Stefane is a lovely lady that I met through Facebook, one of the many wonderful people that I have met through the social networking sites that have experience of Chiari.

Stefane's Chiari journey is a little different from some, but there are definitely echoes of similarity in there too.

Her story shows just how strong a person you have to be sometimes, no matter what life throws at you and how often.

Stefane really is an inspiration, and anyone knowing her would be truly lucky to have her as a friend.

CHIARI AND ME

This is the second part of Jade's Chiari experience through surgery and beyond.

She really is one tough cookie and just a little bit stubborn. She has achieved brilliant results in such a short space of time and really shows just how much a Positive Mental Attitude and focus affects a persons recovery.

Well done Jade! Proud of you ;) And Thank you for sharing your story.

TREATMENT

As the reality of my diagnosis sunk in I worried about the WHAT IF’S, I really didn’t understand what was wrong with me or how it happened and the thought of surgery reduced me to tears on many nights, even now when thinking about the run up to surgery I get all teary….but maybe that’s a female thing!!

Don't mess with the Police in Scotland!

Jade will explain her own story in her own words and style - not indifferent to that of my own, and some of the circumstances - and definitely the same humour and with the same Positivity throughout.

Jade plans to return to work 8 weeks after surgery, which is an amazing accomplishment. At 6 weeks post op, she is already undergoing rehabilitation at the Police Rehabilitation Centre near to where she lives. From my own experience they are a wonderfully skilled resource provided by the Police. I am sure that she feels lucky to have that facility available to her.

Anyway - this is her amazing story - which I cannot wait for her to finish up to to date, and then keep us informed of her progress.

A great big WELL DONE from me Jade!

I am going to post this one as a link to Alison's own website. There are a few reasons for doing this:

1. If I copied her story from the site and pasted it here, then Google would punish both sites by affecting our rankings on the Google search results for duplicating material.
2. Alison has spent a lot of time on her own site and it is well worth a visit anyway! Go and have a look for yourself.

Alison's story <--- Click here but remember to come back to us afterwards!

Other posts that you might find interesting:

How does a Syrinx form?
Chiari and Syringomyelia Symptoms

Laura (penfold).

As far back as I can remember I have always had a cough/sneeze headache but because I have always had it I have considered it 'normal'. What changed was about 6 years ago when I started getting migraines, not many at first but they gradually increased over 6 months to about 2 or 3 every week, which is when my doctor started me on Pizotifen. These actually started to work after he increased my dosage and I stayed on them for about a year until he decided that that was long enough and I slowly came off them.

Natalie is a bright teenager who has definitely been through the mill with Chiari amongst other things. Natalie's Syrinx seemed to cover most of her spine, yet she rarely complained about any pain. Her story is is told by her Mum Anne Marie, a nurse herself, but above all things a very proud mother!

Natalie was born in March 1993, the 3rd of 3 girls, ‘normal’ was diagnosed with asthma at 9 months but otherwise development was normal. Infact she probably did some things faster as she wanted to be the same as her sisters 14 months and 8 ½ years older.

Okay, so where do I begin? I am a Chiari type I patient, diagnosed in May 2004. I have suffered with headaches/ migraines for about 12-15 years (long time huh?).

It all started back in may 2007. I was a keen Martial Artist and competed in cage fighting a lot, as well as teaching Street Self Defence.

In 1998 when I was 22, I started getting daily headaches & dizzyness with blacking out from time to time, along with jumping eyes & cordination problems.

I was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation type1 in 1999 aged 19.