John Hopkins Dr. Appt.

Sorry it took me so long to post. I have not been feeling very well. I have a cold and coughing when you have Chiari causing excruciating pain in your head, so needless to say it has been a rough weekend. Anyway, I saw Dr. Rigamonti at John Hopkins on Thursday and let me start by saying that I LOVE him. This has got to be he first Neurosurgeon that I have EVER seen that I actually like. He was very nice, he answered all of my questions without rushing me out the door, and he knew what he was talking about. Being a Surgeon, they normally try to rush you into surgery before exploring other options, but he is not like that at all. He is going to do another round of MRI's. A more in depth series of them that shows the CSF flow, and he also wants to get my whole cervical spine also. He also wants to do lumbar monitor. It is kinda like the ICP monitor they did were they drilled the whole in my head and monitored my intracranial pressure, but he is going to do it where my shunt is at. After we get the results from these two test we are going to sit down and discuss where to go from there. I am alot more hopeful after talking to Dr. Rigamonti, he was defiantly worth the trip up to Baltimore. He did tell me that Chiari 21mm herniation is a very servere hereniation and that decompression surgery may have to be an option, but he would do everything he could to help me. He is even trying to help me out with my insurance situation (my insurance won't cover for me to see him or go to Hopkins) he had someone from his office call me Friday morning to help me with that.
As soon as I find out when I will be admitted to the hospital for these test, I will update the blog again. Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts and prayers!!