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Mysterious Lump

I had the first Chiari Malformation decompression surger on January 21st, 2013. I was discharged from the hospital on January 29th only to return on January 31st with a major CSF leak. They took out my stitches and re-stitched it that night. The leak continued so they inserted a drain on  February 4th and decided to do a second surgery as they determined the dura patch tore on February 6th. I remained in the hospital until February 14th. The main side affect I have had is SEVERE nausea, until 3 days ago a lump appeared on the left side of my incision, it goes away from the incision and is about 2.5 inches long and HURTS!!!  I saw my family doctor (as I don’t have a follow up with my surgeon until later this month) and he sent me today to get an ultrasound done on it. Has anyone else had anything like this??
Best Answer
620923 tn?1452915648
COMMUNITY LEADER

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.

It sounds like u still have  a CSF leak, the lump can be a pseudo a member here zyzgy2 has had this issue a few times and would be a good one to talk to in regards to how it was finally treated.

Did u have related conditions ruled out like Ehlers-Danlos b4 ur surgery?

What type of dura patch did they use?
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620923 tn?1452915648
COMMUNITY LEADER

Good ...I pray they can offer u some help....do let us know how it goes <3
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Avatar universal
I actually broke down and called the neuro unit at the hospital and they told me to come in and get seen, so my husband and I are on our way to the ER
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620923 tn?1452915648
COMMUNITY LEADER

  Do u feel more nausea when u r upright?

Have u tried to use heat at all for ur neck? no more then 15 mins ata  time...and are u doing ne type of neck exercises to help prevent the muscles from getting stiff or developing scar tissue?
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Avatar universal
I had an MRI after I got the leak, which is when they saw that the patch had failed and did the second surgery. I know the patch was not harvested from my own tissue, I think he might have said it was a synthetic mesh, but I really don't remember for sure. I am happy that my headaches appear to be better, it is just my neck is so sore and the nausea. I am on Zofran for the nausea and it isn't doing anything. I am trying to hang tight until my follow up, but that is still 17 days away and I don't know if I can handle this for that long.
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620923 tn?1452915648
COMMUNITY LEADER

  So many of us can have these related conditions and it can affect how u feel and heal post op...it may be something to look into.

For dura patches they use one of the following, bovine, cadaver, synthetic, or ur own tissue that is harvested from ur scalp or thigh....those with EDS can have leaks and infections as a way of rejecting the foreign matter patches, so it is better our tissue is harvested for ours....

That is not to say it couldn't still have a glitch...but it is more less likely.

Did u have a post op MRI?
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Avatar universal
Thanks for replying.
As far as I know I did not have any other conditions, and I don't know what kind of patch they used. I didn't know there was more then one type of patch.

One thing I know for sure, my neck is so sore, it feels like I had my surgery yesterday.
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