Rachels Chiari Journey so far: Walking

Hi

Hi and welcome to my blog! I am 29 yrs old and have been through a rough few years. I got married in Aug 09 and by Sept 09 I was very ill. I was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation I, Syringomyelia and Hydrocephalus. I had surgery in Sept 09 to relieve the pressure on my brain and to stabilse it, this was called Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy (ETV). In Feb 2010 I had foramen magnum decompression surgery to remove a section of bone from my skull (craniotomy) and the back part of my c1 vertebrae (laminectomy) to create more space for my cerebrospinal fluid (csf) to flow. Unfortunately for me 4 weeks later I was back in hospital with meningits....I had to have more surgery.....another ETV (which failed straight away) and a ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt inserted. After that I was well and discharged from hospital...but my walking was worsening so I called the specialist nurse who arranged an MRI for me....which showed a massive syrinx (collection of fluid) in my spine....more surgery yet again....so in Aug 10 I had a syringo-subarachnoid shunt inserted into my spine. I spent 9 weeks in hospital (6 1/2 of them in rehab) and have been in a wheelchair learning to walk since then. I hope I don't bore you too often!!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Walking

Watching Wimbledon aching to be able to walk properly...let alone play tennis the way these players do.....but today was a real good day for me at physio....I managed to do my 7km in 15mins on the exercise bike and then did some posture standing work.....

The BIG news is that I walked around the physio gym with 1(!) fischer stick!! And it felt fantastic....my poor right arm didn't know what to do as it is so used to having a crutch/stick in it!!! Walking with 1 stick was my target for the end of July...and I did it today! 5/6 weeks ahead of schedule!! It means things are finally going the right way and speedy!! (",)