Surgery recovery time?

[Nuggin1983]

I am a 25 year old male and I had decompression surgery 6 months ago. I am still suffering severe pain in my neck and shoulders and heavily depend on pain relief (Endone) I feel like I am never going to be normal again. Has anyone had the surgery and what was your recovery like...how long until the pain subsides?

[Tailajade_xo]

My 23 year old daughter just had chiari I decompression survey 2/14/13 and is home from hospital. She has good. Days and bad nights. They have her on an array of pain meds an was tapered of decadron which is a steroid. The day after her last dose she had a horrible day to the point you couldn't even touch her. She was complaining o severe pain in the top of her head not so much the incision site. They put her back on the steroid and she's doing better. She is on 15mg morphine 2xday. Also 10 mg Valium at night before bed and 5mg Valium in the day if needed. Does anyone know what's next for pain meds. To be honest the Valium is really helping relaxing the muscles but as far as pain meds does anyone know what they may prescribe after the morphine cause I can't see her taking that much longer!!!

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum,.

Dx'd with ??? Chiari and a 19 ?...mm herniation?

Chiari is not rare, nor the length, but Drs well informed and experienced with Chiari, now that is rare...could be this Dr has not really dealt with Chiari and that is y  he/she feels it is rare....??

What symptoms do u have ? ...Did they check u for a CSF obstruction?

[shsmith11]

I was just diagnosed with a 19 and have heard I am very rare.

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.

I am so sorry ur young man is having to deal with this and at that age I do not want to insult him and call him a boy, but I know he is ur little guy and always will be....

May I ask what he is doing daily outside his PT?

It is pretty typical for around 3 months post op to get some symptoms back as the nerves heal....it should not be the same as it was b4 surgery or last as long, or diff...if it is or if it is new u should ket the Dr know.

I am surprised with Chiari he could manage crutches as we tend to have balance issues....add crutches and it can make things worse....I had them for a short time after surgery...but not sure I could have gone 3 months...

Depression is also normal for those with Chiari, post op and even pre op to go thru, it is one of the stages we all journey thru some get past it more quickly then others,....we r all different so will our journey 's.

  Did they check him for a tethered cord, disk issues, ehlers-danlos?

  He should make sure he is not over doing it, also make sure his PT know about Chiari and they r not having him do certain things that could make him feel worse afterward...not all PT know the best way to work with us.

Good luck with the NS and do post an update : )

[heather238]

My 14 year old son was diagnosed with type I chiari malformation with a syrinx. He had a chiari decompression done on the 31st of October,but nothing to the syrinx. Before his surgery he couldn't walk without crutches due to sever left leg pain and weakness. He was on crutches for 3 months before the surgery. He did well through the surgery and while in recovery he told the nurse "my leg doesn't hurt as bad." That was the first thing he said, "not my head don't hurt anymore" but his leg. He is still off crutches and we are so happy because during this whole ordeal he got depressed. He is a very, very active teen. He swims, runs marathons, track, CC, played football, and just got his advanced divers cert last summer. So you can see where he might have got down. But he is now going to PT 2 days a week and had seemed to be doing well. Over the past two weeks his head has started hurting, pain is coming back in his leg, dizzy and nauses. He goes back to the DR on the 14th of Dec. is there any thing I should ask about other than the HA, LP. Thank you for listening.

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum,

Thank u for sharing ur chiari journey with us....

To help prevent that tight neck, r u doing neck exercises? this can also help prevent scar tissue from forming....use heat for 15mins b4 u do ur exercises and then again after u r done....this should help loosen them up,,,,,I  do have a chart of diff exercises that r good for this type of surgery recovery.....so if u would like to see it let em know.

I am happy to welcome u, but sorry for the reasons u r here....