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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Severe Leg Cramps Along With Brain Freezing?

my daughter was diagnosed with Chiari type 1 at age 3 she was asymptomatic, (well she was a toe walker (never flat) and that is what lead to diagnosis) a car accident aspirated symptoms of headaches and numbness in her legs so she had the decompression surgery at age 5. although her neurosurgeon insist the toe walking was not related to the Chiari significant change was noticed a little more than a year later and totally flat within about 2yrs post surgery. yearly MRI results gave no indication of change and I understood she is chiaried for life. Approximately late Sept. 2014 she started randomly complaining of headaches or as she described it brain freezes. Oct. 30, 2014 she got a cramp in her hip that caused her to not be able to move for several minutes. she says she heard a pop in her hip/ buttock while walking pushing an empty grocery cart. from that point on she would complain of the leg cramps. the frequency increased and teamed with the brain freezes/headaches I decided to make an appointment with her neurosurgeon. an MRI was ordered and he said it showed some change in the chiari but he wasn t very concerned and instead of our yearly follow up that turned into every 2 years he scheduled a 5 month follow up. she was seen by physical medicine doc that put her on a very mild dose of baclofen for the leg cramps. However the brain freezes continued and here lately got worse but the leg cramps are not as frequent since the baclofen. I took her yesterday to the Neurosurgeon who says he doesn t believe it s related to the chiari and sent us home. I ve been researching online (I know doctors look down upon this) but I needed to be certain. and I m finding this is conducive of the chiari even after the surgery. what should I do?
posted on Sun, 22 Feb 2015
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