Returning Symptoms

[IlianaK]

Hi y'all! I had decompression surgery February 3, 2010 which got rid of many of the symptoms i had until recently. About a month ago I started having back pains and migranes. Two weeks ago I started to notice that both my left arm and left leg become numb for long periods of time. The same exact symptoms I had before I had surgery. I am afraid to even think that I need surgery again with me being a full time student and working part time I just don't know how I am going to do it. The last thing my neurosurgeon told me was I never had to see him again to put the surgery in the past. I thought I would never have to deal with this again but here I am in pain. My question is could there be a chance I might need surgery again? Did any of you all have multiple surgery's?

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.

Yes, it is possible to need more surgery....it may be the result of scar tissue, or if ur NS was not a true chiari specialist, may have taken away too much bone causing a condition called cerebral ptosis or brain  slump....this needs surgical repair if this is ur problem.

Did u have a post op MRI?

   I would suggest u look at our list of chiari drs and research them as not all are true specialists , but have successfully treated a member here...but it does not mean they r right for u.

  Scroll to the bottom of the page to locate the link to the Health pages for the list of Drs....

    "selma"

[zygy2]

Sorry to hear you are not feeling well.  There can be multiple reasons to need another surgery but you also have to remember that for some the symptoms you thought might go away just do not.  That is why everyone on the board pushes so hard for people to find a chiair specialist.  You want the best chance for the best most effective first surgery.  I had a pretty good NS and my new NS said she did a good decompression, I did have the dura opened and the back of c1 removed, and i still had problems.  I had a leak and my synthetic patch stuck to the cerebellum.  For me it was a return of symptoms that sent me to find a new NS (mine moved across the country) and I now have an awesome NS.  When he knew I did not feel right he did an MRI and found my leak.  I have now had almost two years of this stuff, three surgeries, and next week I am having a spinal tap to check pressure because I still have some weird stuff going on (POTS).   It can be a long process, I am sure for some the one surgery goes well and they go happily on their way but that does not happen for everyone and that is why we need a good NS, someone to help until the problems are solved or at least under control.  Good luck, it can be a very frustrating process.  -zygy