Hello everyone. I had decompression surgery and laminectomy on July 7th 2014. I am now pain free and living life as I guess "normal" since I feel no pain. I was skeptical about having any surgery down but since i was only 18 when I had the surgery, i figured better now that I am young and fairly healthy rather than at an older age when I have a family to support or my health isn't so great so recovery is longer. It took me 8 months to recover but 1 year to feel comfortable to do things like I used to.
Now, for anyone reading this thinking about surgery, I suggest you speak with family and your NS, to see what is best for you. Yes recovery was a bit difficult but for me it paid off and luckily my family was there to help me with whatever I needed. Unfortunately, it doesn't go like that for everyone,
SIDE NOTE (this happened yesterday)
So the nurse who's noting all my vitals down is looking at my medical record and asked me about Chiari (the reason I had my surgery). So I started telling her about it, dumbing it down, assuming she has zero idea about what I'm talking about. When I finish telling her she tells me that she was diagnosed with it too. She had a different form of it and has a shunt. It's crazy to meet someone who has the same thing as you and you can ask each other questions. She's 42 years old and had her surgery at 19. I never thought I would run into someone who has the same thing as me.