Chiari symptoms?
Hey everyone! I was diagnosed with Chiari when I was 7 and had the decompression surgery when I was 8, followed by two brain bleeds. At the time (and ever since) I thought that was it. It’s been 16 years (I’m now 24) and I only found out last year that the surgery is not a complete fix, and it can continue to progress after the surgery. I of course went back to the doctor for a check up and found out I was over 10 years overdue for a scan - what the heck.
Anyway, I’m now on a wait list to see a specialist, but I’m having trouble distinguishing potential symptoms with regular ‘human bodies are weird and poorly designed’ things. I think because I thought for so long that the problem was ‘solved’ and I tend to be a silent sufferer I kind of just brushed things off to the point where they don’t register as a problem to me. For instance, I can almost constantly feel pressure in my head, I get dizzy standing up (or bending down), random tingling or numbness for no apparent reason, brain fog, tinnitus, neck pain, clumsiness - honestly the amount of times I’ve fallen over on video is crazy - and the list goes on.
I just can’t seem to tell when something is normal existence, or when it’s my chiari playing up.
Yesterday at work I got super dizzy out of nowhere and had trouble even walking away from my desk to sit in the work kitchen. The top of my head had a burning sensation and I was extremely lightheaded and trembling for about an hour. Initially I thought it might have been a random anxiety attack (still could be) and tried to focus on breathing and grounding myself, but nothing worked. It wasn’t until I got home several hours later that a connection to Chiari even crossed my mind - but I still can’t tell if something like this is actually chiari related or if it’s anxiety, or anything else. The symptoms seem to overlap so much.
Does anyone else have trouble differentiating between chiari symptoms and anxiety or just normal ‘bodies are weird’ things? Am I just gaslighting myself into thinking this could all stem from chiari?