I saw Dr Heilman in Sept. It was a pleasant experience (for once), but I didn't get the impression that he was a true chiari specialist by some of his comments. He did, however send me for the cine-MRI and even ordered pics of my thoracic spine to look for syrinx since I'm having such pressure and worsening neuro sx. My frustration is that when he looked at my brain MRI he agreed it looked like I had chiari but only a 3 mm herniation. Most NS don't believe chiari 0 could cause such awful sx. Now that I had the cine-MRI the radiologist says I don't even have chiari and that the CSF flow is normal etc.... but I am an absolute neurological mess every single day. I haven't been able to work for almost 2 yrs and can barely function in my day. My PT said that I have an upper cervical instability yet no Dr will believe it and all imaging is done lying down so it doesn't show on radiology. I just don't know what to do. Dr Heilman is extremely conservative in doing the decompression surgery. He believes in the "wait and watch" approach even when you're having debilitating sx. I ended up just seeing him once, having the testing then being dismissed. Very frustrating.
Hi, I know we have had others that went to this Dr, in order to find other older threads use the search this community feature ...type in the Drs name to find threads that mention him...some of the members that may have been treated by him may no longer be active, this is y we have our list of Drs, if the name is on there a member went to the Dr and liked them....that does not mean u will or that ur experience will be the same this is y it is not a referral but a means to allow u to have a way to start researching...a point of reference as to where to start....but not who will be best for u, only u can decide that.