Deborah Wilson. Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome. Filum Disease, Arnold-Chiari syndrome type I, Suboccipital Craniectomy (decompressed).

Published by ICSEB at 12 January, 2024

Surgery date 04/07/2023

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Chiari 1.  Like many of you I tried everything to reduce my symptoms, particularly the constant pain in my head. When nothing else helped I was urged toward decompression surgery. I felt that it was my final and only option left. I was confident the surgery would resolve the problem but oh was I wrong.  Decompression didn’t help at all, even though I had no more herniation I still had all the pain.  4 months after my decompression I came across a post about the Institute Chiari in Barcelona. Being curious I read everything on the web site, and it all made sense.  As I was still recovering form decompression, I put Barcelona on the back burner. By 1 year post surgery my symptoms were getting worse and the pain in my head was making work and life difficult.

I thought about the expression if its too good to be true it probably is and If it’s so beneficial why is the rest of the world not doing it. I was skeptical as no one could explain this.

I did some more digging and found several people who had undergone the Filum Terminal sectioning in Barcelona. I spoke to them to get their take on all this. They all had tremendous improvements, were so happy and encouraging to say the least.  They reassured me that this was a real treatment and not wishful thinking.

July 4^th, 2023, I underwent the sectioning in Barcelona. It’s about a 1-hour procedure, local anesthetic, no external stitches, I night in hospital, and very easy recovery, especially in comparison to decompression.

After the procedure, back in my room I noticed immediately I had no “pulling” sensation in my neck and shoulders, it was gone. I still had a bad headache, but I knew the procedure had done something, I was also told that total recovery takes months. 48 hours later my headache was gone, for the first time in 2 and a half years I had no pain in my head. I still had some pressure in my head, but the pain had gone. Over the next six weeks I noticed that the tingling in my arms and legs had gone, the dizziness had gone, all my symptoms had either gone or significantly reduced. My headache was very fluid during this time, as it came and went was varying in duration, but it had become quite mild. I’m now almost 10 weeks post op and feeling really good for the first time in years. I’m back to work slowly and continuing to improve weekly. I still have a very mild headaches from time to time, but they are very short in duration. I do believe that there is a great possibility that my headaches can go completely in time. I am so grateful I took the chance in Barcelona. I cannot say enough good things about the Institute’s staff and doctors. They took care of me from the time I landed in their clinic to my departure home. Here is the link to the website and I encourage anyone who is interested to contact them, they are truly an awesome team.

Deborah Wilson