Hubby w/ Chiari

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone!

I'm really scared today & am not sure what to do.

I joined this group once hubby was dx w/ Chiari in June & trust the

suggestions others have given me here.

Hubby's symptoms have been:

- Headache that hasn't stopped since 7/2/00 and varies in intensity

(mainly in back of neck but as it intensifies it will branch out over

head & begin throbbing)

- nausea ( weekly)

- vertigo & dizziness (several times daily)

- numbness in hands & legs (several times daily)

- loss of bladder control (occasional)

On 8/22/00 two new symptoms occured, hubby passed out & his eyes

began to hurt when exposed to light immediately afterward.

We went to the hospital & they did a CatScan & released him with a

blood pressure of 139/46 (b.p. taken about 2 hours after he passed

out).

Followed up with nsg next day who admitted him to the hospital

because hubby looked gray & sensitive to light. Spent two days there

& hubby underwent treatment & tests to try to resolve headache as

follows:

8/23/00

- Lumbar Puncture - took 4 vials of fluid. Found blood in 4 vial,

not enough to suggest any bleeds

- Medicines - Morphine, Ambien, Darvaset, Vicodin - none reduce

headache an 8 in intensity (hubby ranges headache intensity on scale

of 1-10)

8/24/00

- CINE MRI - nsg found no problems

- EEG - nsg found no problems

- Medicines - Fiornal, Percoset, Inderal (long acting), Pamelor -

still no relief in intensity

8/24/00 - starting at 1am, hubby began to experience severe dizziness

causing b.p. to fluctuate. Here is the breakdown of hubby's bp tests:

1:30am = 60/D 2am = 89/51 2:10am = 112/78 2:25am = 124/67 2:40am

= 109/79 2:55am = 102/72 3:10am = 90/70 3:15am = 90/70 3:22am =

109/68 3:38am = 94/70 3:52am = 104/46 4:09am = 84/66 4:23am

86/56 4:52am = 120/74 4:57am = 110/80 5:00am 117/65 7:00am =

102/59

EKG done & comes back normal. We were told that the bp above is

normal for a 28 year old man while sleeping. And were released w/ a

final bp of 89/40 at time of discharge with the diagnosis of

migraines and depression (however migraine meds did not help &

headache has been ongoing continuous since 7/2/00).

Prior tests include SSEP, EMG which both came back normal.

I'm SOOOO scared right now I don't know what to think or do. Could

this be migraines or is it Chiari? Is hubby's bp fluctuating too

much or is that normal too? The doc says this definitely isn't the

Chiari acting up because he has no other problems and the Chiari is

estimated at 2mm.

HELP! I need some serious input right now. Please email me at

mangoze@...

Michele