Is this all related?

[Spirit2375]

Hey there. I've been having headaches since I was in my early teens. Just got my cervical spine MRI results which show degenerative disc disease, bulging discs, bone spurs, loss of normal cervical spine lordosis, loss of disc height. My brain MRI shows my tonsils are enlarged and looks to be pressing onto my spinal cord at the foramen magnum. Can the cervical spine MRI findings be consistent with Chiari malformation? I have many other symptoms also.

[selmaS]

  Thank you  : )

[selmaS]

  We do have Dr Stoodley on our list but not Dr Ellison Stephenson....can you give  more info as to where he is?

Good luck and let us know who you end up seeing and how it all goes.

[Spirit2375]

Ellison Stephenson in on the Gold Coast, and she has a private clinic in Benowa, and runs a clinic day at Gold Coast University Hospital on Thursdays. She has a website www.elsneuro.com

[Spirit2375]

Its a female Neurosurgeon.

[selmaS]

  Many Drs, even Chiari specialists will not categorize all the symptoms under Chiari....but they are related...Chiari generally comes with related conditions and that can account for mostly all the symptoms we have,

I see you are in Australia....do you have names of Drs there? We do have a list, but it is very small

[Spirit2375]

Yes I'm in Australia. I am on a waiting list to see Dr. Ellison Stephenson on the Gold Coast where I live, she deals with Chiari. I have also sent my scans to Professor Stoodley who is also dealing with Chiari, in Sydney. So it will be a race to see who I hear back from first.

[Spirit2375]

They are both neurosurgeons.

[selmaS]

  Hi Spirit....yes all you mentioned can be attributed and or related to having Chiari as well.....Many with Chiari have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome..EDS causes many joint issues and since the joints are affected it can affect alignment, muscles get tight,, so all over muscle pain, and sooooooo many have DDD, bulging disks, and the other disk/spine issues you listed.

Just for example I had loss of cervical lordosis, bulging disks, DDD, But I also have EDS......

By enlarged do you mean your tonsils are herniated?....

What other symptoms do you have ?

[Spirit2375]

Hi Selma. I have suspected Chiari. Still waiting to see the neurosurgeon. I'm in a Chiari group on Facebook and they have been very helpful. The consensus is that yes indeed I have Chiari. I've just been diagnosed with the conditions I posted about.
I've also had bursitis and calcification in both shoulders, carpel tunnel syndrome. I've broken both of my wrists and fractured my shoulder, both when I was in early childhood.
My symptoms are many and varied.
Dizziness, losing my footing, clumsy, tripping over nothing, crashing into walls, stumbling, left side paresthesia, ringing in my ears, banking out of my hearing, pressure in my ears, occipital headaches since early childhood, constant fatigue, shooting pains down my left side, squishing and crackling sounds when I move my head, difficulty swallowing~like I'm trying to swallow a lump-and I have to concentrate on swallowing, frequent choking on liquids and at times food, blurred vision and trouble focussing-which glasses haven't helped, loss of strength in the left side. There's more, but I think that will do.
I have no idea if these things are all related to one another.
I'm still in the early stages of getting answers and tests. I've always been told there's nothing wrong with me, so I gave up for many years, but with the worsening of my symptoms I began searching again.

[Spirit2375]

Brain fog/memory loss and losing words is another big one for me too.