Relative newbie

i have had over ten years of unexplained headaches. This has prevented me from fully participating in my children's growing up, as many of the activities we would do together would cause me pain.

The pain was generally worse if I had a cold...often I would go to the doctors complaining of a chest infection, and I discovered that the antibiotic would help the head pain, even if nobody could explain it.

last winter, I had flu, and was laid up for three months with coughing, pain and asthma. During this time, I had the opportunity to research my headaches and discovered an article about valsalver manœveres and showed it to my GP. She agreed with me that it was possible that these were describing my headache, and referred me to a neurologist. My symptoms were getting worse and we're now including tingling down my legs and temporary paralysis of my left arm. Two MRI scans later and I had a diagnosis of CM 1, which now needed urgent surgery.

I was decompressed 6 weeks after seeing the neurosurgeon, and am now 10 weeks post op thinking about returning to work in a couple of weeks.

its not been plain sailing, FMD is brutal surgery and has taken some getting over. I still have the headaches and also nausea which is new to me. I get dizzy and symptoms of vertigo on occasion. However, the tingling in my arms and legs has gone, which I am grateful for.

i see the surgeon next week for follow up, so let's hope that a full recovery is predicted in the future.