doctor list
appointments
contact us
press
virtual tour
search
<p class="tumorshead">Jennifer's Story</p><p>Jennifer had been suffering from recurring headaches, accompanied by numbness and heaviness in her right arm and leg, for many years when the second wave of symptoms began. "In the past the numbness and headaches had generally happened together," Jennifer recalls. "Sometimes I'd get the headaches without the numbness, but any time I had the numbness I always got a headache with it." Around the end of the summer of 2006, Jennifer started to experience numbness in her arm and leg without headaches. "This was different, plus I started getting back and neck pain, and I had never had that before." Jennifer, a fourth-grade teacher from Huntingburg, Indiana, also began to have trouble swallowing, and occasionally her coordination was impaired. At the time, she had no idea that all of her symptoms were the result of a Chiari malformation in her brain and resulting cysts in her spinal cord. A Chiari (pronounced kee-AR-ee) malformation occurs when the indented bony space at the back of the skull is smaller than normal, causing the cerebellum - the part of the brain responsible for balance -- to migrate into the spinal canal. When this occurs, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes and cushions the brain and spinal cord, can be blocked, and enlarging cysts can develop inside the spinal cord. In addition, with the protrusion into the spinal column of the descending cerebellar tonsils -- two small portions of tissue in the cerebellum -- pressure is exerted on the lower stem of the brain. "I was deteriorating pretty rapidly," Jennifer says. "My husband, Tim, and I were concerned because my right leg was starting to drag, and I had developed so much pain in my neck and the back of my skull. I continued working despite my symptoms, taking a day off here or there, but I was struggling."</p>
WILLIAM'S STORY:
Meningioma Tumor
FOR PHYSICIANS
NEWS
The Health Alliance ©1999-2008 All rights reserved
strokes
|
tumors
|
epilepsy
|
movement
|
senses
|
ms
|
disclaimer
|
sitemap
|
webmaster