The struggles of a Chiari Family

In 2003 we found out that my mom had a rare birth defect called Arnold Chiari Malformation (aka Chiari). Chiari causes alot of symptoms that can be a challenge to get through at times. Even though my mom was literally close to death, many people wouldn't have known she was sick by the way she acted. She is one tough cookie and the person I learned how to be a strong woman from!

As a junior and senior in High School I had a very hard time dealing with this all. I was the oldest one at home during this time and had to basically take care of EVERYTHING. I would take care of all the chores at home, my brother and sister, my mom, and still go to school and try to be a "normal" teenager. I know alot of people say that if it wasn't for their relationship with God they wouldn't have made it through...but honestly I think that if God was not a part of my life at that point I NEVER would have made it through. God placed so many encouraging people in my life right when I needed them to get over the next mountain.

Some of the symptoms that my mom had included losing her memory, not being able to get up to walk to the bathroom, losing the feeling in her arms, severe headaches, temporary blindness, and many more that I am sure she never told us. At the end of 2003 she was taking around 16 or more Ibuprofen a day to deal with the pay...however, it didn't even touch it. At that point we weren't sure what was going to happen and it became more clear than ever before that prayer was the only thing I could do. Now, keep in mind that I was still a pretty new Christian. I had given my life to God in June of 2003. In November of 2003 my mom gave her life to God and things really started to change in her life too!
It was still very difficult to remain focused on God in everything. I can remember wanting to just run away and not deal with anything at one point. It was after I had been sitting with my mom and she looked at me and told me she couldn't remember my name. My heart just broke but knew that it wasn't my mom saying that, it was this monster known as Chiari.
During all of this she continued to try to find out more information and a doctor that could "fix" this. We learned that there was a neurosurgeon in another state that could do surgery!!! However, it would not cure her of anything. Once she had surgery there was always a possibility that she would need it again. March 2004 my mom and dad traveled to have her surgery. They were gone for what seemed like a lifetime. About a week after her surgery she was safely home for us to take care of. While she was gone the surgeon told my parents that if she wouldn't have had the surgery she wouldn't have survived much longer (I never knew that until yesterday).

It has been about seven years and the symptoms have been coming back for sometime now with some new ones as well. The most recent one is her having uncontrollable gasps. She will be sitting in the middle of church and gasp for no reason. I'm sure many people don't know why she does it or what is wrong. If I wouldn't have told B he would have thought that she was gasping at J for something that he did.
February 8th she finally was able to get into the neurosurgeon in Louisville. They are currently running some tests on her to see exactly where the problem is this time. As our family continues to deal with the struggles that will come from this we ask that you pray. PRAY HARD!!! No, there is nothing else that we need right now. We need prayer for strength, prayer for wisdom, and prayer for healing.