Surgery

As 12/12/12 approached, I read everything I could get my hands on about Chiari and about how my son would be feeling. I read Conquer Chiari: A Patient's Guide to the Chiari Malformation by Rick Labuda. My parents came up two days before my son's surgery to help care for my other two children during his surgery and recovery. My son was not even nervous, at least outwardly. He seemed so calm. The night before, he even put on a magic show for all of us. I will treasure the memory of those days leading up to the surgery in my heart. On the morning of December 12, we had to arrive at the hospital at 7 a.m. The surgery was to begin at 9. There were a lot of pre op things to get done, and we were given time to visit and pray with our son before he was led to the OR. That was tough - watching them wheel him into the OR and having to stay behind. In the waiting room, a close group of friends waited with us, prayed with us, and visited with us. We are dearly loved, and I will never forget it. The operation was to take 4-5 hours, but I believe he was done in a little less than 4 hours. When we met with the neurosurgeon, he told us that there were no complications, and our son did well. He performed a craniectomy and a duraplasty. He also found that our son's arachnoid was enlarged, so he also removed a portion of that. To top it off, a stent was placed at the opening of our son's spinal cord to keep it open and the fluid flowing. After all that news, we were taken to our son's room. He looked so peaceful sleeping. He pretty much slept for two days, only opening his eyes to vomit. After that, he started to wake up, and boy was he in pain! He vomited a lot. He had physical therapy to ensure that he would be steady on his feet. Because of the constant vomiting, they wouldn't discharge us from the hospital. They finally discharged us on our eighth day there. Our son had lost a lot of weight from the vomiting and not being able to eat, but it was so great to be home. His recovery was long, slow, and painful for him, but by mid February, he had turned a significant corner and started to heal at a much faster rate. Also in February, I noticed that my other son (8 years old) complained of headaches for several days in a row. They didn't seem to stop him from enjoying life, so I didn't ask questions, but by the fourth day in a row of mentioning a headache, I finally asked him where it was. He pointed right at the back of his head, where the back of his skull ends. My ten year old says to me, "Mom, that's where mine are." I cried.