Thanks for the input! Did you still had the surgery and how long the shunt helped before you needed the surgery?
U r not butting in at all and ur experience is welcomed...not having a shunt I can only go by what I heard...so I do not have much to go on....
All that I read and heard is PFD first, then shunt....so it is good to know that it can work the other way round.
AS I mentioned it can be the situation each person is in...not everyone is the same and not the same techniques will work.....
Thanks for ur input : )
Not to butt in. My shunt does help. Everyone is different. And every doctor is too. But. Maybe getting rid of pressure will help a little
Just letting u know that my doc did mine backwards. I had one doc saying decompression first one doc saying shunt first. Well decopmression doc left the country. So shunt first it was. And after awhile it did help. (I am very sure we have very different things wrong but just trying to be reassuring. ><)
I meant to have ur NS consult with one...to get the opinion of a chiari specialist....it would be based on ur MRI's....
And if they would want u to go...and that is a BIG IF., check into the non profits that will fly u to a Dr appt or surgery....so check out the Health Pages for the LINKS page.
I could ask, but even if he agree to have me to consult with a specialist in the States I still don't know how I would get there!
That link basically says he is a NS....not much more.....and I understand u r limited money wise and who u can see...I would ask the Dr if he would consider a consult with a Chiari NS in the states???
http://www.manta.com/ic/mt6fd90/ca/gorman-dr-peter-b-c
Thank you Selma. Thank you for your time.
Well not being a Dr, I have no place to question ur Dr, but most chiari specialists will do the decompression first to try and relieve the obstruction and the syrinx....
I wish I knew what to say.....I have not heard of them doing this way, it is in reverse....
"selma"
I have a 50% obstuction. I live in the maritimes provines of Canada. Specialist are sparse. He is the head of nurologie dep in our major hospital here in new brunswick. He is as much a specialist I can get at the moment. His name is Peter Gorman http://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/66701/Dr-Peter-Gorman-Moncton-NB.html
We live on a very strict bugget which is 1 part time salary. I saw my MRI picture, I should ask to have a copy! I'm prety sure that my CM is not acquired! I didn't had a major accident or a comotion in the last 10 to 15 years.
Well what I am trying to ask, and am not doing so well is, those with congenital Chiari have a malformation of the skull.....it is small and that forces the cerebral tonsils out onto the brain stem, so the space being too small is the reason for the herniation....
Other ways to have chiari can be acquired...from blunt force as in a MVA or a fall and it can be the result of excess CSF fluid ...the build up of fluid forces the cerebral tonsils to herniate....
The problem with the tonsils is not that they are herniated or how long, but if they are causing an obstruction....
U must have an obstruction since u have a syrinx....
So I am not sure y ur Drs feel doing a shunt would be the first way to go, ....when a PFD would restore flow and help the syrinx shrink....
This does not always happen and sometimes they have to go in and place a shunt after the PFD.....
Is ur Dr a chiari specialist?.....
"selma"
He didn't say anything about Congenital Chiari, the NS told me I have CM 1 with 10 mm herniation. What is the difference with congenital and other kind of Chiari?
It is usually a decompression that is done first, as the herniation and obstruction create the syrinx....by doing the decompression it restores flow.
I am not sure if ur Dr feels ur herniation is the result of xcess CSF and not the other way around....
Most times the syrinx is too small to shunt, so it is not the syrinx itself but an area around it that is shunted to drain the fluid....
Were u told u have congenital Chiari?
"selma"
In your journal it says that in the case of CM they usualy do a decompresion surgery before puting a shunt in your sygomelia. I am not sure that the NS want to go there, but I'm not a zipper head! Do they put shunt even if they dont treat you CM?
Yup...a shunt is a tube that helps divert excess CSF fluid that ur body is not absorbing...they drain them in a few diff places and that will depend on the name....
Shunts can malfunction as in Molly's case she is going in tomorrow to get a new shunt as her's is clogged.
I do have some info in my journals on shunts...u may want to read them.
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/205805/Differnt-types-of-syrinxs-and-shunts--article-by-DrJJane-Jr--MD?personal_page_id=197028
"selma"