How It all Started

During the month of February 2010 my daughter, who I will call MK, told us she was having headaches behind her left eye. Since she is not a complainer, my wife Holly and I decided to go ahead and set up an appointment with an ophthalmologist to have her eyes checked out.

Other then her eyes being a little dry, the ophthalmologist did not see anything so he recommended that we see a neurologist just to be on the safe side. On February 11 we met with Dr. Kennedy. On that day he did not see any symptoms or issues either, but once again to be on the safe side he decided to order a MRI of her brain just to make sure.

MK had her MRI on Saturday February 20th 2010. During the MRI the technician must have seen something because they did a second MRI of the neck. Well that Monday morning I received a call at work from Dr. Kennedy's office asking that we come in right away. You can imagine that I was pretty scared not knowing what the problem may be. I called Holly at work and told her and then proceeded to go to MK's school and check her out.

Once we were all at Dr. Kennedy's office he did some more reflex tests and asked MK a lot of questions. He told us that MK had a Chiari malformation with part of her cerebellar tonsils below the foramen magum and a syrinx in her spine.

Having never heard of Chiari Malformation or Syrinx, Dr. Kennedy took time to explain what this was and let us know that if this was not taken care of it could cause some neuro problems later in life. He recommend we go see a Neuro-surgeon and provided us a list of possible surgeons. He was almost certain that surgery would be needed. He also recommended that MK stop her aerobics until after we met with the Neuro-surgeon. Dr. Kennedy did say that we were lucky that this has been caught early before any serious symptoms developed.

Numb and In Shock

After leaving the office all of us where in shock. MK decided to go back to school, Holly decided to stay home so that she would be there when MK got home from school, and after spending some time on the Internet reading about Chiari Malformation and Syrinx, I decided to go back to work. Many tears where cried that day by all.

Day Two After Diagnosis

I am sure nobody in our household slept very much last night. Because it was so hard to discuss this without getting emotional, email became the best way for me to communicate with my family and friends.

The second day after diagnosis became the day that Holly and I started researching the best Neuro-Surgeons in the Atlanta Area. This challenge was complicated since MK was 16, so not all Neuro-Surgeons might take the case.

After doing extensive research (as much as one can do in a day) we decided on Dr. Barrow of Emory University Hospital. I faxed the MRI report to his office on February 23rd and then we had to wait until he was in his office and could review the report on Wednesday. I can't tell you how agonizing the waiting was. The following day I was able to confirm with his office that he was going to take the case and our first appointment was scheduled for March 10th. Yes more waiting, the next two weeks were very tough.

With two weeks before our appointment, we all spent time researching everything from the doctor, to the hospital, to how the surgery should be performed. During this time we found out that some of our acquaintances had Dr. Barrow as their doctor. Everyone had great things to say about him. Dr. Daniel L. Barrow, MD is the Professor and Chairman Department of Neurosurgery and also the Chief of the Neurosurgery Service at Emory University Hospital. Here is a Link on Dr. Barrow


The day before the appointment, I was glad and concerned at the same time. I was glad we were moving forward, and concerned on what Dr. Barrow might say.