Originally Posted by hevs (Post 5684428)

Wow, what a month!

For those oldies that know about the last, near enough, two years will know its been pretty shitty in our household? Well things are on the up!!

Flynn is going from strength to strength and is beginning to talk. He says Dad, duck, dog, gone and several other things that we haven't worked out yet! He is on his feet the whole time, but is showing no sign or crawling, he is just lazy and hates being face down.
We still have to await the professionals all clear with his result from the IVH BUT as his Mum I am very confident all is well. Mums intuition is huge I reckon and I don't think there are any problems at all. (apart from the fact hes still weany for nearly 14 months, his jeans fall down everytime you lift him up :lol:)

Matts MRI scan from two weeks ago is all good. Neuro surgeon says no sign of the cyst re growing, all cerebal spinal fluid moving nicely, no need for a shunt or anything, no air pockets or fluid like last time. The longer this goes on for, the less the likely hood of any intervention from them, and less chance of it returning. He apologised for the bashing around of Matts short term memory banks and said Matts probably pretty much where hes gonna be now. Jeeze, how humble can the man who saved his life be :ohmy: Next review 12 months :thumbsup:

Niall had a neuro review today due to his Chiari and our neuro surgeon is happy still not to operate, although wants an MRI review. This is "non urget" so will be done around march time. Even though he has some symptoms, they are not continuous over a long period and are not stopping his quality of life in any way. So we watch and wait. All good!

THEN! The icing on the cake.... Matt went for an interview on Monday for a two day a week, 6 month contract with "ECHO" which are part of work for the dole. The role was for a computer trainer to get people to know the basics when trying to get back into the work place. In a pre brain surgery world Matt was responsible for training whole companies to use software so we were hoping that they'd give him a fair go. He didn't get called for interview so he rang them and they said that they had interviewed some people but no one suitable. So Monday was D day. I suffered a flash of post traumatic stress disorder when Matt walked out of the bedroom suited and booted. The last time he had worn that garb was March 2nd 2006, the night he collapsed and we had to cut his clothes of for drips etc. Anyway, I gave myself a slap and wished him luck.

He said it went well and they would let him know at the end of the week. Yesterday they called for references. TODAY they offered him a job! FOUR days a week for 6 months.:thumbup:

Its been a long hard emotionally draining road, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and for once, its NOT another train!

oo oo oo, also forgot to say that I am also going back to college to do a cert 4 in training and work place assesment so that I can become a beauty therapy teacher. I start in feb

MERRY BLOODY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL:thumbsup:

Originally Posted by hevs (Post 5684531)

I also forgot to mention in my origional post that I am also going back to collage to do a cert 4 in training and work place assesment so that I can become a beauty therapy teacher. I start in feb :o

Originally Posted by snowbunny (Post 5687539)

:eek: You'll all be busy!

What is beauty therapy, just curious?

Originally Posted by hevs (Post 5686640)

Yes, the very same:huh:
He has a "significant" Chiari and a small syringo mylia. Whilst I have complete faith in our neuro guy, I do admit to stressing and thinking "why wait? what if he gets iriversable symptoms?" but then I think "Jesus woman, we seriously don't need to have anyone elses head chopped open, unless its totally necessary?"
Hence the next MRI I suppose.
Wow, your story is amazing, 22 years ago would have been more scary I'm guessing. Here we can have a CT or Mri practically on the spot if its urgent, things we now take for granted :)

Originally Posted by Machiavelli (Post 5688152)

Just read your initial post, and you've had the most stressful time I could imagine.

Originally Posted by hevs (Post 5688126)

Its waxing, massage, facials, nails, electrolysis etc (officially I'm an Aesthetician

Originally Posted by Bordy (Post 5688269)

So you don't believe in God. :ohmy:

Originally Posted by hevs (Post 5688173)

Which one ;):lol:

In this thread;)

Yep, its been a doozy, but a real learning curve.

One learning curve you could do without and wouldn't wish on anyone else!

I do tend to panic, every head ache (hardly surprising after Matt!) every day he complains of leg pain etc.

It's only human after all you've been through to feel like this. I look at my son even now, and think "yes, I thought you were perfectly okay before and your own body was harming you". I'm just so glad that they found it when they did and that they were able to do something about it. So many parents go through much worse than I have ever had to.

But I have to go with the professionals and trust they know best!

They do know best, and will always be looking after you. My son never got much follow up, and has had to contact the surgeon every now and then to check if he was allowed to do stuff. Our surgeon gave us his home number so that he could call whenever he had any questions to ask. That really counted for us, since he didn't have to do that. He was a God in my eyes, and was one of the nicest guys I've ever met. The strangest thing was that his son had the exact same full name as my son but was two years older. He told me the night before the op that he would look after my son as though he was his own.

I was also told that Chiari is found in adults in their 30's and is usually confused with MS at first. The MRI always shows it though. I know that we are lucky to know and at least we are forewarned etc.

Yes, for a whole year we thought that our son had nerve damage due to carrying a backpack on a Scout camping trip. The MRI and similar type scanners are a godsend.

Thanks for your support and if I need to I'll give you a shout in the future :)