Lesli's Health Blog: Lesli Summerstay surgery- January 2007

summerstay page

Jan 2007- I had Tethered Cord surgery on October 27th, 2006. They went into my spinal column and cut my tethered cord, which was too tight. This was in preparation for the upcoming cranial-cervical fusion and chiari surgery. If you have Chiari Surgery or Cranial-Cervical Fusion and your tethered cord is too tight, it will pull back down on the top of your spine and cause a return of all your symptoms.

On December 14th I had Cranial-Cervical Fusion and Chiari Surgery. They ran into complications as they found that my durum (the membrane inside the skull which holds the cerebral-spinal fluid) was thin and had torn in several places and my cerebral-spinal fluid was leaking. Because the cerebral spinal fluid wasn't flowing properly into the spine (I have syringomyelia), the pressure over years caused tiny holes in my durum. (http://www.northshorelij.com/body.cfm?ID=6410) Also my skull is very thin in several places. The surgeons said it is so thin it is almost see-through in some places. (I guess this and a thin durum are genetic.) So they spent hours repairing all the tears in the durum and repaired the skull (i believe) and weren't going to do the fusion, but felt confident in their repairs and so did the fusion. They also did chiari decompression by taking out some of the bottom of the skull. The surgery took hours longer than normal. (It took about 8 hours) They raised my skull 3/4 of an inch, so I am 3/4 of an inch taller. When he told me, Dr. Milhorat joked that I have a long way to go before I catch up with my husband.

The main improvement I've noticed so far is that I can see more clearly. I felt before, (and it got worse when i would try to exercise) like my vision was dark and closing in around the edges. Everything seems lighter now, and not closiing in around the edges. It's hard to explain.

Here is a link to the Chiari Institute homepage: http://www.northshorelij.com/body.cfm?ID=6407