2nd opnion re:garding surgery creates new problem

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I am not sure if many of you remember but I wrote the group a little bit ago

about my anxiety over my daughters upcoming surgery. She had tremors in the

fall with frontal headaches that usually were short duration and a few

episodes of neck pain. In Dec. she vomitted a few times and was admitted for

dizziness, headache (bad) , neck pain and some complaints of tremors (not

bad). They thought it was a virus that aggravated the chiari symptoms.

Since December has only a few days with min. complaints. I question whether

she needed the surgery. She has a 6mm herniation.

I took her to the Cleveland Clinic in December and he recommended surgery.

He thought her symptoms were related to chiari and she had a sig. compression

on MRI. He scheduled her for Feb 18. He said he would do the cervical MRI

post op to rule out syrinxes. He felt she had enough with the MRI of her

head to do the surgery.

He is an experienced chiari surgeon . He does 30-50 cases per year.

I took her to University Hospitals of Cleveland for a second opnion. That

surgeon stated that he classifies kids into 2 categories- one definitely

needs surgery and two definitely not. He said my daughter was in the middle

and sitting on a fence. He did not disagree with the clinics recommmendation

but he said he would follow her for a few months and see if her symptoms

progress. He said it was not wrong to do the surgery now. He said if I took

her to 10 surgeons 5 would do it and 5 wouldn't.

I called the surgeon at the clinic and he said he classifies kids in

definitely take now to surgery and can wait . He said I could wait and see

how she does but she would probably need surgery down the road and I might

feel more comfortable. He said I need to way the risks of not doing surgery

(possible paralysis if injured in a car/bike accident or the development of a

syrinx) vs. the risk of doing the surgery (infections,bleeding etc)

I honestly don't know what to do. As I said before she doesnt look bad and a

except for a few episodes has been able to live normal. On the other had if

developed irreversible damage (paralysis or complications of a syrinx) I dont

think I could forgive myself. I kind of put myself in this position by going

for the second opnion. The guy at the clinic initially just scheduled her

for surgery. Do younger kids do better with the surgery .? and

Is it better to do the surgery when there are fewer symptoms? Both surgeons

agree that she has a significant compression but they treat the symptoms.

The clinic surgeon seems to think she will progress. She had a bad Sept.

(lots of complaints and symptoms) Oct and Nov. were much better and Dec. was

terrible. Jan. thus far has been good. My daughter is seven. I tried

asking her to rate how bad she felt and she couldn't.

Any opnions would be helpful. I have to make this decision on surgery and I

just don't know what to do.

Thanks,

Elaine