CLEAR MRI & 1 Year Anniversary of Surgery #1

As many of you already know, last Monday, May 1st, I had my three month post-op MRI scan and follow up with Dr. Litvack. Leading up to this appointment, I had so many emotions and I honestly thought my spinal cord would still have fluid in it with the amount of back and neck pain I was still having each day. When Dr. Litvack came in all cheery, I was so relieved. He pulled up my imaging from before my second surgery and the one from earlier that day. My spinal cord was clear and my cerebellum was in the correct place! I was worried that after the cerebral tonsils were taken out that my cerebellum would slump down, but now my brain looks like a normal brain (pic below) with extra room to spare!
I still have a lot of irreversible brain and nerve damage, but nothing can get worse unless something weird happens. Dr. Litvack said he would be seeing me within 2-3 YEARS to check up on my lesion on my frontal lobe and to make sure nothing crazy is happening back there. My job is to track my symptoms and any changes that happen. Obviously if I start to feel really bad I have to call the neurosurgery unit. I also need to track any symptoms that increase quickly in case I have a leak in my dura patch (CSF fluid leak) which could cause hydrocephalus. Dr. Litvack referred me to a headache neurologist in hopes that I find relief in that department. I still get headaches at least 4 times a week, but usually more than that. I will still continue to be a patient at the pain clinic and my physical therapy and massage therapy places. It's still a long road ahead, but my mind is eased.

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Alrighty, second part of this post. Today is May 9th, meaning my first Chiari surgery was exactly a year ago! I seriously can't believe it has only been a year since I first went under the knife. A lot of my Facebook memories are popping up, and one of my posts talked about how I couldn't wait to be fixed after this surgery... Little did I know that the first one would just make me worse and only 8 months later I would be having another one. Talk about trauma! I pray that I never have to go through another surgery, but it sounds like I won't need to for a while :) crossing my fingers! I never want to go through that again. Although it has only been a year, I feel like this whole thing has aged me 20 years. They told me it is a 6-8 week recovery, but that's only for the incision and in some cases, the muscles and tissues underneath. In reality, it will take years. Here's to the next years of determination and recovery!