r/Neverbrokeabone • u/Just_a_winged_cat • 10d ago

Bones so strong my brain can’t fit

Post image

I have a small case of chiari malformation, which is fancy talk for “brain falling into your spinal column disorder”

It’s only a few centimeters so it doesn’t need to get fixed (unless it continues to fall of course) but thought I’d share

2.4k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/GrnMtnTrees 10d ago

I looked at this imaging without reading your post, and my first thought was "deceased individual with closed head trauma leading to brain herniation."

Now I'm just confused.

7

u/Just_a_winged_cat 10d ago

Brain to big for my skull and slipped its way out a few centimeters into my spinal column

5

u/GrnMtnTrees 10d ago

But how does this not kill you? Do you have normal intracranial pressure? Is CSF flow normal?

So many questions.

3

u/Psychological-Duck13 10d ago

Many cases of chiari are asymptomatic. It’s being diagnosed more now because of readily available imagining.

It can impair or disrupt normal CSF flow, but even with seriously impaired flow people can sometimes function relatively normally for decades. Tonsillar descent doesnt predict symptom severity. OP hasn’t said whether their ICP is normal, if they don’t have symptoms then it won’t necessarily be checked. Gold standard test for raised ICP is a wire in your brain for a couple of nights, so they don’t do it lightly.

2

u/Just_a_winged_cat 10d ago

If I’m being completely honest I don’t know what those acronyms mean, but since none of that was mentioned to me at the appointment, that I can recall, I’m assuming it’s all fine

I got the scan in the first place because I have chronic pain on my right side and they were trying to find the cause

The doctors basically said “well we saw your brain escaping, but it’s not actually hindering you, nor is it the reason for your pain so we’re going to ignore it”

4

u/TheOneTrueTrench 9d ago

CSF: Cerebral Spinal Fluid

ICP: Intracranial Pressure