Is neck position causing symptoms common with chiari?
Hi there, I’m 23 and I started seeing a pain management specialist for issues including nerve pain in my neck. Not diagnosed with chiari, although not ruled out yet.
My main issues went away for a few months but returned more recently. I’ve been finding that if my neck is bent too far forward, or lands in a weird angle when I’m lying down on my side, it will trigger this terrible nerve pain, impending doom feeling and my vision will cut out or become very blurry. In the past, I’ve tried to relax my body or move my eyes while in the triggering position, and was unable to see properly until I fixed my position, which would help immediately, which is leading me to think it’s a nerve issue.
I’ve been experiencing some occipital head pain, neck pain, and have often avoided exercising in ways that involve a lot of jumping, bending forward, or being upside down since it makes my head feel full and bad.
I’ve already had an x-ray and they said there’s no indication of cervical instability, which was a possibility I had in mind before. My neck however is very straight so I have physical therapy scheduled for that, currently the plan is to get a MRI to see if it might be chiari if the PT doesn’t help some of my symptoms.
I also think my symptoms are possibly worse now due to allergies and chronic cough returning a few months ago.
Of course nobody here can diagnose me, but I am most curious as to if some of the positional nerve pain and vision changes are as common with chiari or is it often more of a constant, underlying nerve pain with chiari specifically?