Patricia Tanis, Neuro-Cranio-Vertebral Syndrome, Filum Disease, Arnold-Chiari Syndrome Type I, idiopathic Syringomyelia and idiopathic Scoliosis.

Published by ICSEB at 9 November, 2018

Surgery Date: 13 September 2016

It has been over 2 years since my surgery. I wanted to wait a long time to give feedback. This is my experience.

I suffered with symptoms for a long time. They continued to get progressively worse until I couldn’t take it anymore. Before surgery, literally every time I changed positions it would trigger intense head pain! Just sitting up, stretching or even rolling over in bed would trigger the pain. I had additional issues with swallowing, hiccups, muscle spasms in my neck and upper back, pain in both feet and dizziness.

Immediately after surgery, literally all my symptoms were gone. ALL of them. This was very exciting!

For the first 30 days, perhaps due to post surgical steroids, ALL symptoms were gone!

From 2-6 months after surgery I went up and down. I did occasionally have some headaches or dizziness with certain activities or if I did excessive physical activity. My incision did have one spot that an extended time healing. The headache and dizziness was the only symptoms that returned during this time. I believe this was directly related to inflammation on the spinal cord, either from surgery or physical activity.

From 6-12 months, all symptoms were gone except I would have an occasional headache or dizziness. This would happen less frequently and they were less painful.

1-2 years after surgery. I continue to have all symptoms gone except occasional head pain and rarely dizziness. I only have head pain if I do excessive physical activity.

I can now garden, go to the gym, do yoga and play with my grandkids. I can do so many things now. Some days I do way too much and I forget that I still need to be cautious with my condition. I would say I am 95% improved. I will rarely get a mild headache if I overexert myself.

This surgery was life changing. I’m so grateful to Dr Salca and the entire team in Barcelona. I would highly recommend this procedure for anyone with chiari or syringomyelia. So happy I can live a very normal life now.

Thank you!

Patricia Tanis
Farmington, Utah, USA
Surgery Sept 13, 2016