Vanesa Saez Reguero. Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome. Filum Disease. Descent of the Cerebellar Tonsils (Arnold-Chiari Syndrome Type I). Idiopathic Syringomyelia and Multiple Disc Disease.

Published by ICSEB at 7 September, 2018

 
Surgery date: march 2015
Filmed: March 2018

Hello, I’m Vanesa Saez and I am 31 years old.

Three years ago I was diagnosed with Arnold-Chiari and they told me that all of the sudden. Until then I had been suffering from headaches and migraine, we didn’t know about the existence of this disease. When we left the neurological consultation, they told me that the only option I had was undergoing a surgery called craniotomy. They gave me an appointment with a neurosurgeon in Valladolid to explain to me what it consisted of. My partner and I looked on the Internet and we saw that there were other options: there was the craniotomy – which was quite dangerous – and then we found the Institute Chiari de Barcelona. I asked a patient operated there for information and she was doing very well.

One month after the diagnosis, I decided to undergo surgery. I was operated in the Institut Chiari de Barcelona by means of the sectioning of the filum terminale. Previously, my life was based on having constant headaches and I could never smell anything out of the ordinary. In my job I suffered specially in the legs, in the back and in the arms.

After the surgery, my life has changed a lot: headaches are almost non-existent, I still have some pain in the back but it is also due to age and the type of work I do. They operated on me in 2015, and today (March 12, 2018), I have improved a lot. Today I came for a check-up and they gave me the possibility to make this testimony so other people can see my evolution. I think I have improved and I will do even better. It’s about trying and letting them help us.