My Medical Journey

I am a mother and a wife first. I am also a nurse. I work with recovering brain and spinal cord injury patients .
I love my career! It gives me a sense of completeness in knowing that I have found my place .
It also allows me to spend ample time with our growing family.
We have a 17 year old daughter, a 12 year old daughter, 3 year old son and Kaiden 7 months ( not pictured) in our family photo. I am very involved with our children's activities and help in anyway possible, fundraising, carpooling ect.
Almost 4 years ago I had a spontaneous spinal fluid leak that deabilitated me for 6 months. It was misdiagnosed as a migraine and I was left on my couch or bed to suffer in excruciating pain. I could not sit upright or walk without vomiting.
After a lot of doctors I finally had ONE listen. We ordered the MRI and saw the Chiari malformation in addition to the lack of nearly NO csf in my brain.
I was scheduled for a decompression surgery to decompress and make more room because my brain lost the csf and had fallen into the top of my spinal cord.
Here we are now. I had Kaiden in January of 2015. Shortly after returning to work I started noticing symptoms as I had 4 years ago. I was so terrified I tried to ignore them until I no longer could.
I was having to leave in the middle of my shift , run to the nearest bathroom and vommit because the pain in the back of my brain was so severe, I was covered in sweat and had blurred vision. But as soon as I would lay fIat I felt almost immediate relief.
I started seeing local doctors who had no idea because as far as they were concerned "we fixed you".
Now I am seeing specialists who study and deal with Chiari malformation and systemic effects of it on a daily basis, I am going to Northwestern in Chicago.
I have been blessed by the team of doctors that I have seen this far! Amen!!!!
Although I was told my surgery is in need of being re-done.  There is some leaking around the dura patch and there is some abnormal  boney growth on the bottom of my skull. 
However, since leaving work and going straight to the ER on June 2, I have been fighting for my short term disability. To say the least it has been a struggle.
I am looking at tests procedures and surgery, with follow up appointments.
I have sat and prayed and prayed and to this day, no rainbow has landed on our home :-(
It would be so gracious of anyone who chose to make even the smallest donation to assist in helping with this medical journey. This is completely treatable with surgery.

Thank you so much for your time in reading my story.

Amy

The extra photo is of Kaiden and I.
He is our newest addition.


This was my first decompression surgery.