiates through my whole head. My eyes have been dry and irritated for 2 years with no doctor explanation. I have had cramping in my hands alot and joint inflamation in my fingers and toes with swelling multiple times. I am negative for rhuematoid and blood labs are normal except vitamin D deficiency.
In march the pain in my back got so bad I went to the emergency room and they admitted me for a week but at the time my neck wasnt hurting so I did not say anything. They told me I had a small cyst in my spine and its nothing to worry about. The doctors now treat me like a drug seeker and basically blow me off. This caused me to order my medical records and I found out I have according to my MRI of the back "Hydrosyringomyelia is identified extending from approximately level L1-L2 through approximately level T9-T10" They did not do a MRI of the neck that I know of so I dont know but xrays of the neck say mild kyphosis at C3 through C5 region and loss of normal cervical lordosis.
More recently my hands feel really weird like they are unable to normally respond to temperature. It is like there is no heat and there is no cold just absense of sensation but they tingle. I feel hot and cold when using water but the normal sensation seems gone. I feel like I have a lump in my throat a lot and I gag for no reason.
Can the hydrosyringomyelia be causing all these problems?
I have no health insurance and The veterans hospital physician wont refer me to a neurologist because they think I am faking it and it is phychological. Any insight would help. Oh also I feel like the room is spinning right after the stomach issue starts. My lips keep going numb as well as my feet and hands.
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.
I am so sorry u r having to deal with these symptoms and drs that know how to help.
I do not have hydrosyringomyelia, but I know form those that do it can indeed cause the pain and symptoms u mentioned.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Chiari-Malformation/LIST-OF-CHIARI-SPECIALISTS/show/1293483
Use the above link as a starting point to research drs that can be of more help to u and that understand ur condition a little more than the ones u have been dealing with.
The room spinning is vertigo...many with chiari do have this problem.
I do not know what to tell u other then try to get ur records to a chiari dr that can in turn inform ur drs so u can get the proper care.
"selma"
I am so sorry u r having to deal with these symptoms and drs that know how to help.
I do not have hydrosyringomyelia, but I know form those that do it can indeed cause the pain and symptoms u mentioned.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Chiari-Malformation/LIST-OF-CHIARI-SPECIALISTS/show/1293483
Use the above link as a starting point to research drs that can be of more help to u and that understand ur condition a little more than the ones u have been dealing with.
The room spinning is vertigo...many with chiari do have this problem.
I do not know what to tell u other then try to get ur records to a chiari dr that can in turn inform ur drs so u can get the proper care.
"selma"
Oh the last symptom I forgot to mention is that over the last 7 months I have lost complete interest in sex and very rarely get erections.
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