Can tonsils retract on an adult

[Pcpell]

My husband was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation 15 years ago . He has always suffered from dizziness, but in the last 3 or 4 months it's has become so severe that his legs buckle from under him, and his left arm and left legs begin to spasm and he falls. He also says his right  eye seems like someone puts a finger smudge on his pupil and is blurred. His Neurologist says she doesn't see any Chiari Malformation and sometimes they just go back inside the head. He's in the hospital now because he became very dizzy after having a cat scan last week and fell in the hospital hall. She hasn't even been in to see him in almost a week and doesn't appear to be interested. Has anyone ever heard of this in an adult?
Pat

[Momofchiarian]

My daughter was 13 when she was diagnosed with Chiari malformation. Leading up to this she had chronic dizziness, headaches, her legs began to give out on her unexpectedly, double and blurred vision off and on, muscle spasms of  arms and fingers, and severe memory issues and “absence seizures “ when her eyes were open but she was not there for a moment or two and did not know what occurred during that time.
     When she lost her sense of taste and smell they thought it was a brain tumor and finally did an MRI showing the Chiari problem. A CT stops at the base of the skull and will not show the correct area unless a neck CT is done. She had a decompression surgery 11 months ago. Her taste and smell returned that day, and many of her symptoms are gone, but she still has limits and some days are better than others. I would recommend the surgery to anyone suffering.

[selmaS]

  Hey CW !! How the heck are you doing?

  Nice to see you in the forum again.

  sis

[ChiariWolf]

Mine have at this point. The nerve damage is still there and thus many of the symptoms happen from time to time. But my case was not just CM either.

Back to the point of your question... In late 2012 a mesh was put into the forem magnum area to simulate the normal shape of a skull. Within a few mos the tonsils were beginning to retract. Perhaps it won't happen that way for everyone but in my case the last MRI showed nearly normal tonsils

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.

First...Chiari Malformation can not retract on any one....BUT low lying tonsils due to an injury may.

Chiari is a congenital malformation of the skull NOT the herniation, the herniation is the result of the space being too small.

Low lying tonsils is the herniation of the cerebral tonsils due to a blunt force trauma to the head or neck area....or brought on by a LP being drawn too fast....or a CSF leak.

NOT all Drs are well informed or expereinced with Chiari and related conditions...get the copies of his MRI's ALL testing and ALL reports  make copies and get a true Chiari specialist to review them.