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Lucy Phillips, 29 years old, had been increasingly experiencing headaches and fatigue lately. Phillips, however, works as a hairdresser and she just associated these conditions to working overtime at her new workplace.
When the headache kept on getting more and more painful, Phillips just had to see a doctor immediately.
At first, doctors thought she had multiple sclerosis or sciatica. They prescribed her some drugs but the headaches just kept on getting worse.
Phillips, who’s a mom of two children, said that the feeling was somehow similar to spiders crawling up and down on her. After eight months of testing and misdiagnosis, Phillips discovered that she has Chiari malformation.
Phillips said, “Doctors thought I had MS after the scans as I had similar symptoms. It got worse and worse, I had tiredness, it felt like someone was stabbing me and as if spiders were running over me.
She continued, “There was constant ringing in my ears and I always had a thumping headache. No one had answers; I was scared and wouldn’t let my children see me poorly – I wouldn’t want them to remember me in that state.”
Phillips’ brain was too big for her skull, which results to the lower part of the brain to be pushed down into the spinal canal, according to SWNS. The internal pressure reached a level that was more than fifty times the normal force.
Phillips said, “Then a neurologist said they were confident I didn’t have MS but no one really knew much about Chiara malformation. My GP gave me a leaflet and told me the signs and symptoms of the condition would go away within a few weeks.”
She continued, “My nerve endings were being blocked because the tonsils of my brain were pushing into my spinal chord which gave me intense pressure behind my eyes and in my head.”
Phillips had a surgery that lasted for seven hours. Doctors had to remove muscles under her brain for more room.
Phillips said, “A lot of things make sense now – when I was a teen in the Navy I would have back spasms and couldn’t move, but I never got my head scanned. It [the disease] can be passed down – it is a bit of a concern. Oscar has had a scan but has no signs yet and doctors are pretty confident he doesn’t have it.”
She continued, “It does affect our home life and the children ask why I’m always poorly. My body won’t let me do little things anymore and I can’t function in the mornings – I get up super early so I can at least say morning to them.”
Phillips have one more surgery to go through before doctors can finally assess if they can relieve pain and pressure from her brain for a longer period of time.
