A brief description of Chiari Malformation by someone living with the condition:
"Chiari malformation is a brain abnormality that occurs when the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance, pushes through the skull into the spinal canal"- Google. But on a deeper level, as someone who's experienced the pre and post surgical symptoms of Chiari Malformation, the condition can debilitate someone's life. Chiari is something you are born with and can worsen overtime, it's the cause of pain for 1 in 1000 people, along with different severities, Chiari 1, 2, 3, and 4.
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I also recently just went through the process of discovering my Chiari Malformation. It began last year when for years I had been having headaches on a severe scale when all the sudden my vision became a sort of tunnel vision. I could only see what was directly in front of me for a few days and during this period my headaches drastically increased in severity. My parents ended up taking me to the Emergency Room and while I was there I just so happened to get a MRI. Out of everyone who looked at my MRI imaging of my brain the Optometrist was the one who discovered my Chiari. Before last February I had never even heard of Chiari Malformation so both me and my parents were lost and had no idea what it meant or how to treat it. Over the following months I went to a Neurosurgeon and we began to talk more about my Chiari. After a while we decided to go ahead with the surgery called a decompression surgery and scheduled it for July 19th of 2024. I was terrified each night as the surgery got closer and closer, I desperately wanted to be able to live without the headaches that were so bad I missed out many days of the end of the school year where I would just go to the school nurse and just lie there for hours hoping the headaches would subside. They never did until I had my surgery. It was scary to think that people would be poking around my brain and there were times I thought about calling off the surgery, but looking back on it going through with that surgery was the best decision I have ever made. That surgery changed my life. Not only did the headaches almost entirely disappear other then a typical headache every now and again. My mental health also came back up a lot, during the process between when I discovered my Chiari and when I had the surgery was a really hard time for me because I kept thinking everybody must see me differently because of this and I went through a long period of depression. Now afterwards I finally realize that nobody ever was thinking different of me, it was all in my head literally. Ever since then I have been trying to look into programs to become a Neurosurgeon to help other people with Chiari and other related disorders. I wish that the gift that my Neurosurgeon gave me I will be able to give back to people when I am older. The gift I speak of is the gift to live, the gift to be able to go around my life without severe headaches every day. I may still be young now but a website like this is what I have been looking for a website where I can start to help people. So I thank you as well for making this website.